Centralized exchanges (CEX) still account for the majority of cryptocurrency liquidity. But the balance of power is starting to tip as decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have doubled their spot market share and expanded their presence in perpetual futures fivefold over the past two years.
This data shows that on-chain trading is no longer a niche alternative. Rather, they are emerging as a structural competitor to centralized venues.
DEXs are on the rise: Hyperliquid, Uniswap and PancakeSwap rank among top 10 exchanges
According to CoinGecko’s 2026 CEX and DEX Trading Activity Report, CEX processed approximately $80 trillion in spot and perpetual trading volume in 2025 alone. While this highlights the continued superiority of DEXs, their adoption is also rapidly accelerating.
Monthly volume of CEX and DEX. Source: CoinGecko Report
DEX spot market share increased from 6.9% in January 2024 to 13.6% in January 2026. In absolute terms, monthly DEX spot trading volume more than doubled from $95.86 billion to $231.29 billion.
At its peak in June 2025, DEX accounted for 24.5% of spot trading activity. According to the report, this milestone was partially driven by routing trades via PancakeSwap on Binance Alpha 2.0.
This surge turned out to be temporary, but DEX shares have remained consistently above 10% since early 2025. This suggests that demand for on-chain execution is stabilizing rather than declining.
Still, the centralized platform continues to maintain liquidity, with spot trading volumes exceeding $1 trillion per month throughout the period.
Perpetual: DEX breakthrough moment led by Hyperliquid
The perpetual futures market expanded 75% in two years, from $4.14 trillion in January 2024 to $7.24 trillion in January 2026. Amidst that growth, DEXs have made the most dramatic gains.
- Perp DEX volume jumps 8x from $81.7 billion to $739.5 billion
- This increased its market share from 2.0% to 10.2%.
In other words, 1 out of every 10 dollars traded in perpetual crypto trading now goes through decentralized infrastructure.
A key driving force was HyperLiquid’s breakthrough performance, making it the only DEX to rank among the top 10 exchanges.
Within six months from August 2025 to January 2026, Hyperliquid recorded a cumulative trading volume of $1.59 trillion. This puts the company on par with established, centralized, large companies.
Spot and Purps exchange rankings. Source: CoinGecko Report
On the spot side, Uniswap and PancakeSwap also entered the top 10 exchanges by volume, each exceeding $0.5 trillion in six-month cumulative trading activity.
Just a few years ago, the idea of multiple DEXs ranking among the industry’s largest exchanges would have seemed unlikely.
Token list reveals structural disparities
The report also highlights notable differences in token coverage. Among centralized platforms, MEXC and Gate.io led the list with 1,281 and 1,273 tokens issued respectively in 13 months. There were an average of just under 100 new listings each month.
However, this is only 0.01% of the 24.04 million tokens created during that period.
In contrast, Uniswap alone has 13.69 million tokens listed, reflecting the permissionless nature of decentralized infrastructure.
This points to the fundamental difference that CEXs manage scarcity, whereas DEXs scale abundance.
$2.4 billion security loss
Nevertheless, rapid growth does not come without a price. Cryptocurrency exchanges have recorded more than $2.4 billion in hack-related losses in just over a year.
Centralized venues accounted for over $2 billion, 71% of which was attributed to a single exploit on Bybit in February 2025.
Total DEX losses were small, with the largest exploit totaling $223 million. This was usually related to smart contract vulnerabilities and oracle manipulation.
The broad conclusion from CoinGecko’s report is that while CEX remains dominant, decentralized competitors are closing the gap in both spot and derivatives markets.
With DEX market share exceeding 10% and the rise of on-chain platforms for institutional investors, the transition to decentralized liquidity is becoming visible.
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