TokenInsight 2021 Crypto Trading Annual Review

Crypto market total capitalization achieved a historic breakthrough in 2021, peaking in November, close to $3 trillion, and ending the year with $2.25 trillion, an annual increase of nearly 200%. Bitcoin and Ether also broke new all-time highs several times, peaking at nearly $70,000 and $5,000, respectively.

The trading industry also continues to break through, with 2021 full-year trading volume reaching $112 trillion, of which about half is perpetual swaps ($57 trillion), spot accounts for 43% ($49 trillion), and the remainder is futures and options contracts. Compared to 2020, trading volume increased 3.37x, with perpetual swaps growing the most, nearly 6x, spot 2.3x, futures contracts 2.36x, and the options market also grew nearly 6x.

In the spot market, Binance remains the market leader, with an annual spot trading volume of nearly $11 trillion, accounting for 41% of the total volume of the top 16 exchanges and 22% of the entire spot market (CEX & DEX). While the Huobi exchange ranked high in total volume, it shrank dramatically after the announcement that it would stop serving users in mainland China, leaving a market share of nearly 16% at the beginning of the year to about 7% by year-end. One of the winners, on the other hand, was seen in South Korea's Upbit, where the bull market's Kimchi Premium reappeared. In addition, FTX nearly doubled its market share, while Kucoin's market share increased by 3.32% to end the year at 4.34%. Crypto.com, the biggest winner of the year, ended the year with a share of 5.16%.

Among US-based exchanges, Coinbase successfully listed on the Nasdaq exchange in 2021 and holds half of the market share in the US market, followed by Kraken (20%), Crypto.com (15%), Binance US (9.5%), and FTX US (1.95%). The growth momentum is higher in the second half of the year for Binance US and FTX US, as well as Crypto.com.

In terms of exchange tokens, BNB reached its highest point in Q2 with a 6332% gain. And across the year, the top tokens were KCS (30x), followed by CAKE (16.7x), BNB (12.5x), GT (11.6x), and CRO (8.3x).

For perpetual swaps, Binance remains the market leader with a 40.8% share of total volume, followed by Huobi (11%) and Bybit (7.6%).

In addition to volume, market share changes over time are more critical. Binance's market share reached 56.87% at the end of the year, an increase of 15% compared to January; OKEx (OKX), FTX, and KuCoin also increased by 2% to 4% respectively. Huobi's market share decreased by 19.40% from 22.88% in January to only 3.48% in December due to the impact of the policy. dYdX is another one worth mentioning. It grew in trading volume rapidly due to the mining incentive program, accounting for 2.22% of the market share in Q4.

In terms of open interest, Binance, FTX, and Bybit are in the top 3. Gate grew the most in 2021 (538x), followed by Kucoin and FTX with 611% and 580% increases respectively.

In the options market, total trading volume reached $460.6 billion, a six-fold increase compared to 2020, and Deribit firmly held the No.1 position in the market, while it also managed to surpass $100 billion in volume within one quarter in Q4. The options market is even more oligopolistic, with Deribit's market share reaching 87% by Q4 from 68% in Q1. The major loser was OKEx, which shrank from 25% in Q1 to 9% in Q4. Bit.com also went from 4% in Q1 to 2% in Q4.

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