DEX Market Share Hits Record as PancakeSwap Leads Q2 Surge: CoinGecko

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) captured a record share of the crypto spot trading market in Q2 2025, as trading activity declined across centralized platforms, according to a new report from CoinGecko.

Spot trading volumes on DEXs climbed to $876.3 billion—an increase of over 25% from the previous quarter—while volumes on centralized exchanges (CEXs) dropped nearly 28% to $3.9 trillion. This pushed the DEX-to-CEX volume ratio to a historic high of 0.23, signaling rising interest among users in on-chain trading alternatives.

PancakeSwap Outpaces Rivals

PancakeSwap emerged as the top-performing DEX by volume, processing over $392 billion in trades during the quarter—more than five times its previous performance. The surge was largely attributed to Binance’s launch of Binance Alpha in May, which began routing a significant portion of trades through PancakeSwap. This helped propel BNB Smart Chain past Ethereum, Solana, and Base in usage metrics.

Centralized Platforms Lose Momentum

Despite remaining the largest CEX, Binance saw its spot trading volume fall from over $2 trillion to $1.47 trillion. Coinbase also reported a drop, while Crypto.com recorded the steepest decline, losing 61% of its volume.

The downturn for CEXs came even as Bitcoin reached a new all-time high, a move that typically boosts trading activity.

Perpetuals on DEXs Break Records

Decentralized perpetuals trading also saw record-breaking momentum, hitting $898 billion in volume. Hyperliquid (HYPE) led the category with nearly 73% market share, underscoring the growing appetite for derivatives on decentralized platforms.

The findings reinforce the trend of users shifting toward decentralized, non-custodial platforms as scalability and integration with major players improve.