Cointelegraph by Stephen Katte
Crypto decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volumes have surged to a peak against their centralized counterparts, driven by a “memecoin speculation mania,” says CoinGecko.
The ratio of spot crypto trading on DEXs compared to centralized exchanges (CEXs) has more than tripled in the past five years to reach new highs in 2025, CoinGecko research analyst Yuqian Lim said in a report on Thursday.
The DEX to CEX spot ratio hit an all-time high of 37.4% in June off the back of a spike in memecoin interest and “a spike in PancakeSwap’s volumes due to orders routed from the Binance Alpha platform, which was launched in May,” according to Lim.
For years, centralized exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase have dominated the bulk of spot crypto trading volumes due to their features and ease of use, but decentralized platforms have beefed up their offerings in a bid to attract traders.
DEX trading shows signs of stickiness
Since achieving a new high in June, the DEX to CEX spot ratio has dropped to around 21% as of November, marking the fifth consecutive month where the ratio has held near the 20% level, Lim said.
“This is well above the stagnant DEX to CEX spot ratios seen in previous years and potentially indicates stickiness in DEXs’ growing market share of spot trading volume.”
Lim said DEX spot volumes from May to October have also remained above previous years and marked an all-time high of $419 billion in October, despite a wide market correction.
“This seems to further highlight a gradual but steady shift in preferences toward onchain trading,” she said.
DEX futures trading records new high in November
Meanwhile, the DEX to CEX futures trading ratio, which compares the proportion of all perpetual futures trading on the two types of exchanges, has also been on the rise, reaching an all-time high of 11.7% in November 2025.
Lim said perp DEXs have seen a revival in 2025, after experiencing a tenfold year-on-year volume increase to an all-time high of $903 billion in October.
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“As with spot trading, perpetuals trading volumes on DEXs have only started to close the gap with CEXs this year. In fact, November marks the 14th consecutive month for which the DEX to CEX perps volume ratio has seen month-on-month growth,” she said.
Lim pointed to the emergence of new perps DEX players such as Hyperliquid, Lighter and edgeX as key drivers, some of which have offered incentives to attract traders.
“Hyperliquid alone has recorded $2.74 trillion in perps volume so far this year, which puts it on par with Coinbase and is more than the other top perp DEXs combined,” Lim said.
“However, it remains to be seen if DEX perps volumes will maintain at current levels after the widespread incentive programs end,” she added.
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