CoinGecko has published its Spot CEX Report 2026, analyzing trading pairs, token listings, and reserves across the top 12 centralized crypto exchanges. The study found that these venues processed nearly USD $21 trillion in spot market volume in 2025, with total underlying reserves across the group rising to USD $225.4 billion by the end of February 2026. Stablecoins remained the main base assets for spot trading pairs on the largest exchanges in the study. USDT and USDC accounted for 66.6% of all trading pairs across the top 12 exchanges.
Of the 9,870 stablecoin pairs identified, 9,646 were either USDT or USDC, equal to 97.7% of all stablecoin trading pairs. In contrast, 4,615 non-stablecoin pairs represented 31.9% of the 14,485 total trading pairs, though they did not translate into a similar share of market activity; at their peak in November 2024, non-stablecoin pairs accounted for only 23% of market volume. The data also showed weak performance for many newly listed tokens; across the top 12 exchanges, only about 32% posted positive price action in the first 30 days after listing. Upbit recorded the strongest immediate post-listing performance, with 67% of newly listed tokens still in the green after 30 days, although it also had one of the lowest listing rates. Binance and OKX followed at 50%, while Coinbase was the exception, with listed tokens showing stronger performance after the six-month mark.
Reserve values increased across most of the exchanges studied, helped by gains in Bitcoin and Ethereum prices. Eight exchanges recorded net reserve value growth between the start of 2024 and the end of February 2026, with Binance remaining the largest holder in absolute reserve growth as reserves climbed from USD $46.7 billion to USD $93.4 billion. Coinbase held the largest Bitcoin reserves, with more than 800,000 BTC, followed by Binance with 669,000 BTC. Despite that, Coinbase recorded outflows of 20% from its Bitcoin reserves and 41% from its Ethereum reserves, with some outflows moving to smaller exchanges such as Bitget and MEXC.
The report drew a distinction between exchanges used more heavily by institutions and those driven more by retail activity. Platforms such as Coinbase, Binance and Kraken had lower volume-to-reserve ratios, averaging around 0.1, suggesting users were more likely to hold assets there for custody than for active trading. By contrast, Bybit and Bitget recorded average ratios of 0.3 and 0.5, respectively, from January 2024 to February 2026. Exchanges with smaller reserves, including MEXC, HTX and KuCoin, showed much higher asset velocity, with ratios ranging from 1.44 to 2.04, implying a larger turnover of assets on retail-focused venues.
Overall, the findings point to a maturing centralized exchange market where stablecoins dominate spot trading infrastructure, reserve balances are increasingly uneven, and newly listed tokens struggle to sustain gains after listing.
Leave a Reply