The global cryptocurrency market is seeing centralized exchanges (CEXs) play an ever-expanding role as the focus shifts toward the sustainability of spot markets and the health of exchange reserves. According to CoinGecko’s Spot CEX Report 2026, the top 12 centralized exchanges processed a total spot trading volume of around $21 trillion in 2025 alone — underscoring the dominance of centralized platforms in providing liquidity.
Stablecoin pairs anchor the market
The report highlights that stablecoin-based trading pairs remain the backbone of the industry. Of 9,870 stablecoin pairs across the largest 12 exchanges, a staggering 97.7% involve USDT and USDC. These two stablecoins are the base asset in 66.6% of all trading pairs. While non-stablecoin pairs make up 31.9% of the total, their share of trading volume remains limited.
Even at its peak in November 2024, the non-stablecoin trading pair share only reached 23%.
Weak performance in new token listings
The performance of newly listed tokens presents a disappointing picture for investors. The report finds that only about 32% of tokens listed on the top 12 exchanges exhibit positive price movement immediately following their debut. This figure drops to 25% after 30 days, and by the 12-month mark, fewer than 10% of these tokens remain above their initial listing price on most exchanges.
Upbit stands out with 67% of its listed tokens initially performing well, followed by Binance and OKX at 50%. Still, even on Upbit, these assets tend to lose value rapidly over time.
Exchange reserves see robust growth and capital migration
Reserves have surged significantly. CoinGecko data shows the total asset value held by the top 12 centralized exchanges increased from $152.1 billion at the start of 2024 to $225.4 billion by February 2026 — a jump of roughly 69.6%. Binance notably doubled its reserves, reaching $93.4 billion. Coinbase, holding over 800,000 Bitcoin, maintains its position as the largest BTC reserve, even as the exchange saw outflows of 20% in BTC and 41% in ETH reserves during the same period.
Some of these asset outflows shifted to smaller, faster-growing exchanges. Bitget and MEXC saw their reserve values leap by 262% and 274.6%, respectively. This points to a trend of capital moving from institutionally focused mega-platforms to retail-oriented, higher-velocity exchanges.
Reserve utilization rates differ across exchanges
The report also draws attention to differences in reserve utilization across exchanges. Institutional and regulated platforms like Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken hold an asset turnover ratio of about 0.1 — suggesting clients primarily use these exchanges for custody services.
In contrast, Bybit and Bitget report ratios between 0.3 and 0.5. On smaller exchanges like MEXC, HTX, and KuCoin, turnover speeds of 1.44 to 2.04 reflect much higher user trading activity.
Overall, centralized exchanges continue to grow, but both user behavior and capital flows are changing noticeably. Stablecoins remain dominant, short-term returns on new token listings are limited, and the market’s momentum is shifting toward more agile, retail-focused platforms.
