DEX trading volume falls 9% to $179 billion month over month DEX trading volume falls 9% to $179 billion month over month
Meanwhile, centralized exchanges managed to grow 9% in the same period, enlarging their lead over their decentralized peers.
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Updated: Sep. 2, 2024 at 10:00 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Decentralized exchanges (DEX) registered $179 billion in spot trading volume last month, falling 9% on a monthly basis, while their centralized peers rose roughly 8% during the same period, according to data from DefiLlama and The Block.
The volume ratio between both ecosystems is now 14.8%.
Ethereum reclaims the crown
Despite shrinking volumes, Ethereum took back the spot of blockchain with the most on-chain trading activity, amounting to nearly $52 billion traded last month, roughly 29% of the total.
Meanwhile, Solana’s trading volume fell from the nearly $59 billion registered in July to $41 billion in in August. Arbitrum also lost space, shedding over $3 billion in monthly trading volume.
Binance Smart Chain grew while on-chain trading activity tanked, rising from $17.6 billion to $20.4 billion. Base also added nearly a billion dollars in trading volume, while Polygon, Thorchain, and Optimism witnessed waning interest from traders.
Additionally, Tron managed to snag a spot on the top 10 blockchains by monthly trading volume, reaching $3.2 billion. This is the largest monthly trading volume registered by Tron since May 2022.
This movement is likely tied to the rising popularity of SunPump, a memecoin marketplace deployed on Tron, during mid-August. However, according to a Dune Analytics dashboard created by venture capital fund Hashed, the platform started losing steam on Aug. 29.
Centralized exchanges expand the lead
Although the trading volume from decentralized exchanges fell between the months, centralized exchanges witnessed a growing interest from spot traders. These platforms leaped from $1.12 trillion to $1.21 trillion, with Binance dominating 37% of the volume after growing 11% month on month.
Crypto.com and Bybit also saw significant growth, rising 39% and 14%, respectively. However, their combined volumes amount to just a little over half of Binance’s trading activity in August.
The disparity in trading volumes between the decentralized and centralized trading platforms caused DEX to lose some ground they had conquered in July. The monthly trading volume ratio between these trading avenues fell from 17.5%, the highest in 2024, to 14.8%.
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Author 
Gino Matos
Gino Matos is a law school graduate and a seasoned journalist with six years of experience in the crypto industry. His expertise primarily focuses on the Brazilian blockchain ecosystem and developments in decentralized finance (DeFi).
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Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Arbitrum
$0.70036
Arbitrum is a type of technology known as an optimistic rollup.
Polygon
$0.42243
Polygon, a prominent layer 2 scaling solution on Ethereum, has emerged as a multifaceted and scalable platform, enhancing the Ethereum ecosystem’s capabilities.
Optimism
$1.76447
Optimism is a layer-2 scaling network for the Ethereum blockchain.
THORChain
$5.67236
THORChain is built for cross-chain permissionless digital asset liquidity.
Solana
$235.039
Solana is a high-performance blockchain platform that utilizes a unique consensus algorithm called “Proof of History” to achieve fast transaction speeds and low fees.
Binance
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
Crypto.com
Crypto.com was founded in 2016 on a simple belief: it’s a basic human right for everyone to control their money, data and identity.
Bybit
Bybit is a cryptocurrency derivative trading platform established in March 2018 and registered in the BVI.