DEX to CEX Volume Ratios Reach New Highs in 2025

What Is the Ratio of DEX to CEX Spot Trading Volume?

The DEX to CEX spot ratio has more than tripled in the last five years, with DEX spot trading volumes starting out at just 6.0% of CEX spot volumes in January 2021 and growing to 21.2% as of November 2025. 

However, the increase in the DEX to CEX spot ratio has not been linear over this period: After climbing to a high of 14.6% in January and February 2022, the DEX to CEX spot ratio dropped back to a low of 5.4% in September, and subsequently continued to fluctuate within this range until end 2024. It is worth noting that the FTX collapse in November 2022 did not seem to have an immediate impact on the DEX to CEX spot ratio, which only reclaimed the 10.0% level in March 2023 amid the US regulatory crackdown.

The DEX to CEX spot ratio finally broke out of the range to reach 18.7% in January 2025, driven by a Solana memecoin speculation mania that saw DEX spot volume surge to a high of $413.75 billion, surpassing the $344.99 billion recorded in the previous bull run. In particular, Raydium’s monthly spot trading volume doubled to $88.56 billion, for the first time putting it on par with Uniswap’s $88.92 billion.

In June, the DEX to CEX spot ratio jumped once again to achieve a new all-time high of 37.4%. This can largely be attributed to a spike in PancakeSwap’s volumes due to orders routed from the Binance Alpha platform, which was launched in May. 

November 2025 marks the fifth consecutive month in which the DEX to CEX spot ratio has maintained around the 20.0% level. 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.

Moreover, DEX spot volumes from May to October have also remained well above previous years. Notably, DEX spot trading volumes marked an all-time high of $419.76 billion in October, despite market-wide corrections. This seems to further highlight a gradual but steady shift in preferences toward onchain trading.

What Is the Ratio of DEX to CEX Perps Trading Volume?

The DEX to CEX perps (or futures) ratio has increased rapidly from 2.1% in January 2023, to an all-time high of 11.7% in November 2025. 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.

Perp DEXs have arguably experienced a revival in 2025, as indicated by DEX perps volumes climbing to an all-time high of $903.56 billion in October, representing more than a tenfold increase year-on-year. This has largely been led by the emergence of new perps DEX players – notably Hyperliquid, Lighter and edgeX – which have surpassed the early incumbents. For example, 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.

However, it remains to be seen if DEX perps volumes will maintain at current levels after the widespread incentive programs end. 

DEX to CEX Ratios for Spot & Perps Volume

The monthly DEX to CEX spot ratio from 2021 to 2025, as well as the DEX to CEX perps ratio from 2023 to 2025, are as follows:

*DEX to CEX ratio for November 2025 is based on incomplete total monthly volume data.

Methodology

The study examined the DEX to CEX spot volume ratio from January 2021 to November 2025, and the DEX to CEX perps volume ratio from January 2023 to November 2025, calculated using the respective total monthly trading volumes of the top 10 DEXs compared to the top 10 CEXs, based on CoinGecko and DefiLlama data. Note that the DEX to CEX ratios here may differ from other data providers due to the number of exchanges included for the trading volumes.

If you cite these insights, we would appreciate a link credit to this article on CoinGecko, which allows us to keep supplying you with useful data-led content.

Curious to find out more about our previous research studies & statistics? Check out this one we did on the top token buybacks.