FTX beats Coinbase in market share, becoming the second-largest centralized exchange in May

For many years now, Coinbase has been the second-largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume after Binance. That status changed in May as FTX became the centralized exchange with the second largest trading volume in the month.

Binance still maintained its first place as the one with the largest market share at 64.1% and FTX took 10.8% while Coinbase followed as a close third at 9.6%. This is coming at a time when crypto market trading volume generally increased by 19.6% to hit $830.4 billion.

Coinbase faced a number of hurdles within the year though. First, it recorded a net loss of $430 million in Q1 2022 and the market stock fell by 36% in May, the month in view. The bear market in the month seems to have worsened Coinbase’s fate as it recently announced it was soft-pedalling on hires and exploring ways to reduce spending.

FTX on the other hand has been in the news a lot recently, and for the right reasons. It recently launched a new unit targeted at institutional investors interested in gaining exposure to cryptocurrencies. The company intends to help such investors with trade execution, analytics, index products, advisory services and capital introductions.

The CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried said that institutional interest in crypto is on the rise and it’s necessary to give it a priority.

“Our goal is to provide services that make it easier for traders at all levels to invest in cryptocurrencies, while also meeting compliance and regulatory standards found in traditional finance,” he said.

Such developments are likely to bring more users to FTX which will naturally increase the market share, making it a potentially big competitor against Coinbase and probably Binance. 

Other exchanges following behind Coinbase in May are Kraken (3.7%), Bitfinex (2.6%), and LMAX Digital (2.6%).

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