Institutional crypto platform Bullish climbed into the top three centralized cryptocurrency exchanges by spot trading volume in February, overtaking Coinbase as overall industry trading activity cooled, according to CoinDesk Data’s February Exchange Review.
Bullish recorded a strong jump in spot trading during the month, with volumes rising 62.6% from January to reach $76 billion. The figure marks the exchange’s highest monthly total since October 2025 and lifted its market share to 5.06%, an increase of more than two percentage points from the previous month.
That growth pushed Bullish — which listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year — ahead of Coinbase, which captured 4.59% of global spot trading volume during the same period.
The milestone came even as activity across centralized exchanges slowed. Combined spot and derivatives trading volumes declined 2.41% in February to $5.61 trillion, the lowest level recorded since October 2024, the report said.
Part of the slowdown reflected relatively muted volatility in major cryptocurrencies. Although markets experienced bursts of turbulence at the beginning and end of the month, Bitcoin spent much of February trading within a narrow band between $60,000 and $70,000, limiting the speculative trading that often drives higher volumes.
Spot trading accounted for roughly $1.50 trillion of the total exchange activity, representing a 3.01% drop from January. Derivatives trading also slipped, falling 2.41% to $4.11 trillion, though it remained the dominant segment, making up about 73% of all centralized exchange trading.
Meanwhile, Binance retained its position as the largest exchange by a wide margin. The platform generated about $331 billion in spot trading volume during February, equal to roughly 22% of the global market. However, its share slipped to the lowest monthly level since October 2020, indicating trading activity is gradually spreading across more platforms.
Bullish’s rise highlights the shifting competitive landscape among centralized exchanges. With market activity slowing, platforms are increasingly competing through deeper liquidity, incentives for traders and the launch of new products. Some exchanges have also begun partnering with major U.S. stock exchanges to introduce tokenized securities or expanding into prediction markets to attract additional trading activity.
