Binance Loses Altcoin Liquidity Throne But Still Dominates Trade Volume

Key Takeaways

• Binance has the highest trading volume of all crypto exchanges.
• This helps guarantee deep liquidity across currency pairs.
• However, new data from CoinGecko suggests Binance is no longer the most liquid altcoin exchange.

For years, Binance’s massive trading volume ensured that the crypto exchange had the deepest liquidity across most major cryptocurrency pairs.

However, although Binance’s trade volume continues to dwarf its peers, the latest research from CoinGecko reveals a shakeup in altcoin liquidity rankings.

Volume vs. Liquidity on Crypto Exchanges

Trade volume and liquidity on crypto exchanges are closely linked, but the relationship isn’t always straightforward.

In theory, more trade orders should equal deeper order books, leading to faster swaps at stable prices. But this doesn’t always happen.

For example, some exchanges also offer incentives (like zero fees) that boost volume but not necessarily liquidity.

Other important factors in the equation include the presence of large market makers, i.e., institutional crypto firms that provide liquidity to fulfil orders.

Finally, exchanges have been known to artificially inflate volume, a practice known as wash trading.

Binance Trade Volume Remains Unrivalled

Within a year of its launch in 2017, Binance had already surpassed all its competitors to become the top crypto exchange in terms of daily trading volume.

Since then, the platform has continued to dominate the rankings for some of the most important cryptocurrency pairs, despite a harsh regulatory crackdown in several jurisdictions.

In May, for example, Binance processed trades worth nearly $434 billion , more than the combined volume of its five closest competitors.

Altcoin Liquidity

While most exchanges have a pretty deep BTC-USD order book (including dollar-pegged stablecoins), altcoin liquidity can be patchy.

Here, Binance’s huge trade volume across over 1,000 pairs offers a distinct advantage.

Nevertheless, CoinGecko’s 2025 State of Crypto Liquidity report shows that Binance has lost the top spot in several key altcoin markets.

For ETH, Bitget was found to be the most liquid within $15 of the market price, but beyond this range, Binance remains dominant.

A similar pattern emerges with XRP and SOL, where Bitget has the deepest liquidity within a small range, but tapers off quickly after that.

Finally, for DOGE, liquidity is much more evenly distributed across exchanges. Within 1% of the market price, Binance, Bitget, Coinbase and OKX all displayed similarly deep order books.