Retail-focused exchanges show significantly higher trading density: CoinGecko

Institutional platforms, including Binance and Kraken, reveal low trading turnover, meaning assets are primarily held rather than traded.

Retail-focused exchanges use a larger share of their reserves for trading than institutional-focused platforms. Exchanges with a stronger institutional focus, such as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, maintain relatively low volume-to-reserve ratios of around 0.1.

This suggests that deposits are largely held rather than actively traded.

Utilization of assets varies

According to CoinGecko’s latest report, platforms serving more retail traders, including Bybit and Bitget, recorded higher ratios of 0.3 and 0.5 on average between January 2024 and February 2026, reflecting greater trading activity.

Cryptocurrency exchanges with smaller reserve bases, such as MEXC, HTX, and KuCoin, displays High asset velocity ranges from 1.44 to 2.04, indicating larger trading volumes compared to available reserves.

In addition to the differences in trading activity, CoinGecko also reported that the total value of assets held across the 12 largest centralized exchanges rose nearly 70%, rising from $152.1 billion at the start of 2024 to $225.4 billion by February 2026.

Eight exchanges recorded net growth during this period, with Binance topping the charts as its reserves doubled. Meanwhile, Coinbase continues to hold the largest Bitcoin reserve at over 800,000 BTC, followed by Binance.

Despite this, Coinbase has seen significant outflows in both Bitcoin and Ethereum. A portion of this money appears to have moved to smaller platforms, with Bitget and MEXC recording sharp increases in reserve value.

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Pricing procedures after listing

In addition to backup shifts, the report also Notice Poor performance after listing on major stock exchanges. Only about 32% of newly listed tokens trade above their listing price within the first 30 days. Upbit has the strongest early performance, with approximately 67% of listings remaining in profit, even though it lists fewer tokens overall.

Next are Binance and OKX, both at around 50%. However, the gains tend to fade quickly. Between 30 and 60 days, only about a quarter of the tokens remain in positive territory. Over longer periods, the share continues to decline across most platforms.

Coinbase emerged as an exception after seeing some tokens recover after six months. By the end of one year, less than 10% of assets listed on most exchanges remain above their initial listing price.