Quick Breakdown
- •DEX trading has surged to record highs in 2025, mainly driven by memecoin speculation and Binance-linked routing flows.
- •DEX spot volumes hit $419B in October, while the DEX/CEX spot ratio reached an all-time high of 37.4% in June.
- •Perpetual futures activity on DEXs is also climbing, with new players like Hyperliquid powering record ratios.
Decentralized exchanges are closing in on their centralized rivals after a wave of memecoin speculation pushed DEX trading to new heights in 2025, according to fresh data from CoinGecko.
Spot Trading: DEX Share Triples in Five Years
DEX activity has ballooned over the last half-decade, with the DEX-to-CEX spot ratio more than tripling to reach a record 37.4% in June, CoinGecko research analyst Yuqian Lim revealed in a Thursday report.
Lim attributed the spike to an intense burst of memecoin trading and a surge in PancakeSwap volumes triggered by order flow routed through Binance’s newly launched Alpha platform in May.
Despite easing from the June peak, the ratio has held around 21% as of November, the fifth month in a row hovering near the 20% mark.
“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.”
Lim noted.
DEX spot volumes have also remained strong throughout 2025, with May to October consistently outperforming previous years. October marked an all-time high of $419 billion, even amid broader market pullbacks, reinforcing a steady shift toward onchain trading.
Perpetuals: DEX Futures Ratio Hits New High
The momentum isn’t limited to spot markets. The DEX-to-CEX perpetuals trading ratio climbed to a record 11.7% in November 2025, as perpetual futures activity on DEXs continues to accelerate.
Lim said perp DEXs have staged a major revival this year, with trading volumes surging tenfold year-on-year to a peak of $903 billion in October.
November also marks the 14th consecutive month of month-over-month growth for the DEX perps share, signalling sustained appetite for onchain derivatives.
New Players Drive Adoption
Emerging perp DEXs such as Hyperliquid, Lighter, and edgeX have played a significant role in the surge, many of which offer incentives to attract traders.
Hyperliquid stands out as the year’s breakout platform, recording $2.74 trillion in trading volume so far, placing it shoulder-to-shoulder with Coinbase and surpassing the combined activity of several other leading perp DEXs.
Still, Lim cautioned that aggressive incentive programs may inflate current volumes.