Bybit, the crypto derivatives and spot exchange, finished 2025 with the second-highest trading volumes, following a $1.5 billion hack in February 2025. CoinGecko’s analysis shows Bybit processed about $1.5 trillion in total trading volume for the year, capturing 8.1% of the global centralized exchange market. The February breach, attributed to North Korean exploits targeting cold-wallet infrastructure, remains the largest crypto hack on record. In response, Bybit kept withdrawals open and honored user transactions, with CEO Ben Zhou publicly addressing concerns and confirming liquidity arrangements supported by external partners. The year’s broader trend, meanwhile, saw Bitcoin and other assets rally, helping several exchanges to post higher volumes even as security scars persisted.
Key takeaways
- Bybit reclaimed a prominent position in 2025, posting about $1.5 trillion in total volume and an 8.1% market share despite a February security breach described as the largest crypto hack to date.
- Six of the top ten exchanges by market share logged volume gains for the year, with an average increase of 7.6% and roughly $1.3 trillion in added trades.
- MEXC stood out as the fastest-growing platform, with a 91% jump in trading volume to $1.5 trillion, aided by a zero-fee policy across spot trading that drew high-frequency traders and retail users alike.
- Binance remained the market leader, handling about $7.3 trillion in trading volume, though its year-over-year volume did not rise, a shortfall analysts linked to broader bearish sentiment following a major liquidation event on Oct. 10.
- Binance’s December open letter highlighted a user base surpassing 300 million and total trading volumes across all products reaching $34 trillion for the year, signaling the scale of activity across the sector.
Price impact: Positive. Bitcoin and Ether advanced meaningfully in 2025, contributing to higher trading activity across exchanges.
Market context: The year’s rebound in prices and volumes reflects a renewed risk appetite within crypto markets. Liquidity improved on several platforms as traders returned to spread strategies and arbitrage opportunities, even as some exchanges faced heightened scrutiny over security and risk controls. The divergence in pace between leadership (Binance) and rapid gains on challengers (like MEXC) underscored a more competitive landscape where pricing models and product offerings increasingly shape flow.
Why it matters
The Bybit incident and its aftermath provide a telling case study in crypto exchange resilience. After the February attack, Bybit’s decision to keep withdrawals open and honor all user transactions demonstrated a commitment to operational continuity at a moment of heightened user anxiety. The company’s public reassurances—supported by liquidity arrangements with external partners—illustrate how exchanges are recalibrating risk management and funding strategies in the wake of large-security events. For users and institutional participants, such moves can translate into faster restoration of trust and smoother recovery of activity, which are crucial for the sector’s long-term credibility.
Across the sector, 2025’s volume rebound was not uniform. Six of the top ten centralized exchanges by market share saw volume growth, with average gains around 7.6% and an incremental $1.3 trillion in trades. The fastest riser, MEXC, leveraged a zero-fee stance to attract liquidity and increase participation, pushing its annual volume up by 91% to $1.5 trillion. That surge underscores how pricing incentives can significantly alter trader behavior and shift market share away from more established players, at least in the short term. The pattern signals a broader trend: exchanges are competing not just on liquidity and security but on cost structures and product breadth, including new listing strategies and diversified digital-asset offerings.
Binance’s dominance remained evident in sheer scale—about $7.3 trillion in trading volume—yet the year did not bring a corresponding rise in its total annual volume. Analysts attributed this to a confluence of macro-market caution and industry-specific volatility, including the bear-case sentiment that intensified after the Oct. 10 liquidation event. The company’s December letter, which reported a user base exceeding 300 million and $34 trillion in annual volumes across all products, affirmed the platform’s central position in the ecosystem even as growth rates cooled relative to 2024. The report also underscores how the leading venue’s scale interacts with broader market cycles, as liquidity and participant interest flow between major exchanges depending on price regimes and risk appetites.
Beyond the headline figures, the year highlighted a bifurcated landscape: a few platforms that expanded aggressively through pricing and product strategies, and others that benefited from renewed investor interest as crypto markets moved higher. The February Bybit breach, while a setback, did not erase the underlying momentum in 2025. Instead, it pushed the industry to demonstrate stronger safeguards, more transparent liquidity provisioning, and clearer communication with users—factors that help stabilize volumes during periods of stress. In that sense, the data from 2025 suggest a maturing market where trust-building and resilience are as important as the raw trade counts themselves.
In practical terms, the outcomes of 2025 set a framework for 2026: a crypto-exchange ecosystem that rewards liquidity depth, security-first posture, and flexible policy responses to shocks. Traders have shown they respond to both macro price action and microstructure improvements—such as improved withdrawal models, faster on-chain settlements, and more robust risk controls. The year’s dynamics also imply that market leadership will continue to be contested, with established giants like Binance maintaining scale, while rising platforms target capture of niche segments through cost, speed, and user experience improvements. For builders and policymakers, the central takeaway is that the health of centralized exchanges—governance, cash-flow resilience, and transparent disclosures—will shape user confidence and the pace of institutional adoption in the near term.
What to watch next
- Regulatory developments affecting centralized exchanges in major jurisdictions and their potential impact on liquidity, custody, and risk controls.
- Bybit’s ongoing security enhancements and liquidity arrangements following the 2025 breach, including public disclosures and third-party audits.
- Shifts in market leadership as exchanges refine pricing models, zero-fee promotions, and product diversification, with a close eye on MEXC and Binance in early 2026.
- Macro-crypto-cycle cues and any regulatory or policy signals that could influence risk sentiment, volatility, and cross-border trading flows.
Sources & verification
- CoinGecko: Centralized crypto exchanges market share report showing Bybit’s 2025 share and total volume.
- Public reports on Bybit’s February 2025 hack and the exchange’s response (withdrawals kept open; liquidity support).
- Public statements from Bybit CEO Ben Zhou addressing security, liquidity, and operational measures.
- Binance: December open letter from co-CEOs Richard Teng and Yi He detailing user base and annual volumes.
- MEXC: 2025 volume growth data highlighting a 91% increase to $1.5 trillion.
Market reaction and the competitive landscape of 2025
Bybit’s 2025 year culminated in a clear demonstration of the sector’s capacity to rebound from a security shock while maintaining a competitive, liquidity-driven market structure. The exchange’s ability to recover after the February attack—through a combination of liquidity assurances, continued withdrawals, and transparent communication—helps explain why Bybit could reclaim a substantial slice of a market that remains highly sensitive to risk controls and counterparty confidence. That resilience sits within a broader context of an industry-wide uptick in activity, with six of the top ten venues reporting higher volumes over the year and the sector-wide trend toward more aggressive pricing and product innovation.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ether (CRYPTO: ETH) rose in 2025, contributing to an environment where traders looked to liquidity-rich venues with credible risk management to pursue opportunities. The growth story was not uniform, however. Binance’s top-line volume remained the largest in absolute terms, but the lack of year-over-year growth and the cooling effect of a major market event translated into a more nuanced picture of leadership within the space. In parallel, MEXC’s rapid expansion—driven by a zero-fee strategy—illustrated how new pricing dynamics could reshape the competitive balance, especially as traders chase lower costs and faster execution across a wider array of pairs.
The year also highlighted the importance of institutional-visible risk controls and liquidity backstops. Bybit’s response to the February breach—publicly confirming solvency and enabling smooth user withdrawals—likely influenced market participants’ trust in centralized venues during a period of heightened scrutiny. As the sector contends with ongoing questions about custodian infrastructure and incident response, 2025’s performance suggests that the market remains highly sensitive to how quickly and credibly platforms can restore user confidence after shocks. The open-letter disclosures from Binance’s leadership, detailing user growth and overall trading volumes, reinforce the scale at which major exchanges operate, and they set a benchmark for transparency and stakeholder communications in the ongoing evolution of centralized crypto marketplaces.
