 | Get all the essential market news and expert opinions in one place with our daily newsletter. Receive a comprehensive recap of the day's top stories directly to your inbox. Sign up here! |
(Kitco News) - The ongoing attack on U.S. centralized cryptocurrency exchanges by the Securities and Exchange Commission has hit the crypto market hard, but it’s turned out to be a boon for decentralized exchanges (DEX), which have seen their trading volumes spike in the wake of the lawsuits filed against Coinbase and Binance.
According to data provided by Defi Llama, on June 4, before the SEC's lawsuit against Binance was announced, DEXes collectively handled $1.2 billion worth of trading volume.
Total DEX volume between May 29 and May 6. Source: Defi Llama
After the Binance lawsuit was made public on Monday, the activity on DEXes spiked to $3.09 billion, an increase of 257%. And activity on DEXes remained elevated on Tuesday, when the Coinbase lawsuit was revealed, with the total volume on decentralized exchanges registering at $2.77 billion.
Uniswap V3 saw the largest increases in trading activity, with the top DEX seeing its volume ramp up from a low of $199 million on Sunday to a high of $994 million on Wednesday, an increase of nearly 500%.
Uniswap V3 (Ethereum) 7-day trading volume. Source: CoinGecko
The trading volume on Arbitrum’s Uniswap app also increased by 500% this week, climbing from $77.4 million on Sunday to a high of $387.5 million on Tuesday.
Other DEXes that saw a massive increase in their trading volume include PancakeSwap V3 (CAKE), which saw its volume spike from $33 million to $236 million, and DODO, whose trading volume rose from $18.9 million to $182 million.
The trading volume on Curve, a DEX that specializes in the trading of stablecoins, spiked by 328%, with the bulk of the trading activity focused on U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT).
|
| Uniswap passes Coinbase as number-two Ethereum exchange |
Another result of this week’s lawsuits has been the significant outflow of assets from Binance and Coinbase as crypto holders pulled their tokens off the targeted exchanges and transferred them to self-custody wallets or other exchanges.
Binance has been the hardest hit, with data from Defi Llama showing that as of Wednesday, the world’s top exchange has suffered a 7-day outflow of $1.725 billion worth of value.
Following the announcement of the Coinbase lawsuit, the top U.S. crypto exchange experienced a total outflow of $105.3 million, according to data provided by Nansen.
While many have elected to self-custody their withdrawn assets, others have opted to transfer them into decentralized finance, with Uniswap being the preferred destination. Non-U.S.-based exchanges have also recorded inflows, with the Seychelles-registered OKX exchange seeing $315 million worth of inflows over the past 7 days, while the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange ByBit recorded $100.9 million in inflows over the same period.
