Discussed exchanges (CEXs) still dominate the majority of cryptocurrency liquidity. However, the balance of power is shifting, as decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have doubled their spot market share in two years and increased their share in perpetual futures fivefold.

Data shows that trading on the blockchain is no longer just a marginal option. It is evolving into a structural competitor alongside centralized marketplaces.

Dexts are taking over: Hyperliquid, Uniswap, and PancakeSwap are rising among the top 10 exchanges

According to CoinGecko's 2026 CEX & DEX Trading Activity report, CEXs processed nearly 80 trillion dollars in spot and perpetual trading volume in 2025 alone. This highlights their continued dominance, but the adoption of DEXs is also accelerating rapidly.

The spot market share of DEXs rose from 6.9 percent in January 2024 to 13.6 percent in January 2026. Absolutely, the monthly spot volume of DEXs more than doubled, growing from 95.86 billion dollars to 231.29 billion dollars.

At its peak in June 2025, DEXs accounted for 24.5 percent of spot trading. According to the report, this was partly influenced by the trade routing implemented by Binance Alpha 2.0 through PancakeSwap.

Although that spike proved temporary, the share of DEXs has remained steadily above 10 percent since the beginning of 2025. This suggests that demand for trading on the blockchain is not waning but stabilizing.

Centralized platforms, however, continue to act as liquidity anchors, maintaining over one trillion dollars in monthly spot volume throughout the review period.

Perpetual contracts: a breakthrough moment for DEXs, Hyperliquid at the forefront

The perpetual futures markets grew by 75 percent over two years, rising from 4.14 trillion dollars in January 2024 to 7.24 trillion in January 2026. In this development, DEXs made their most dramatic leaps.

  • Perp DEX volume grew eightfold, from 81.7 billion dollars to 739.5 billion dollars.

  • This raised the market share from 2.0 percent to 10.2 percent.

In other words, one in every ten dollars traded in crypto perpetuals currently flows through decentralized infrastructure.

A key driver was Hyperliquid's breakthrough, which became the only DEX to break into the Top 10 largest perpetual exchanges.

Over a six-month period from August 2025 to January 2026, Hyperliquid recorded a total trading volume of 1.59 trillion dollars. This brought it to the same level as long-established centralized giants.

In the spot market, Uniswap and PancakeSwap also rose among the Top 10 exchanges by volume, each exceeding 0.5 trillion dollars in semi-annual trading volume.

Just a few years ago, the idea that multiple DEXs would rise to the ranks of the largest exchanges in the industry would have seemed unlikely.

Token listings reveal a structural divide

The report also highlights significant differences in token coverage. Among centralized platforms, MEXC and Gate.io led the listings with 1,281 and 1,273 tokens over a 13-month period. The average was nearly 100 new listings per month.

However, this represented only 0.01 percent of the 24.04 million tokens created during that period.

For comparison, Uniswap alone listed 13.69 million tokens, reflecting the permissionless nature of decentralized infrastructure.

This indicates a clear divergence: CEXs curate scarcity, while DEXs scale abundance.

2.4 billion dollars in security losses

However, rapid growth has not come without costs. Crypto exchanges recorded over 2.4 billion dollars in hacking losses in just over a year.

Centralized platforms accounted for over 2 billion dollars, of which 71 percent was related to the Bybit attack in February 2025.

The combined losses of DEXs were smaller, with the largest attack being 223 million dollars. Typically, they were related to smart contract vulnerabilities and oracle manipulations.

The key conclusion of CoinGecko's report is that CEXs remain dominant, but decentralized competitors are closing the gap in both spot and derivatives markets.

As DEXs' market share exceeds 10 percent and institutional-grade blockchain platforms emerge, the shift toward decentralized liquidity is already measurable.