The trading volume of perpetual contracts on Binance exceeds spot turnover by about 6 times—this is the lowest figure in the past three months. CryptoQuant analyst Arab Chain attributes the decline to weakening speculative activity while BTC trades near $83,000.
The metric compares the turnover of two segments of the exchange and reflects how strongly the market relies on leverage. A drop means that derivatives are losing their previous advantage over regular coin buying.
What the Binance indicator shows
In a review on CryptoQuant, the analyst noted that the ratio of trading volumes between the futures and spot markets on Binance dropped to about 5.998. This value indicates that the turnover of derivatives contracts is six times higher than that of spot trading. The decline to a three-month low shows a weakening of the relative dominance of such contracts.
Arab Chain noted that market activity has become noticeably more reliant on spot, and the gap between the two segments has narrowed. In his assessment, this trend reflects a slowdown in speculative operations involving contracts and leverage compared with the previous period.
According to the researcher, the signal will become stronger if the metric continues to fall alongside an increase in spot trading volumes. This combination would indicate broader participation by buyers of the BTC coin itself, rather than the market's previous reliance on derivatives.
How platforms are expanding the derivatives market
While the share of derivatives on Binance is declining, other venues are only expanding this segment. On September 22, the Moscow Exchange opened trading with five perpetual futures for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Tron indices. The contracts remain cash-settled and are available only to qualified investors.
The launch of a new lineup platform was prepared in advance: the first two perpetual contracts for BTC and ETH indices appeared a little earlier in September, and the number of coins planned for the future is intended to be brought to ten. Maria Patrikeeva explained at the time that perpetual instruments continue the overall expansion of the exchange's derivatives market.
The growth in the number of derivatives also raises concerns. ParaFi Capital partner Jeff Park called perpetual contracts dangerous for retail users: a private trader cannot control the outcome of the trade and risks being caught in liquidation. The fall in the indicator on Binance precisely indicates that this risk has become less in the market.