A Year of Two Halves, But FX Venues Thrive in 2025
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: February 3, 2026
Not least because of “Liberation Day” inspired volatility, FX venues that publish data largely had a banner year in 2025, although most of the good news was centred in the first six months of the year.
Several platforms hit a new high in terms of average daily volume (ADV), and in the spot world at least April was the busiest month for everyone (with the exception of CME, it not being a roll month, however it was easily the busiest non-roll month). Equally, seven of the 10 venues to report volume data on a regular basis, hit a new monthly high during 2025, in both spot and non-spot markets.
The wider boom in FX markets was reflected in CLS data as well, where only three months reported average traded volume that is not in the top 10 for the settlement service provider (they were however, in the top 15).
While April was the busiest month for the spot venues, there was a notable drop in activity in the second half of the year, with all venues except for FXSpotStream (which saw a small uptick) witnessing declines of between 4.6% and 23%.
One other aspect stands out when studying 2025 in spot markets – the apparent shift towards disclosed trading in H2. As noted, April was a banner month for most platforms, but it is notable that many of the CLOB/ECN-type models saw activity slump in the second half. The level of uncertainty in markets certainly did not fall in H2, it may even have risen, which suggests that while overall activity would likely have been lower over the latter six months, customers, perhaps spooked by the geopolitical and macro environments, were more confident in accessing liquidity on their terms via the disclosed models.
Here, in alphabetical order, is a more in-depth review of those platforms that report volume data.
24 Exchange
Although the pace of growth is, inevitably, slowing, 24 Exchange is still clearly on a growth path, reporting its two highest monthly ADVs in November and December 2025 approaching $5 billion per day (it has since reported a new daily high of $9 billion on January 26).
Annual ADV was $4.3 billion, up 33% on 2024, and as is the case across the three NDF venues, in contrast to spot markets, activity actually increased in H2, albeit only slightly. Indeed, 24X can be content that it has established a new higher baseline for activity in the mid-$4 billion per day range. While the venue had previously seen one month above $4 billion per day, in 2025 it had seven such months, something it will be looking to boost above $5 billion in 2026.
NDF Volume
2024 – 2025 +33%
2021 – 2025 +1,049%
2016 – 2025 N/A
360T
2026 was another year of rock-solid growth across the board for Deutsche Börse’s 360T, with ADV for the year rising 15.75% to EUR 169.6 billion.
The strength of the uptrend for 360T is reflected in every month of the year recording a new high for turnover across all products – this includes a series of record months, culminating in September’s EUR 185.8 billion. 360T continues to show a spike in activity at the quarter ends, December was the platform’s second busiest month at EUR 184.5 billion.
Although the numbers for non-spot are larger, in percentage terms growth was equal across both spot and non-spot markets, with the former growing 16.3% to $34.4 billion and the latter (using a flat exchange rate of 1.15) by 15.6% to EUR 139.7 billion. The two segments had very different fortunes across the year, however, with spot activity dropping off in H2, but non-spot continuing to grow. Spot ADV in H1 was $35.2 billion, it dropped by 4.6% to $33.6 billion in H2. Conversely, non-spot H1 ADV was EUR 135.9 billion, this rose 5.5% to EUR 143.4 billion in H2.
NDF ADV for the year at 360T was $1.94 billion, up 11.6% on 2024, again H2 was slightly busier, and the venue set a new peak to close year, hitting $2.26 billion in December.
360T does not break out volumes by individual venue, however sources suggest that the majority of FX swap activity is still going through the main platform, rather than SUN, its mid-matching pool.
“Liberation Day” helped 360T’s spot business, the firm registering a new high in ADV at $39.6 billion, beating March 2020 and the onset of Covid for the first time. More pertinently, perhaps, nine of 360T’s busiest spot months came in 2025.
Total Volume Spot Volume NDF Volume
2024 -2025 +15.75% +16.3% +11.6%
2021 – 2015 +81.9% +52.6% +210.6%
2016 – 2025 N/A N/A N/A
Cboe FX
After two years in which the pace of growth in its spot business slipped, largely a reflection of the high base established by the business, Cboe FX saw that pace pick up again in 2025 – driven, inevitably, by April.
The platform ended 2025 with an ADV just shy of $50 billion (actually $49.7 billion), easily the highest yet, including a new record month in April at $61.9 billion per day. Notably for Cboe FX, every month saw spot ADV above the 2024 average of $45.4 billion, it also saw a healthy uptick in firm ADV, by 18.6% to $18 billion, including a new high, again in April, at $23 billion. Equally, six of the venue’s 10 busiest months were recorded last year.
There is a solidity about the Cboe FX business, highlighted by how, in spite of seeing an inevitable drop off in H2, it was only slight – activity falling 5.1% in H2 compared to H1, the latter seeing Cboe’s FX business average above $50 billion for the first time over a six-month period.
NDF activity on the SEF also surged in 2025, averaging just over $3 billion per day, more than double 2024’s ADV. A new high was recorded in November at $3.513 billion. Again, H2 activity was higher in NDFs, by some 9.1% from H1.
Spot Volume NDF Volume
2024 – 2025 +9.5% +123.6%
2021 – 2025 +48.2% +660%
2016 – 2025 +83.5% N/A
CME Group (Futures & Options)
CME’s FX futures and options franchise was the only to show a decline from 2024, thanks largely to a horrible H2, something many of the CLOB/ECN models suffered, as noted earlier. That said, in spite of the decline, in contract terms 2025 was still the fourth busiest for CME’s FX futures and options product suite at 980,000 contracts per day. In notional terms, the ADV of $85.6 billion was down 3.9% on 2024, which does not feature in the top-10 years for CME FX, which is hardly surprising given the multiple $100 billion-plus years CME had from 2010.
March was the busiest month of the year at $119 billion – the third busiest post-Covid, while April was the busiest non-roll month of the year at $109 billion, this is the ninth busiest post-Covid. CME’s busiest month continues to be May 2010 at a whopping $186 billion. As noted, activity fell away in H2, ADV for H1 was $96.2 billion, the second half it dropped to $75 billion.
On a more positive note, CME reports healthy growth, of 26%, in its FX options on futures suite, the Merc also launched FX Spot+ in 2025, which will contribute to the firm’s bottom line as it grows. It hit a new single day record of $8.2 billion in December, having set a succession of such high-water marks since launch in May.
FX Link also consolidated in 2025, and while it did not quite hit the highs seen in 2024, volume numbers were solid, with only May and August below $3 billion per day. Overall ADV at $3.8 billion, was fractionally lower from 2024.
In contract terms, CME is on a bit of a rollercoaster, with the past five years seeing two year-on-year rises and three declines. CME has been reporting data for two years in both contract and notional values, thus recent comparisons are solid, however the introduction of smaller contracts to the FX product suite – and their popularity – makes comparisons with past years a little harder. To help readers, when calculating 2023 and earlier, we have used an average contract size of $87,000 for 2023; $95,000 for 2022 and $99,400 for the years before that.
FX Futures & Options Notional Volume FX Link
2024 – 2025 -3.9% -1.8%
2021 – 2025 +11.1% N/A
2016 – 2025 +1% N/A
*in contract terms CME was -4.75%; +10.1% and +14.2%
EBS
The first half of the year helped EBS to a rare event over the past 15 years – two successive years of growth. April and “Liberation Day” saw the venue trade it’s most since the onset of Covid in March 2020 (February 2020 was slightly higher than April 2025) as traders flocked to the firm CLOB model.
EBS has, along with the other ‘primary’ venues, suffered a long decline from its heyday either side of 2010, but now seems to be stabilising. At $63.8 billion, spot and NDF ADV was up 7.4% year-on-year and the second highest since 2020. As noted, H2 was much quieter than H1 and EBS seemed to suffer more than most at -23.1% in H2.
Although the overall picture was positive, CME will want a positive start to 2026 for EBS after both November and December saw ADV that was the fifth and seventh lowest at the venue since it started reporting data in 2007.
Spot and NDF Volume
2024 – 2025 +7.4%
2021 – 2025 +4%
2016 – 2025 -25.6%
Euronext FX
Euronext FX was another to hit a new high for ADV in 2025, at just shy of $27.2 billion. The good news for the firm is that this is the fourth year in five it has seen an annual rise, the less good news is the pace is slowing – from double-digit gains previously to +2.5% in 2025.
Again, April was the payday for the venue with a new all-time high of $38.2 billion, beating March 2020, while the importance of the first half was highlighted by every month, with the exception of May, entering the top-10 for the platform since launch. By contrast, activity dropped by 20.7% in H2, from over $30 billion per day to just over $24 billion per day.
One aspect of the Euronext FX platform raised to The Full FX last year was a decline in fill rates and while they dropped a little further in 2025, it was not to any great degree save for the Platform. On the Skew Safe streams it was down just over 1% to 80.5%, on Full Amount it was unchanged at 93.85% and on the Platform it was down 3.4% to 75%.
Spot Volume
2024 – 2025 +2.5%
2021 – 2025 +41.1%
2016 – 2025 +113%
FXSpotStream
The good news story at FXSpotStream continues, with another series of records for the service in 2025, as total ADV breached the $100 billion mark – comfortably – for the first time. Having reported total ADV above $100 billion for the first and second time in September and November 2024, FXSpotStream only fell below that mark on two occasions in 2025, May and June. A new high was hit in October at $129.6 billion.
The big story was the growth in non-spot ADV, which rose by 40.5% to $35.85 billion, although spot activity also grew healthily, by 20% to $77.3 billion. Non-spot activity hit a new peak in December at $44.1 billion, while, unsurprisingly, spot peaked in April at $91.4 billion.
Unlike most of the other venues, FXSpotStream actually saw activity in spot rise in H2, compared to H1, albeit by a modest 2.7%. As was also seen elsewhere with non-spot activity, other products saw a more impressive 30.3% increase from H1, thanks to three of the last four months of the year establishing themselves as the three busiest to-date.
Total Volumes Spot Volumes
2024 – 2025 +25.9% +20%
2021 – 2025 +133.6% N/A
2016 – 2025 +520.5% N/A
LSEG FX
2025 was a good year for LSEG FX as it seeks to establish a broader, more connected, business under a new management team. On the basis that a rising tide lifts all ships, there is no surprise that spot volumes were higher – driven by April – but LSEG can also be heartened by a solid rise in non-spot volumes, from a high base, and also further impressive growth in the clearing business.
Spot ADV across its platforms (the firm does not break out CLOB and bilateral volumes) was $106 billion for the year, driven by H1’s $114.3 billion (it dropped by 14.4% in H2) – this is the highest since 2015 and up 6% from 2024. As noted, April drove growth, registering as the busiest month since March 2020 – indeed it is tied for the seventh busiest since the Thomson Reuters deal to buy FXall in 2012 (but lags the Reuters numbers from prior to that).
LSEG established a new peak in non-spot business, which will be heartening given there is increased competition in the NDFs and FX swaps space in particular. ADV here was $418.3 billion, and as was the case elsewhere, activity rose in H2. Equally pleasing, no doubt, to LSEG was that the firm’s venues traded above $400 billion in non-spot products every month of the year – the first time this has happened, in 2024 it breached this threshold just once.
The pace of growth for LSEG’s non-spot FX business was the highest since 2017-2018, but also of note was continued growth in LCH ForexClear, part of the FX group. Whilst still clearly at an early stage of a growth period, the service averaged $188 billion in 2025, up 32% from the previous year, the bulk of it in NDFs at $155 billion, up 27%. FX options ADV was up 59% to $29 billion, and the service cleared $5 billion in FX forwards ADV, up 82% from 2024.
Spot Volumes Non-Spot Volumes
2024 – 2025 +6.1% +10.6%
2021 – 2025 +21.3% +17.5%
2016 – 2025 +7.2% +59.4%
Singapore Exchange
Although it is now firmly in the OTC space, SGX only provides monthly data for its listed business, and it is continuing to grow nicely, maintaining the pace of growth seen in the last three or four years.
The exchange reports total monthly volume for FX contracts – a number that is dominated by the USD/CNH contract (although INR grew nicely last year). ADV in contract terms was 311,815 in 2025, the first time SGX has averaged over 300,000 – indeed this was the first year that the exchange reported every month above 200,000. This means SGX has grown by 33% and 37% respectively over the past two years.
Using an estimate of US$90,000 per contract size, this results in a notional ADV just above $28 billion in 2025, just about half of which was in USD/CNH.
FX Futures & Options Volume (ADV contract terms)
2024 – 2025 +37%
2021 – 2026 +171.2%
The Full FX View
There is little doubt that 2025 was a banner year for platforms with a series of records established, and even those venues unlikely to set new peaks due to their longevity had strong years, with the exception of CME’s FX futures.
The latter is an interesting development, largely because it could have been caused by internal fragmentation, namely the launch of FX Spot+ in April. If you add an assumed $5 billion per day from that venue, CME’s FX numbers suddenly look a lot better, albeit growth would still not be as steep as that seen on OTC venues.
Sadly, we cannot access a breakdown of volumes at EBS, LSEG and 360T across the ECN/CLOB and disclosed venues, but sources at all three firms indicate that the former have done “OK” to cite more than one comment. This does not suggest strong growth in these models – although growth there undoubtedly was – meaning once again we are faced with (anecdotal) evidence of the popularity of a disclosed, on occasion bilateral, model.
If that is the case, it is, actually, something of a change in behaviour in the FX market, for historically, as we have noted before, when volatility and uncertainty spike, participants have headed for the firm, all-to-all, models. That they (probably) are not, highlights the advances made by dealers in their pricing to multiple venues, in internalisation techniques, and their willingness to “stay in” when things get crazy. Effectively, consumers can get a good price, in their amount (and tenor) from a stream, rather than having to go to the CLOB/ECN.
Of course, this does not mean things are looking bad for these types of venues, Cboe FX’ firm volumes rose nearly 19% year-on-year, more that they are going to have to work harder to keep up. How this is done is the million-dollar question, a lot of dealers still have issues with the way information on the CLOBs is available – and used – by dealers in a manner that makes it harder to execute larger tickets.
The BIS turnover data highlighted the boost to activity provided by macro events in the first half especially, so all venues should have benefitted, as they largely did. The year did, however, also offer a warning that a chaotic environment does not necessarily mean high volumes are sustained. The drop-off in the second half of the year was steep – indeed for some platforms it was below the ADV of 2024 – showing that fatigue can set in.
That said, the sustained nature of the uncertainty permeating markets should mean activity picks up again, and the early signs for 2026 are that it has been an even busier start, with activity close to, or above, last year’s peak. The big question now is will it be sustained, or are we looking at another year of two halves?
