CME Hits Record Market Share in Crypto Derivatives Despite Volume Drop in February

The market share of CME Group hit a record high among cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges in February, despite overall volumes in the market declining to a five-month low.

Both spot and derivatives markets registered declines for the second month in a row. The drop in activity came during a time of elevated uncertainty in markets, due to expectations that the US would impose tariffs on its trading partners in March. This pushed prices in crypto markets to new 2025 lows.

Trading activity in crypto markets dropped to levels last seen in October, with the combined spot and derivatives volume on centralised exchanges totalling $7.2 trillion for February, down 21% compared with the previous four weeks. The findings come from Coindesk Data’s latest exchange review report.

Despite lower overall activity, the market share of the CME hit an all-time high with 4.67% of the overall derivatives space, which totalled $4.9 trillion in February. This was also a five-month low. Volumes on the CME registered the first monthly decline in five months with a 20% drop to $229 billion, with BTC futures making up $175 billion while ETH contracts made up the rest.

“The drop in the trading activity on the exchange coincides with the decline in BTC CME annualised basis, which fell to 4.08% last month, the lowest since March 2023,” the report states.

CME’s market share increase reflects a decline in trading activity on retail platforms such as Binance and OKX, both of which experienced significantly lower volumes.

Total open interest, meanwhile, fell to the lowest level since November as all trading pairs on centralised exchanges saw declines. Total open interest stood at just shy of $79 billion, the lowest since November 5, ahead of the US elections.

Bitcoin prices have dropped more than 11% since the start of the year to hover above $82k in mid-March, giving back gains sustained following the election of President Trump.