FX Platforms Surge to New Post-Pandemic High

The volatility in March saw a host of platforms hit a new post-pandemic high – all coming within touching distance of the March 2020 peaks – while FXSpotStream has hit another new peak for the service.

FXSpotStream spot average daily volume (ADV) jumped above $80 billion per day for the first time to $83.1 billion, a 10.6% increase over what was the previous peak in February, and up a massive 42.8% year-on-year. Non-spot ADV rose 12.6% from February and by 38.5% year-on-year to $33.8 billion, meaning, naturally, that overall ADV was a new high at $116.9 billion. This is up 11.1% month-on-month and up 41.5% year-on-year.

Elsewhere, 360T came within a fraction of matching its previous spot ADV peak of $36.9 billion in March 2020, reporting ADV of $36.8 billion in March 2025. This is up 8.6% on February and up 24.5% year-on-year, and also marks the first quarter where 360T has reported spot SDV above $30 billion each month. Given how the platform regularly sees a quarter-end boost to non-spot volumes, Deutsche Börse is likely to report another new peak in all FX volume later this month.

Round trip times (RTT) held up well amidst the volatility, registering unchanged at 6.5ms, and 360T’s London matching engine saw a greater chunk of volume – probably reflecting the centre’s deeper liquidity in busy times – rising to 30% of volume from 28%. New York drifting by one point to 53%, while Tokyo was unchanged at 17%. Although not at a new peak, activity in EUR/USD rose two points to 27% of volume, while USD/JPY was unchanged, Cable drifted by one point to 7% and CNH also by one point to 8%.

Cboe FX was another to come close to its March 2020 peak (at $55 billion per day), reporting spot ADV of $52.1 billion in the latest month. This is up 8.5% from February and up 13.3% year-on-year, but featured a jump in firm ADV, to a new high at $19 billion per day, above the $18.4 billion seen in March 2020. Firm ADV was up around 18.8% from February (Cboe rounds firm ADV out) and up around 26.7% year-on-year.

Cboe FX actually saw quicker response times in March at 8ms, down from 9ms and 10ms for much of the last year, while the percentage of volume traded anonymously was steady at 92%. The non-firm fill rate was also steady at 89% for the fourth month in a row.

Euronext FX hit a new post-pandemic peak at $31.3 billion per day, although this is still short of March 2020’s $37 billion high. ADV was up 6.5% from February and 21.8% year-on-year, however, as the platform also benefitted from the increased volatility.

In terms of platform performance, there was better news on fill rates, although they remain historically low at 81.1% for the skew-safe streams (from 80.2% in February); 92% for Full Amount (93%) and 76.7% for the Platform (74.7%). RTTs were also quicker at 10.4ms to New York and 18.1ms to London, from 11.6 and 19.3ms respectively in February. Euronext also saw a rise in firm trading, with 30% of anonymous volume being firm, up from 27.5% in February.

Mixed News on NDFs

While emerging markets remain firmly in the spotlight as the tariff issue rolls on, there were differing fortunes for different models in NDFs in March, with the overall data suggesting that most of the unease in FX markets was focused on G10.

360T, which largely deals on an RFS basis, saw activity drift lower to just under $1.8 billion per day, down 12.3% from February, but up 5.4% year-on-year. At Cboe, however, volumes held up on the firm’s SEF at just over $2.67 billion per day – the second highest ADV yet recorded. This represents a rise of 0.5% from February (and also the first time Cboe FX SEF has been above $2 billion for a whole quarter), and is up over 103% year-on-year.

24 Exchange also came off its recent highs in ADV terms, reporting that it handled $3.59 billion per day in March. This is down 14.7% from February’s record high and is up 9.6% year-on-year – it also marks the first time the platform has registered ADV above $3.5 billion for a whole quarter.