Crypto Derivatives 101 – Market Breakdown: Who’s Winning the Race?

Key Points

1. Perpetual swaps reached $58.5 trillion in trading volume across top centralized exchanges in 2024, with Bitcoin derivatives accounting for over 55% of total crypto derivatives volume.

2. Decentralized derivatives platforms saw $1.5 trillion in trading volume in 2024, a 138.1% year-over-year increase, but face higher fees and liquidity fragmentation compared to CEXs.

3. Binance leads the market with a 38% share, while Bitget rose to 3rd place with $92 billion in trading volume and a market share increase from 4.6% to 7.2% in early 2025.

4. Institutions now drive over 80% of CEX activity, with derivatives used for hedging, liquidity management, and capital efficiency, bridging crypto with traditional finance.

5. CEXs offer advantages like lower fees, deeper liquidity, and better user experience, while DEXs provide decentralization and composability but struggle with execution privacy and slippage.