[DigitalToday reporter Hyunwoo Choo (추현우)] Cryptocurrency market trading volume totalled $20.57 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, but funds and liquidity became more concentrated in top exchanges, blockchain media outlet Beincrypto reported on Thursday.

According to a first-quarter report by CoinGlass, the market has not fully shaken off the shock from the steep drop in the fourth quarter of 2025. In October 2025, a tariff shock triggered $19 billion in liquidations in 24 hours, and bitcoin fell about 35 percent from its peak above $126,000. Total open interest across exchanges also fell more than 40 percent.

First-quarter trading volume was tallied at $1.94 trillion in spot and $18.63 trillion in derivatives. Monthly trading declined after January, and March was the quarter’s lowest. The derivatives-to-spot ratio held at about 9.6 times throughout the quarter.

By exchange, Binance ranked first in trading volume, open interest, order book depth and user asset holdings. Binance’s cumulative derivatives trading volume was $4.9 trillion, accounting for 34.9 percent of the top 10 exchanges. That was larger than the combined $2.19 trillion at OKX and $1.49 trillion at Bybit. Average daily open interest was $23.9 billion, about 2.2 times that of No. 2 Bybit.

For bitcoin futures, Binance also had the largest two-way order book depth within a 1 percent mid-price range, at $284 million. OKX had $160 million and Bybit had $76.55 million. Binance held $152.9 billion in user custodial assets, accounting for 73.5 percent of the top 10 exchanges. No. 2 OKX had $15.9 billion.

Decentralized derivatives protocol Hyperliquid (HYPE) entered the top 10 with $492.7 billion in trading volume. Average daily open interest was $6 billion, with a peak of $9.7 billion. Its scale was still smaller than top centralized exchanges. Grayscale filed an S-1 for a HYPE ETF in March to pursue a Nasdaq listing.

Trading volume was large, but the monthly trend weakened after January. Concentration in top exchanges extended beyond trading and liquidity and widened further in custodial assets. Hyperliquid has entered a market-share competition, but for now its closest comparisons are mid-tier centralized exchanges rather than the top tier.