- Crypto.com is now the world’s second-biggest crypto exchange.
- The firm said the big traders it attracted have boosted its volume.
Crypto.com is set to register $139 billion worth of trades in October, its best monthly performance.
The Singapore-based exchange, founded in 2016, is now the world’s second-biggest crypto trading platform by volume, per data compiled by The Block. It has outpaced both Dubai-based Bybit and US exchange giant Coinbase in recent months.
A large part of Crypto.com’s volume surge is thanks to its courting of institutional clients, George Tucker, a general manager at Crypto.com, told DL News.
“We attracted traders who have immense trade frequency, and our liquidity supports their demand,” Tucker said.
These clients, Tucker said, chose the exchange over others because it enables them to capitalise on market inefficiencies at scale.
Crypto.com’s trading volume has grown rapidly this year. In January it handled just $37 billion in trades compared to rival Coinbase’s $75 billion.
Now that situation has reversed with Crypto.com’s $139 billion October volume more than double Coinbase’s $57 billion.
Still, Crypto.com’s record figure pales in comparison to top crypto exchange Binance’s $706 billion October figure.
A surprise
Crypto.com’s sudden rise in the second half of the year has taken many by surprise.
Despite handling more trading volume than Coinbase, it only has around 10% of Coinbase’s monthly visitors, according to data from website traffic analysis platform Similarweb.
On the Apple app store download rankings, a popular metric for gauging retail interest in crypto, Coinbase comes in as the 308th most popular free app, while Crypto.com is 425th.
These metrics also point to the bulk of Crypto.com trading volume coming from a smaller number of high-frequency traders and institutions, rather than retail participants.
“It might be a simple case that we’ve got the biggest traders trading off our platform,” Tucker said, adding that the situation doesn’t mean the exchange’s increased trading volumes “rest in the hands of one or two traders.”
Crypto.com says it operates in over 100 countries, the most of any crypto exchange. Its ability to pick up users from jurisdictions where other exchanges don’t operate may also be helping it grow.
“Coinbase is very dominant in North America, but not as dominant in other markets where we’ve got representation,” Tucker said, adding that Southeast Asia is a very important market.
According to Similarweb, only 26% of Crypto.com’s web traffic comes from the US, compared to 65% of Coinbase’s.
The favourable crypto market conditions are helping. “In the last six months, in particular, we’ve seen a significant uptick that coincided with more activity in the market,” Tucker said.
Bitcoin has soared 109% over the past year, fuelled by the launch of Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds, Chinese government stimulus, and the expectation of further interest rate cuts in the US.
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.
