RootData : First quarter of 2026

By RootData

 

Transparency-driven and encrypted currency exchange lists

Binance, Coinbase, OKX, Kraken, Gate are the top five of the secure currency exchange lists in the first quarter of 2026, as measured by RootData。

Based on RootData's wealth of data, the list combines indicators such as the volume of transactions, size of reserves, currency performance, compliance, transparency, and circumvents the impact of fraudulent practices such as transaction volumes on the list to objectively reflect the competitiveness and ranking of exchanges in encrypted markets。

In this list, Binance continues to be at the top of the list, with the highest trade volume and wealth potential, OKX is the second highest on the list as a small number of exchanges whose trade volumes have risen this month, Coinbase is down by one, and Kraken, with many moves, has risen by two to four。

 

II. Overview of developments in the encrypted currency exchange in the first quarter

 

1) Continued weak trade volume

In the first quarter of 2026, the total volume of transactions in the spot market of the encrypted currency exchange fell to $3.12 trillion, a decline of 36.5 per cent, while at the same time it reached a new low since 2024, and the monthly trade ratio continued to decline during the quarter without a phased rebound. This trend is the result of a combination of macro-environmental uncertainties and dynamic energy decline within the industry。

First, uncertainty in the macro-environment remains a central variable in curbing transaction activity. Major economies have repeated trade-offs between inflation and growth, and the lack of clear guidance on the monetary policy path has left the whole of risky assets in the zone of shock. In the absence of trend patterns, it is difficult to create uniform expectations in the encrypted market, with transactions shifting from trend bets to low-frequency games, with a consequent contraction in the size of transactions。

At the same time, geopolitical conflicts further magnified the risk-averse of markets. The instability in the Middle East region, represented by the escalating tensions between the United States, Iran and Israel, has significantly pushed up the global risk premium。

Against this background, funds tend to flow to traditional hedge targets, such as gold, dollar assets, rather than more volatile encrypted assets with more complex pricing logic. Although some markets have tried to describe Bitcoin as “digital gold”, in real risk events, the risk avoidance attributes have not yet been widely validated, but rather have been synchronized backsliding in the course of multiple escalating conflicts, weakening investors' allocation confidence。

SECONDLY, STRUCTURAL DIVERSION AT THE FINANCIAL LEVEL IS EQUALLY EVIDENT. ON THE ONE HAND, TRADITIONAL FINANCIAL MARKETS STILL PROVIDE RELATIVELY CLEAR INCOME PATHS THAT CONTINUE TO ATTRACT VENTURE CAPITAL FLOWS BACK; ON THE OTHER HAND, AI INDUSTRY OUTBREAKS ARE BECOMING A NEW “FINANCIAL BLACK HOLE”. THE ARENAS REPRESENTED BY GENERATING AI, LARGE MODEL INFRASTRUCTURE AND RELATED APPLICATIONS FORM STRONG NARRATIVES AND HIGH CERTAINTY EXPECTATIONS IN BOTH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MARKETS, AND A LARGE AMOUNT OF FUNDS THAT MIGHT OTHERWISE HAVE BEEN ALLOCATED TO ENCRYPTED ASSETS HAVE BEEN REDIRECTED TO AI-RELATED AREAS. THIS IS REFLECTED NOT ONLY IN THE RISK INVESTMENT DIMENSION, BUT ALSO IN THE TRADE PREFERENCES OF SECONDARY MARKETS — FUNDS TEND TO BE MORE INVOLVED IN AI TARGETS WITH CLEAR GROWTH LOGIC THAN IN ENCRYPTED ASSETS THAT LACK NEW STORY SUPPORT。

More critically, the lack of innovation within the encryption industry is weakening the endogenous drive of the market. The multiple narrative directions that have been widely followed in the past cycle have become increasingly perjured in user growth and business models, failing to form sustainable value chains. Although new concepts such as AI and DePIN continue to emerge in the context of encryption, the whole remains at an early stage and lacks mature assets capable of carrying large-scale liquidity. This has led to a lack of a “core backbone” for the market, with highly fragmented and short-term financing。

Under the combined effect of these factors, the encrypted market has gradually become typical of the bear market: price volatility has declined, the resilience has diminished, hot spots are rapidly wheeled but lacked depth. For investors, the difficulty of obtaining excess returns has significantly increased and the risk-benefit ratio continues to deteriorate, thus directly discouraging the willingness to trade. Compared with high frequency operations, more funds are available to reduce position or wait status and further compress market turnover。

In general, it is difficult to escape from low-activity conditions in the short term, in the absence of clear macro-clinic and industry-level new narratives. The key variables for the future remain whether there is a substantial shift in the global liquidity environment and whether the encryption industry can re-establish core asset systems with real demand and long-term value capture capabilities. Once they resonate, the depressed demand for trade can be met with concentrated release。

 

2)TRENDS IN MAINSTREAMING OF AI+ TRANSACTIONS

IN A CONTEXT OF LOW TRANSACTION VOLUMES, AI HAS BECOME ONE OF THE KEY STRATEGIES OF THE EXCHANGE TO INCREASE USER ACTIVITY AND FREQUENCY OF TRANSACTIONS, FULLY RESHAPING THE USER TRANSACTION EXPERIENCE IN ORDER TO TAKE THE LEAD IN TAKING OVER USER MINDS AND GUIDING USER TRADING HABITS DURING THE AI ERA。

IN THE TRADITIONAL TRADING PARADIGM, USERS ARE OFTEN TRAPPED IN MULTIPLE FRAGMENTATION LINKS, SUCH AS SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS, STRATEGY BUILDING, AND BOTTOM LINE EXECUTION. TODAY, THIS LENGTHY DECISION PATH IS BEING OVERHAULED AND OPTIMIZED BY AI。

ON THE ONE HAND, MANY EXCHANGES HAVE INTEGRATED AI LARGE MODELS INSIDE THE STATIONS, ALLOWING USERS TO SPEAK DIRECTLY WITH AI TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THEIR BUSINESSES AND TO ESTABLISH A TRANSACTION STRATEGY, WHICH ALLOWS USERS TO SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF INFORMATION ACQUISITION AND TRANSACTIONS AND SHORTEN THE COURSE OF TRANSACTIONS

On the other hand, the exchange quickly introduced Skill, which integrates its own data and transaction functions, enabling AI agents to easily access the exchange ' s data analysis, transactions, etc., so that complex transaction logic can be implemented with precision and without manual complexity。

In February, Coinbase announced the launch of the AlAgent Wallets Wallet for the AlAgent Wallet infrastructure, designed to help developers quickly configure the AlAgent ' s tradable wallet so that they can independently complete transactions and payments on the chain without artificial intervention。

In addition, Coinbase also internalizes the AI consultant product Coinbase Advisor, which helps users analyse markets and build trade strategies。

In early March, Binance also launched seven AI agents, Skyll, based on OpenClaw open-source ecosystems in the AI Wave, allowing users ' AI agents to access Binance ' s real-time market data and token information. At the end of March, Binance further introduced a one-stop artificial intelligence assistant, Binance Ai Pro, who can manually transfer funds from the main bank account to the AI account, thus enabling the product to perform smartly the related strategy, transaction or asset monitoring functions. Currently, Binance has integrated the AI button with several core pages of the APP on its website, allowing users to use Binance Ai Pro directly through dialogue。

In addition, OKX opens the AI capabilities of OnchainOS to B end developers and has the functions of autonomous execution of transactions, insight into market conditions, address insight, chain payments, etc. Bybit, Kucoin, Bitget, BitMart were all introduced by Skill products related to their trading functions。

IN THE FUTURE, AN INCREASING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS WILL BE EXECUTED BY AI AGENTS, WHO WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE THE LEAD IN OBTAINING USER PREFERENCES AT THE END OF THE PRODUCT AND BEST FIT THE AI AGENT'S IMPLEMENTATION LOGIC, AND WHO WILL HAVE A GREATER CHANCE OF SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGING THE MARKET PATTERNS OF ENCRYPTED CURRENCY EXCHANGES IN THE FISSION OF STOCK MARKETS。

 

3) Lack of high-quality new assets, significant contraction of the previous currency

As the entire market enters the stock game phase, the phased depletion of the supply of high-quality new assets has forced the exchange to proactively shrink the currency tempo for encrypted original assets, with “less and less” gradually replacing the “how fast” expansion logic of the past。

According to RootData, in the first quarter of this year, the number of new encrypted currencies on the spot market line of the first-line encrypted currency exchange was mostly between 10 and 20, with an average of less than 7 currency lines per month, with only a few exchanges, such as Kraken and Gate, having new hits between 40 and 55, maintaining a more high-frequency currency strategy。

The decline in the frequency of the preceding currency was accompanied by an unprecedented increase in stock asset control. Exchanges' attitudes towards price volatility and manipulation are shifting from “acceptance” to “precision” to protect the legitimate interests of stock investors。

For example, following an abnormal decline in the prices of multiple currencies, Binance directly frozen a number of marketed accounts involving price manipulation, and recently issued the Red Flag Guide for Marketed Businesses, which will make it mandatory for the issue of coins to report in a timely manner on the identity of the marketer, the legal entity and the full terms of the contract。

This means that the mainstream exchange is increasingly demanding transparency in currency, and the more transparent the project will be, the more likely it will be. According to RootData, over 85 per cent of the currencies that are on line in Binance, Coinbase are more than 70 per cent transparent。

Exchanges are being forced to assume the role of “industry gatekeeper”. Under the double pressure of regulation and loss of users, the extreme quest for currency transparency and market regulation is essentially the inevitable choice of an exchange to maintain its core competitiveness in stock markets。

 

4) Collective build-up of TradFi assets

Against the backdrop of overall trade volume pressure and a gradual cooling of the narrative of encrypted raw assets, the exchange is turning its eyes to a more definitive source of external demand — the TradFi assets, represented by gold and US shares — and is becoming a central tool for new product-flow competition。

ON THE ONE HAND, UNCERTAINTY IN THE MACRO-ENVIRONMENT HAS SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED MARKET DEMAND FOR THE ALLOCATION OF RISK AVOIDANCE AND ROBUST RETURNS. GOLD CONTINUES TO THRIVE IN GEOPOLITICAL CONFLICTS AND INFLATIONARY EXPECTATIONS, WHILE THE US SHARE MAINTAINS A HIGH LEVEL OF ATTENTION AND TRADING ACTIVITY DRIVEN BY AI NARRATIVES. SUCH ASSETS, WHICH NATURALLY HAVE A BROADER USER BASE AND A MORE SOPHISTICATED PRICING SYSTEM, CAN NOT ONLY BE INTRODUCED TO THE EXCHANGE, BUT ALSO INCREASE THE FREQUENCY AND RETENTION OF TRANSACTIONS IN VOLATILE SITUATIONS。

In this context, the head exchange has begun to collectively accelerate the build-up of trading targets linked to TradFi assets, including gold anchoring assets (such as derivatives associated with XAU), monetized shares and index-based products, in an attempt to re-establish a “cross-asset” trading experience within the framework of the original encrypted transactions. Such changes in product structure are essentially associated with uncertainty associated with the cyclical volatility of hedged and encrypted markets with more consensual assets。

On the other hand, the exchange is constantly lowering the threshold for users to engage in tradfi asset transactions. In traditional financial markets, users often need voucher accounts, cross-border fund transfers and complex compliance processes to complete the configuration, while within the exchange system the process is reduced to simple operations in chains or accounts. Without leaving the familiar interface of transactions, users can achieve a rapid transition from encrypted assets to gold and United States shares, significantly increasing the efficiency of the use of funds, which is important both to absorb the transactional needs of existing users and to attract the incremental transaction needs of Web2 investors。

Exchanges represented by Binance give priority to tradfi asset tracks from derivatives. It has access to anchored asset transactions such as gold, silver and Tesla shares in the contract market, and has enhanced the trading attributes through a high leverage and 24-hour trading mechanism. These products are closer to a “price mapping tool”, centred on the assumption of user speculation and hedge demand for macro-assets rather than providing real asset ownership。

In addition, many encrypted currency exchanges work with RWA platforms, such as xStocks and Ondo, to fast-track assets such as monetized gold and monetized stocks. This type of third-party solution allows the exchange to quickly build up large amounts of monetized stocks to meet users ' diversified trading needs. Bybit, Bitget, MEXC and others have supported over 100 transactions of monetized shares, while Binance currently supports only about 20 TradFi asset transactions。

It is foreseeable that, as the regulatory framework becomes clearer and the monetization technology matures, the distribution of Traders ' assets will move from the current water test phase to a systemic expansion. From gold to stocks, from index to interest rate products, a more complete “link-up financial market” is emerging. In the process, the role of the exchange will evolve from a single encrypted asset-brokering platform to an integrated cross-asset trading infrastructure。

 

III. Case studies and analysis of major exchanges

 

1 Binance

During the first quarter, the Binance Exchange ' s spot trade volume was $1016.1 billion, a 43 per cent decline in the ring ratio and a significantly higher decline than the overall market decline, reflecting the gradual loss of the Binance market share。

In recent years, Binance has been the subject of much criticism from the public opinion market, which has focused on the general decline of new online coins and irresponsible behaviour in the case of the 1011, which has led to a more cautious rise in the spot market and a defensive market strategy。

In the tradeFi wave, Binance was on-line gold-and-silver contracts at the beginning of January, and then on-line with more than 20 stock exchanges, but the overall number lags behind most other front-line exchanges. But at the volume level, gold deals have recently been second only to BTC and ETH on the Binance contract market, and average daily transactions have stabilized at about $1.5 billion。

At the flow level, Binance performed best this quarter in emerging markets such as Korea, Turkey and Viet Nam, with a total of more than 24.4 million visits, significantly ahead of other encrypted currency exchanges。

In addition, Binance, on the wallet product, is successively a permanent contract transaction supported by Aster, and a forecast market supported by Predict.Fun, which carries with it a greater ambition in the chain。

 

Two, Kraken

In the first quarter of this year, Kraken Exchange cash transactions fell by 18.3 per cent to $107.1 billion, one of the lowest transactions。

This is largely due to Kraken's multiple moves at the asset end. On the one hand, Kraken has a large number of newly launched or previously encrypted primary assets such as HYPE, CFX, BGB, which rank first in the statistical range of exchanges。

Kraken, on the other hand, was well placed in TradFi, and continued to work after the acquisition of XStocks parent company Backed at the end of last year, currently supporting over 100 shares。

In March, Kraken announced the launch of the world ' s first regulated futures contract for tokenized stocks, providing all-weather (24/7) leverage (up to 20 times) to eligible non-United States clients in more than 110 countries/regions through its derivatives trading platform based on the xStocks framework, covering major United States equities, indices (POP 500 index, NASDA 100 index), gold and individual shares (Inveda, Apple, Tesla, Google, etc.)。

In the same month, Kraken also announced the approval of the Fed Master Account to become the first encryption company to be granted access to the Fed’s core payment system, with direct access to the Fed’s interbank payment system, which would make the dollar access process more stable and convenient for investors and significantly increase the attractiveness of institutional clients。

However, in view of the poor market conditions, Kraken still announced the freezing of the IPO plan announced at the end of last year, pending the resumption of market conditions。