The volume of cryptocurrencies traded on decentralized exchanges declined in August.
according to Davey’s CallDEXs handled over $181 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in August, down from $198 billion in July.
Monthly activity on DEX platforms peaked in March when they handled over $260 billion as most cryptocurrencies surged.
Ethereum (ETH) was the most active chain on DEXs in August, handling over $52.5 billion. It was followed by Solana (SOL) and Arbitrum (ARB), with DEXs handling $42.5 billion and $22.3 billion worth of tokens, respectively.
Tron (TRX) was the most improved chain on the DEX platform, helped by the recently launched SunPump meme coin generator. SUN, the largest DEX in its ecosystem, handled $3.2 billion worth of coins.
Uniswap was the most active DEX in August, followed by Solana’s Raydium and BNB Chain’s PancakeSwap.
Trading volume on the Solana DEX has been declining due to the performance of meme coins in the ecosystem such as Bonk, Book of Meme, and Dogwifhat. Bonk is down more than 64% from its high point this year while Dogwifhat and Book of Meme are down more than 70% from their highs so far this year.
Binance maintains its lead among CEX exchanges
Meanwhile, centralized exchanges performed better in August. Data shows These exchanges handled $1.2 trillion during the month, up from $1.1 trillion the month before. Like DEXs, CEX volume peaked at $2.48 trillion in March as Bitcoin and other altcoins surged in price.
Binance maintained the lead, handling over $448 billion, followed by Bybit, Crypto.com, Huobi, and Coinbase.
Additional data shows that open interest in cryptocurrencies in the futures market fell over the month. Bitcoin futures interest stood at $30 billion on August 31, down from a monthly high of $37 billion.
Cryptocurrencies had another tough month in August. Most of them initially fell on August 5 on fears of a banking system collapse. The Japanese Yen trade pushed most assets lower.
While most coins have risen from their monthly lows, they remain well below their highs this year.
Bitcoin remains down 18% from its high this year, while Ethereum is down about 40% from its high in March.
As we wrote on Friday, Some analysts point to the poor performance due to low liquidity in the cryptocurrency market and growing fears that some governments will start selling their cryptocurrencies.