On 18th August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered by Satoshi Nakamoto. Seventy-four days later (on the 31st of October 2008), Satoshi released a whitepaper that detailed the formation of a decentralized public ledger known as a Blockchain.

About 70 days thereafter (specifically on the 9th of January 2009), the Blockchain released the first digital cryptocurrency called Bitcoin through a process known as digital mining.

Soon, market activities developed around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that were later created. One such important market activity was the development of trading platforms.

This first set of trading platforms consists of exchanges that were built and controlled by their developers. They function more like traditional trading platforms with an Order Book System, which records the buy and sell orders, and then uses a matching engine to determine which orders can be fully or partially executed.

These trading platforms collectively form Centralized Exchanges (Cex). Popular Cexs include Binance, ByBit, Coinbase, Mexc, BitMart, Ascendex (formerly called BitMax), Tokpie, etc.

Two Kinds of Cexs

Basically, there are two kinds of Centralized Exchanges:

(1). Spot Cexs

(2) Derivatives Cexs

EdaFace Cex Reflector is where the centralized exchanges are listed.

Trade Volumes on Cexs

Most of the transactions in the Crypto Market occur on Cexs. For example, throughout the first quarter of 2025, daily average trading across centralized exchanges rose from 34 billion US Dollar (USD) in January 2024 to about 42 billion USD by March 2025. 

December 2024 alone had daily spot trading volume around 30 billion USD, with combined spot and derivatives trading reaching approximately 370 billion USD per month, which gave an average of 12 billion USD per day (Market Growth Reports, 2025).

These trading volumes on Cexs account for approximately 90–95% of the total trading volume in the Crypto Market (Oak Research, 2025).

Why Cex Dominance?

The following factors drive the large volume of trades on centralized exchanges:

(1). First Market System 

The Cexs came into existence with the birth of the Crypto Market. Hence, Cexs have been around from the onset unlike decentralized exchanges (Dexs) that started in 2015 when smart contracts were first integrated into the blockchain technology.

(2). Ease of use for retail.

(3). Higher liquidity, especially for derivatives/futures.

(4). Institutional participation happens mainly via Cexs.

References:

Market Growth Reports (2025). “Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market Overview.” 26 May 2025. [Online] Available from: https://www.marketgrowthreports.com/market-reports/cryptocurrency-exchange-platform-market-108106 (Accessed: 15 June 2025).

Oak Research (2025) “CEX vs DEX: Report from 2024 and forecasts for 2025.” Lilian Aliaga, January 22, 2025. [Online] Available from: https://oakresearch.io/en/reports/sectors/cex-vs-dex-report-2024-forecasts-2025 (Accessed: 15 June 2025)