Markets declined in May as Bitcoin and Ethereum closed the month at $31,782 and $1,941, falling 15.6% and 28.8% respectively. As a result, volatility increased and spot volumes on centralised exchanges rose 13.6% to $1.97tn, with a daily maximum of $148.8bn traded on the 11th of May, the day TerraUSD collapsed.

May Highlights

• The crypto market experienced one of the largest month-on-month declines this May wiping out $460bn in market capitalization (data up to 26th May), with the majority of this decline occurring within a 4-day period beginning May 8th.  
• FTX overtook Coinbase and OKX in spot trading volume for the first time in May. FTX spot market volumes reached $89.4bn, an 80.8% increase from the month prior.
• Binance retained its position as the largest exchange by volume with a market share of 50.9%, trading $532bn, a 14.3% increase from April.
• BTC futures contracts in CME recorded the highest number traded since February 2021 with a volume of 250,650. Meanwhile, ETH futures contracts reached an all-time high volume with 136,165 contracts traded, rising 63.0% from April.