Author: RootData

1. Transparency-Driven Cryptocurrency Exchange Rankings

In the February cryptocurrency exchange rankings compiled by RootData, Binance, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken, Gate, Upbit, Kucoin, Crypto.com, HTX, and Bitget ranked in the top 10.

This ranking integrates multiple indicators such as trading volume, reserve size, listing performance, compliance, and transparency of various exchanges, while avoiding the impact of wash trading and other cheating behaviors, aiming to objectively reflect the competitiveness and ranking of exchanges in the cryptocurrency market.

In this ranking, Binance remains at the top due to its highest trading volume and wealth effect, while OKX has jumped to second place as one of the few exchanges with increased trading volume this month, Coinbase has dropped by one place, and Kraken, which has been very active, has moved up two places to fourth.

2. Overview of February Cryptocurrency Exchange Development

1) Weak market conditions, Spring Festival holiday, and other factors cause a decline in trading volume

In February 2026, the cumulative spot trading volume of cryptocurrency exchanges was $895.2 billion, a slight decrease of 4.7% from January. This is the result of various factors, including market conditions, macro environment, and the Spring Festival holiday in Chinese-speaking regions.

From a price perspective, BTC fluctuated between $66,000 and $71,000 throughout February, facing several obstacles when trying to rise, failing to create a trend breakthrough. ETH and mainstream altcoins also maintained a fluctuating pattern, and the market lacked clear directional trends, directly suppressing trend trading and the willingness of new funds to enter.

In an environment lacking a unilateral market drive, the activity level in the spot market naturally declined, and while there were temporary increases in volume due to short-term fluctuations in the derivatives market, overall, it failed to offset the total decline brought about by the weak spot market.

At the same time, the impact of the Spring Festival holiday in Chinese-speaking regions on the global trading structure remained evident, with many retail investors and some institutional accounts halting or scaling down their operations. Liquidity in the Asian time zone declined temporarily, leading to a noticeable contraction in transaction volumes during Asian trading hours. Given that Asia holds significant weight in the global cryptocurrency market, the holiday effect has been amplified at the total volume level.

On a macro level, global risk assets entered a rebalancing phase in February, with a marginal increase in risk aversion. Some funds flowed into precious metals and the bond market, while a decline in risk appetite made the marginal allocation demand for cryptocurrency assets more conservative. Even if individual Bitcoin spot ETFs maintained net inflows, the incremental volume was insufficient to form trend-level surging markets, ultimately leading to a slight decline in overall trading volume in the cryptocurrency market.

In summary, the decline in spot trading volume in February 2026 results from a combination of multiple factors, but it does not signal a market recession. Looking ahead to March, with the fading of the Spring Festival effect, potential favorable regulatory developments (like the deepening implementation of the EU MiCA framework), and clarity in macro data (such as the warming expectations of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve), trading activity is expected to rebound.

2) Exchange listing frequency contracts, high transparency projects favored

Due to the continued downturn in the cryptocurrency market and many project employees and investors in Chinese-speaking regions entering a state of low activity during the Spring Festival holiday, the number of new token issuances this month has also reached a new low. According to RootData statistics, the number of new tokens launched on top exchanges this month totaled 10-15, with a cumulative launch of 28 tokens (stablecoins and tokenized stocks not included), with new launches ranging from 2 to 14 tokens per exchange.

Among them, both Binance and OKX launched only 2 new tokens, while exchanges like Kraken, Gate, and Coinbase launched several existing tokens, such as CFG, TAO, HYPE, SKR, etc., but significantly reduced compared to previous months, all resulting in very limited stimulation of trading sentiment among users.

Analyzing these newly listed tokens from the exchanges shows that 82% of tokens had transparency scores above 60%, and 43% had transparency scores above 80%, with only 2 tokens scoring below 40%. This indicates that highly transparent tokens are more likely to gain favor and trust from exchanges, as high transparency signifies that the project places great importance on its users and community and is willing to invest in long-term development.

3) Increased mergers and acquisitions among exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region, traditional financial giants entering the market

In February, the number of mergers and acquisitions in the cryptocurrency exchange sector significantly increased, with Asia-Pacific exchanges like Korbit, Coinhako, and Independent Reserve being acquired by traditional financial giants. This reflects the accelerating layout of compliance cryptocurrency assets by traditional financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region against the backdrop of clearer regulations and improved market maturity, seeking to quickly enter the digital asset market through acquiring mature licensed exchanges, bridging traditional finance with blockchain infrastructure, and capturing growth opportunities in tokenized securities, stablecoins, and institutional-level digital asset services.

In 2025, cryptocurrency exchanges like Bullish, Gemini, Kraken, and Hashkey Group have successively gone public through IPOs, raising billions of dollars, thus creating an exit path for exchanges in the sector, making exchanges one of the important choices for financial investments by traditional financial giants.

On February 4, global CFD trading giant IG Group announced the completion of its acquisition of the Australian crypto trading platform Independent Reserve, which has been approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. On February 13, Mirae Asset Group announced that it had spent 133.5 billion Korean won (approximately $93.82 million) to acquire 92.06% of the shares in the Korean cryptocurrency exchange Korbit through its subsidiary Mirae Asset Consulting.

On February 17, Japan's financial group SBI Holdings announced plans to acquire a majority stake in Singapore’s cryptocurrency exchange Coinhako to further deepen its layout in the cryptocurrency field.

3. Major Exchange Case Studies and Analysis

1) Binance

In February, Binance exchange's spot trading volume was $319.8 billion, a month-on-month decrease of 19.7%, the largest drop among major exchanges. This anomaly reflects that, besides the weak market conditions, Binance may have also been significantly affected by the public relations crisis from last month.

In January, Binance's irresponsible performance during the 1011 incident provoked criticism from many industry media and KOLs, and its risk control mechanism under extreme market conditions was particularly questioned, potentially leading to the migration of many institutional clients.

This month, Binance added only two spot assets, ESP and ZAMA, to the spot market, but launched five token trading pairs including ROMO, OPN, AZTEC, ESP, TRIA, and eight tokenized stock trading pairs like COIN and CRCL in the derivatives market, reflecting Binance's strategy to attract more users and trading volume through traditional financial products.

On the compliance front, Binance's co-CEO Richard Teng revealed this month that the exchange has applied to the Greek regulatory authority for operational licensing under the EU's Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation.

In terms of traffic, Binance performed best this month in emerging markets like Russia and South Korea, with total visits exceeding 5.27 million, significantly leading other cryptocurrency exchanges.

2) OKX

In February, OKX exchange's spot trading volume was $60.5 billion, a month-on-month increase of 4.3%, making it one of the few cryptocurrency exchanges with increased trading volume.

This month, OKX continued to maintain its low-frequency listing strategy, adding only two assets, CC and ZAMA, to the spot market, and also launched AZTEC, ESP, ROBO, and OPN in the derivatives market.

On February 26, OKX officially launched stock perpetual contract features in selected supported countries/regions, joining the competition for tokenized stocks, thus all major cryptocurrency exchanges now support tokenized stock trading functionalities.

3) Coinbase

In February, Coinbase exchange's spot trading volume was $70.2 billion, a month-on-month increase of 2.3%, making it one of the cryptocurrency exchanges with increased trading volume.

In terms of new listings, Coinbase introduced new coins like ROBO, ZAMA, AZTEC, ESP, and existing coins such as DEEP, UP, and HYPE, with the 12 new coins ranking second among leading exchanges, and all token transparency scores above 60%, indicating that Coinbase is using an active listing strategy to attract more users.

In terms of website traffic, Coinbase performed relatively well in emerging markets such as Turkey and Russia, but overall traffic remained significantly lower than that of exchanges like Binance and Gate, primarily because Coinbase focuses mainly on compliant markets in Europe and America.

This month, Coinbase released its financial report for Q4 and the full year of 2025, recording a net loss of $667 million, with total revenue of $1.78 billion, a month-on-month decline of 5% and a year-on-year decline of about 22%. The total trading volume for the year 2025 grew by 156% year-on-year, and its market share in cryptocurrency trading doubled to about 6.4%.

4) Gate

In February, Gate exchange's spot trading volume was $70.8 billion, a month-on-month decrease of 11.7%, slightly larger than the overall decline in the cryptocurrency market.

Regarding new listings, Gate launched 8 new cryptocurrencies in the spot market this month including PACT, AZTEC, ESP, CRYPTOBURG, RNBW, ELON, BIRB, and ZAMA, a decrease of 14 compared to the previous month. In terms of website traffic, Gate performed generally well this month in emerging crypto markets like South Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Turkey, with total visits reaching 2.46 million, but traffic from markets such as Russia and Vietnam declined by more than 20% month-on-month.

This month, Gate announced that it has obtained a payment institution (PI) license granted by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), laying the foundation for conducting compliant stablecoin and payment services within the European Union. Gate also announced the launch of the Gate Booster promotional tasks and incentive platform, targeting crypto industry KOLs, content creators, and community builders, connecting quality promotional resources with Gate ecological projects through a standardized task mechanism and incentive system.

Other notable developments from exchanges this month:

• Kraken announced the launch of regulated perpetual futures contracts based on tokenized stocks. These products target qualified non-US users in over 110 countries/regions, tracking digital versions of major US stocks, indices, and gold ETFs, built upon xStocks' tokenized stock products.
• Kraken announced the launch of a crypto asset staking loan service called "Flexline," allowing Kraken Pro traders to obtain liquidity using existing digital assets as collateral without selling their holdings.
• Gemini announced a 25% workforce reduction (up to 200 employees) and withdrawal from the European market; shortly after, its COO, Marshall Beard, CFO, Dan Chen, and Chief Legal Officer, Tyler Meade, all left the company.
• Crypto.com announced this month that it has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the United States to apply for a federal charter for a national bank. This approval will enable Crypto.com to provide digital asset custody and staking services under a federal regulatory framework.
• KuCoin launched KuCoin Feed 2.0 and KuCoin Live, aimed at connecting real-time market discussions with professional-level trading execution capabilities within the KuCoin App.

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