What is the Largest Decentralized Crypto Exchange?
Uniswap is the largest decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), dominating 64.6% of the DEX market. It saw its trading volume dip to $29.5 billion in June 2023, representing a -10.5% month-on-month (MoM) drop, having recorded $32.9 billion in May 2023.
Curve is the second largest DEX, with an 11.5% market share and a spot trading volume of $5.2 billion in June 2023. This represents a 73.9% MoM growth, having recorded $3.0 billion in May 2023
PancakeSwap and Dodo come in as the third and fourth largest DEX, capturing 9.5% and 7.2% of market share, respectively. They recorded a spot trading volume of $4.3 billion and $3.3 billion in June 2023. This represents a -29.2% and 63.3% MoM growth, having recorded $6.1 billion and $2.0 billion in May 2023
The remaining top 10 competitors hold less than 2.0% market share each, with Quickswap at 1.8%, Jupiter at 1.5%, THORChain at 0.8%, Sushi at 0.7%, and Trader Joe at 0.3%.
Uniswap Market Share
Uniswap is the market leader among decentralized crypto exchanges, having had a 66.1% share of the total spot trading volume in 2023 Q2. This allowed it to maintain its dominance over the decentralized crypto exchange space. Its lowest market share in the year was in January 2023 when it had a 62.2% market share with $37.3 billion in volume. This climbed to a yearly high of 71.7% with $67.9 billion in volume during March 2023. However, between 2023 Q1 and Q2, Uniswap’s trading volume dropped -31.9% from $145.1 billion to $98.8 billion.
Uniswap was the largest contributor to the contraction of DEX volume between 2023 Q1 and Q2, which decreased by -30.8% for a total of $66.6 billion across the top 10 DEXs. During that period, volume fell from $216.0 billion to $149.4 billion. Meanwhile, Uniswap’s volume decreased by $46.3 billion, representing 69.6% of the overall market decrease.
From 2023 Q1 to Q2, Uniswap underperformed the market (-31.9% vs -30.8%). However, it ranked fifth in performance, behind Sushi (-76.2%), Balancer (-66.7%), TraderJoe (-51.6%), Curve (-36.9%), and THORChain (-35.5%).
Curve Regains Market Share
Known for its stablecoin swaps, Curve recorded an increase of market share to 11.5% with $5.2 billion of trading volume in June 2023. This represents a 73.9% MoM growth from May 2023, which recorded $3.0 billion in volume. However, between 2023 Q1 and Q2, Curve’s trading volume dropped -36.9%, from $21.9 billion to $13.9 billion. This is despite the release of its native stablecoin crvUSD (CRVUSD), which proved to be a non-event with no noticeable uptick in trading volume.
Curve’s dominance fell from a high of 14.0% in January 2023 when it recorded $8.4 billion in volume, to a low in May 2023, where it had 6.4% market share with $3.0 billion in volume.
PancakeSwap: The Only Gainer In Q2
PancakeSwap emerged as the best performer in 2023 Q2, chalking an impressive 48.1% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth despite overall DEX trading volume dropping -30.8%. It is the only decentralized exchange (DEX) that saw increased trading volume, rising from $11.3 billion to $16.8 billion between 2023 Q1 and Q2.
In contrast, Jupiter, the second-best performer, saw a -14.7% contraction from Q1 to Q2, highlighting PancakeSwap’s strength among DEXes.
PancakeSwap also solidified its presence, with its market share surging from 5.2% in 2023 Q1 to 11.2% of market share in Q2. The growth is attributable to its migration to v3, featuring lower fees and increased fee returns for liquidity providers.
Trader Joe & Sushi Decline
Trader Joe, which ended March 2023 as the seventh largest DEX with a 2.3% market share, has since fallen to tenth place with 0.3% in June 2023. Its trading volume QoQ contracted -51.6% from $4.01 billion to $1.94 billion between 2023 Q1 to Q2.
Similarly, Sushi ended March 2023 with a 2.3% market share in sixth place, before dropping to ninth at the end of June 2023 with a mere 0.7% market share. Trading volume on the exchange fell -76.2% QoQ, from $5.66 billion in Q1 to $1.35 billion in Q2. This makes Sushi the biggest loser amongst the top 10 decentralized exchanges.
Top 10 Decentralized Crypto Exchanges by Market Share (June 2023)
The market share of the top 10 DEXs by market share, as of June 2023:
| Rank | Decentralized Crypto Exchanges | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Uniswap | 64.6 |
| 2 | Curve | 11.5 |
| 3 | PancakeSwap | 9.5 |
| 4 | Dodo | 7.2 |
| 5 | Balancer | 2.2 |
| 6 | Quickswap | 1.8 |
| 7 | Jupiter | 1.5 |
| 8 | THORChain | 0.8 |
| 9 | Sushi | 0.7 |
| 10 | Trader Joe | 0.3 |
Methodology
The study examined the top 10 decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEXs) by spot trading volume, using CoinGecko data from January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023. The top 10 DEXs are: Uniswap, Curve, PancakeSwap, Dodo, Balancer, QuickSwap, Jupiter, THORChain, Sushi, and Trader Joe. Market share was based on total monthly spot trading volume.
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Curious to know more about the state of crypto in the second quarter of 2023? Check out our comprehensive 2023 Q2 Crypto Industry Report, which extensively covers everything from the crypto market landscape to analyzing Bitcoin and Ethereum, DeFi and NFT ecosystems, and more!
Shaun is a Research Analyst at CoinGecko, who has lived and breathed crypto since 2017. Previously a community manager for Synthetix and RedFOX, he dived down the crypto rabbit hole to grasp a better understanding of the industry. He now spends copious amounts of time on Crypto Twitter and Telegram, searching for the next idea for CoinGecko Research. Follow the author on Twitter @ShaunPaulLee
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