Top 5 Centralized Crypto Exchanges’ Market Share in the US

Which Crypto Exchange has the Biggest Market Share in the US?

Publicly-listed Coinbase is the dominant player among centralized cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States of America, with a 76.2% market share as of March 2023, according to web traffic data. This was down by 0.6 percentage points from the previous month, as competitors Binance.US and Kraken regained market share, but still represents a 0.7 percentage point increase compared to a year ago.

Coinbase was served a Wells notice by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 22, 2023, which is a warning that the regulator will pursue enforcement actions against the company. The move came amid an escalation in the US regulatory crackdown on crypto, following the high profile collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange FTX in November 2022.

Coinbase was founded by Brian Armstrong in 2012 and has maintained a strong lead in the US market, where the exchange is incorporated. Throughout the market fluctuations and major collapses in the past year, Coinbase recorded an average of 76.3% market share – in other words, around 3 out of every 4 US crypto investors use Coinbase.

Binance Market Share in the US

The more globally-oriented Binance was founded in 2017 by ‘CZ’ Changpeng Zhao and has emerged as the crypto exchange with the highest trading volumes worldwide. Binance launched its US subsidiary in 2019 and since then, Binance.US has grown to become the second biggest crypto exchange in the country, at 8.3% share of web traffic last month. Binance.US serves around 0.67 million US users.

Binance.US saw its US market share increase by 0.3 percentage points in March 2023, against the backdrop of the US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) lawsuit filed that month. Earlier in February, Binance.US had recorded a 1.3 percentage point rise in market share, despite the SEC’s order for Binance USD (BUSD) issuer Paxos to halt the stablecoin.

Over the past year, Binance.US has managed to capture a larger share of the American market, with a 1.7 percentage point gain. As a result, Binance.US replaced former second place Crypto.com in June 2022 and has maintained its position to date.

Crypto.com Market Share in the US

Crypto.com is currently the third largest crypto exchange in the US, with a 6.0% market share in March 2023, based on web traffic data. This represented a 0.2 percentage point decrease from the previous month, and an overall 2.8 percentage point drop from last year. Crypto.com has lost ground in the US market, despite being the only one among the top 5 US crypto exchanges that has not faced SEC or CFTC regulatory actions yet.

The Singapore-based company was founded in 2016 and only launched its exchange in 2019. Crypto.com became more widely known in America after its publicity activities, including buying the naming rights to the Los Angeles arena formerly known as Staples Center and the ‘Fortune Favors the Brave’ advertisement featuring movie star Matt Damon.

Crypto.com saw its US market share dip to a 13-month low of 4.9% in August 2022, but recovered to 6.1% in the next month. When FTX collapsed in November 2022, Crypto.com’s web traffic market share rose to 6.4% as the crypto community speculated that it would be among those caught in the contagion next. 

Kraken Market Share in the US

Kraken is the fourth largest crypto exchange in the US and holds 5.4% market share by web traffic as of March 2023, or an increase of 0.6 percentage points from the month before. Kraken has grown its market share by 2.1 percentage points compared to last year, overtaking Gemini in February 2023. This came as Kraken settled charges from the SEC in the same month, by shutting down its crypto staking operations and paying $30 million.

Kraken was founded in 2011 in the US, by Jesse Powell and Thanh Luu. Despite being a pioneer, Kraken is a relatively smaller player among the top 5 crypto exchanges, and recorded the lowest market share in the past 13 months at 3.3% in March 2022.

Gemini Market Share in the US

Gemini ranks as the fifth largest crypto exchange in the US, with a 4.1% market share by web traffic as of March 2023. This represents a 0.1 percentage point dip from the previous month, and a 1.7 percentage point decrease from a year ago. 

Gemini’s shrinking position in the US market comes after the SEC charged the US-based company in January 2023, over its Gemini Earn program which had been suspended in the wake of FTX’s collapse. Gemini had previously come under regulatory intervention in June 2022, when the CFTC filed charges over its bitcoin futures product.

Gemini held a 6.7% share of the US market in April 2022, its highest in the past 13 months. It lost market share in the subsequent months, briefly rebounding during the FTX fiasco before falling for four consecutive months to date.

Methodology

The study examined the monthly market share by web traffic for the top 5 US crypto exchanges – binance.us, coinbase.com, crypto.com, kraken.com and gemini.com – based on Similarweb data from March 2022 to March 2023.

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Curious to find out more about our previous research studies? Check out this one we did on how much the SEC has charged celebrities so far, as US regulators crack down on crypto.