Crypto spot volume drops to $15B as liquidity thins across exchanges

The crypto market is running on fumes. Average daily spot trading volume across 44 monitored exchanges sank to roughly $15B last week, the lowest reading of 2026 and a 70% decline from the peaks hit back in January, according to data from analytics firm Kaiko highlighted by The Kobeissi Letter. Where the volume actually lives More than 60% of that $15B in daily spot volume is concentrated on just six exchanges. That means the vast majority of crypto’s trading infrastructure is sitting idle, while a handful of platforms carry the load. The decline hasn’t been sudden, either. Average daily volume has dropped roughly 50% since December 2025, when it hovered around $20B. Decentralized venues aren’t picking up the slack One might expect traders to migrate to decentralized exchanges during periods of centralized exchange uncertainty. That hasn’t happened. DEX volume has also fallen to multi-year lows, according to the same Kaiko data, suggesting the problem isn’t about where people are trading. It’s that fewer people are trading at all. One-day liquidations reached $246.82M. When liquidity dries up, leveraged positions become more vulnerable. Smaller price moves can trigger cascading liq...