RootData: May 2026 Cryptocurrency Exchange Transparency Research Report

Author: Hu Tao, RootData

I. Transparency-Driven Cryptocurrency Exchange Rankings

In the May cryptocurrency exchange rankings compiled by RootData, Binance, Coinbase, OKX, Kraken, Gate, Upbit, HashKey Exchange, Crypto.com, Kucoin, and Bitget occupy the top 10 positions.

This ranking is based on RootData's rich data and integrates multiple indicators such as trading volume, reserve scale, coin listing performance, compliance, and transparency of various exchanges, while avoiding the impact of cheating behaviors like wash trading on the rankings, to objectively reflect the competitiveness and ranking of exchanges in the cryptocurrency market.

In this issue's rankings, the positions of major cryptocurrency exchanges have not changed significantly. Binance continues to hold the top position with the highest trading volume and wealth effect, while Coinbase has risen one place to fourth. HashKey Exchange, despite having lower trading volume, has entered the top ten for the first time due to its compliance and a transparency score of up to 86 points.

II. Overview of the Development Status of Cryptocurrency Exchanges in May

1. Cryptocurrency Market Trading Volume Declines for Five Consecutive Months

In May, the spot trading volume of cryptocurrency exchanges was $725.7 billion, a slight decrease of 2.2% compared to April. This marks the fifth consecutive month of decline since January, reflecting the overall trend of the market's sustained downturn.

At the beginning of the month, the cryptocurrency market briefly continued the slight upward trend of the previous months, with mainstream cryptocurrencies like BTC reaching new highs since the end of January, with BTC prices breaking through $82,000, and many tokens such as HYPE, ZEC, WLD, and ONDO seeing overall price increases exceeding 100%.

Market expectations for a new round of upward cycles began to heat up rapidly. However, this optimism did not last long. By mid-May, the market began to show a clear reversal. Bitcoin was the first to end its upward trend and enter a correction phase, followed by an expanding downward trend.

By the end of the month, in just a few trading days, Bitcoin's price quickly fell from around $75,000 to the $62,000 range, completely reversing the gains made in May and erasing most of the profits accumulated over the previous months. As prices fell, many altcoins saw their declines further amplify, market risk appetite rapidly cooled, and trading volume shrank in tandem.

The reasons for this market reversal are not due to a single event but rather the simultaneous release of multiple negative factors within the same time window.

Firstly, discussions about the security of crypto assets in the context of quantum computing continued to ferment in May. Several researchers in post-quantum cryptography and blockchain security indicated that AI is accelerating the development of quantum computing, forcing the crypto industry to reassess the reliability of existing security systems. Although the industry generally believes that quantum computing is still a long way from posing a real threat to mainstream blockchain networks, the related discussions have intensified some investors' risk-averse sentiments.

Secondly, the siphoning effect of traditional capital markets on funds has further intensified. Throughout May, technology sectors represented by AI, semiconductors, data centers, and storage chains continued to reach historical highs. Companies like Nvidia, AMD, and a series of AI infrastructure firms have been continuously attracting global capital inflows driven by performance and capital expenditure. In contrast, the cryptocurrency market lacks new core narratives, and whether it is Layer 1, public chains, DeFi, or meme sectors, none have managed to form sustained hotspots, leading to a shift of significant institutional funds towards more certain tech assets.

At the same time, changes in the ETF market have further weakened market confidence. As one of the important forces driving Bitcoin's rise over the past two years, cryptocurrency ETFs experienced continuous net outflows in May, signaling that institutional incremental funds are beginning to slow down. For the market, ETF funds not only represent real purchasing demand but also reflect institutional investors' judgments about future market trends. When this long-term support force begins to weaken, expectations for subsequent upward space also decline.

The most symbolic event came from changes in Strategy's actions. As one of Bitcoin's most steadfast buyers over the past few years, Strategy has long played the role of a market liquidity provider and confidence anchor. However, as the company began to sell part of its BTC holdings to meet funding needs, the market's faith in "infinite accumulation" showed signs of loosening for the first time. Although the scale of the sale is relatively small compared to its overall holdings, the signal it releases is far more significant than the actual selling pressure itself—when the industry's most steadfast long-term holders begin to shift towards selling, market sentiment is inevitably impacted.

Under the combined effects of tightening macro liquidity, tech stocks continuously siphoning off funds, weakened ETF demand, and industry confidence being shaken, the May cryptocurrency market ultimately ended its months-long rebound trend and returned to a downward channel.

For exchanges, the continuous decline in trading volume over five months reflects not just market cycle fluctuations but also that the traditional growth model of cryptocurrency asset trading is gradually reaching a bottleneck. When Bitcoin and altcoins struggle to continuously create new wealth effects, finding new tradable assets and new sources of growth has become the most urgent issue for the entire exchange industry. This has also directly driven the emergence of another key industry theme in May—the full outbreak of competition in the tokenization of U.S. stocks.

2. U.S. Stocks Become Core Strategy for Exchanges

In the context of a lack of strong trends in crypto-native assets, U.S. stocks are becoming a new battleground and even a core strategy for exchanges to compete for user trading frequency and fund retention. The core logic is not complicated: U.S. stocks possess the deepest liquidity globally, the most mature narrative system, and high-interest sectors such as AI, chips, military industry, and crypto concept stocks. As long as exchanges can integrate these assets into their systems, they can extend the time users' funds remain and upgrade "buy coin apps" to "cross-asset trading portals," thereby earning more trading fees and increasing capital market valuations.

Since May, several leading exchanges, including Binance, Bitget, and Gate, have announced or launched new U.S. stock-related products, covering various categories such as stock spot trading, ETFs, tokenized stocks, and perpetual contracts for stocks.

Among them, Binance's actions are the most representative. At the beginning of June, Binance opened trading for over 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs in the spot market and simultaneously launched the bStocks program, which will allow users to further map their stock holdings to on-chain assets in the future.

Bitget has chosen a route more characteristic of crypto-native features, with its Stocks 2.0 and Reality platforms focusing on tokenized stocks, achieving the circulation of stock assets within the crypto ecosystem through on-chain issuance, USDT settlement, and linkage with margin and yield products.

Gate, Bybit, BingX, and other exchanges are also actively laying out related tracks, competing for market share through perpetual contracts for stocks, on-chain stocks, and cross-market trading.

The essence of this round of competition is not merely to increase new trading varieties. The deeper significance lies in that cryptocurrency exchanges are attempting to upgrade from "digital asset trading platforms" to "global asset trading portals."

However, the trading functionality for U.S. stocks will also bring new compliance and product risks. Most tokenized stocks are closer to price mapping tools, and users typically do not directly enjoy traditional shareholder rights; different platforms have significant differences in underlying custody, price discovery, trading hours, dividend processing, and applicable jurisdictions. Future competition among exchanges will depend not only on "how many stocks are listed" but also on the proof of underlying assets, compliance boundaries, liquidity depth, and user protection mechanisms.

3. Capital Markets Frequently Bet on the Exchange Sector

In May, capital market interest in the exchange sector significantly increased, particularly concentrated in markets with relatively clear regulations or strong institutional demand, such as South Korea, Japan, the United States, and Hong Kong.

In the past, exchange revenues mainly came from spot and contract fees, but now stablecoins, custody, payments, RWA, stock trading, and institutional services are becoming new growth engines.

Especially against the backdrop of rapid development in U.S. stock tokenization and real-world assets (RWA), exchanges have evolved from mere trading venues to important infrastructures for asset issuance, liquidity management, and cross-market settlement. This transformation has also attracted a large influx of traditional financial capital back into the industry.

Moreover, the number of platforms globally that genuinely possess licensing resources, brand effects, and liquidity advantages is decreasing, leading to increasing industry concentration. For investment institutions, investing in leading exchanges is far more certain than investing in individual crypto projects.

South Korea is the most active region for exchange equity trading this month. Financial giants Samsung Securities and Hanwha Group have successively acquired over 8.55% of the shares in Upbit's parent company, Dunamu, enhancing their depth of layout in the digital asset field.

Additionally, Coinone received strategic investments from OKX Ventures and Korea Investment & Securities, while the South Korean payment solution WeHub announced the acquisition of the South Korean crypto exchange Flybit.

In the Japanese market, the country's second-largest telecom operator KDDI reached a strategic investment and business cooperation agreement with Coincheck Group, with KDDI subscribing to Coincheck's new shares for approximately $65 million, holding a 14.9% stake after the transaction. For Coincheck, KDDI's user reach capability helps lower the threshold for opening and using digital assets; for KDDI, Coincheck provides the infrastructure for entering digital assets, points investment, and potential Web3 financial services.

The Hong Kong-based crypto options trading platform SignalPlus completed a $50 million Series B funding round led by HashKey Capital this month, achieving a post-investment valuation of $500 million, and stated plans to transform into an institutional-grade multi-asset trading infrastructure provider.

Capital markets clearly believe that even if the overall growth of the crypto market slows, exchanges that master user entry points, liquidity networks, and compliance capabilities will still be one of the most valuable business models in the coming years.

III. Major Exchange Cases and Analysis

1. Binance

In May, Binance's spot trading volume was $250.4 billion, a slight decrease of 1.6% compared to the previous month, but the decline was significantly lower than most competitors, reflecting Binance's leading advantages in global liquidity networks, user scale, and asset coverage capabilities.

This month, Binance continued to maintain a low frequency of new coin listings, only launching three coins: OPG, GENIUS, and AIGENSY. However, on the asset page, Binance announced the launch of the DYOR research center, collaborating with platforms like RootData to provide all users with information on project teams, unlocks, on-chain dynamics, and more.

Amid the U.S. stock craze, Binance is currently focusing more on U.S. stock trading functionality, further accelerating its transformation from a cryptocurrency exchange to a comprehensive asset trading platform.

Following the launch of U.S. stock perpetual contract trading functionality and the listing of multiple tokenized U.S. stocks issued by Ondo, Binance officially announced the launch of U.S. stock trading functionality on June 1, opening spot trading services for over 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETF products to users in certain regions. Users can not only complete transactions directly through stablecoins but also achieve fragmented holdings and participate in the market around the clock.

Additionally, regarding the team, Binance's CMO Rachel Conlan announced she would be leaving in June, and former Trust Wallet CEO Eowyn Chen will serve as interim CMO.

2. Coinbase

As the largest compliant cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., Coinbase also faced challenges from declining market activity in May. This month, Coinbase's spot trading volume was $44.7 billion, a slight decrease of 4.7% compared to the previous month.

This month, Coinbase launched six new coins: MetaDAO (META), Derive (DRV), Citrea (CTR), Nexus (NEX), Wrapped Ronin (WRON), and KAIO (KAIO).

More noteworthy than the new tokens is Coinbase's further exploration in the field of traditional financial assets. This month, Coinbase launched perpetual contract products related to gold, silver, and several U.S. stocks for the first time, marking one of its most important product expansion moves in recent years. As more exchanges begin to lay out trading of stocks, ETFs, and commodities as on-chain assets, the boundaries between traditional financial markets and the cryptocurrency market are rapidly blurring, and Coinbase is also beginning to seek new growth spaces within this trend.

However, unlike exchanges like Binance, Bitget, and Gate that directly launched tokenized stock products, Coinbase remains relatively cautious in this area. This is closely related to its long-standing compliance approach in the U.S. In the context of the U.S. securities regulatory framework not being fully clarified, Coinbase prefers to enter the market through derivatives, brokerage services, and partnerships with traditional financial institutions rather than directly providing large-scale U.S. stock trading functionality.

While this strategy limits its expansion speed in the U.S. stock tokenization craze in the short term, it also reduces potential regulatory risks and aligns with its increasingly strengthened institutional strategy.

This strategy saw significant progress at the end of May. Coinbase announced that it has become a futures commission merchant (FCM) regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, officially providing U.S. institutional clients with access to the global cryptocurrency derivatives market. For Coinbase, this not only means it can directly serve professional investors such as hedge funds, asset management institutions, and large trading firms but also marks an enhancement of its position within the U.S. financial regulatory system.

3. Upbit

In May, Upbit's spot trading volume was $31.3 billion, a slight decrease of 7.6% compared to the previous month, with its decline being more pronounced among mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges, reflecting a more evident downturn in the South Korean cryptocurrency market compared to the overall market.

This month, Upbit launched a total of eight coins: Solstice (SLX), io.net (IO), OriginTrail (TRAC), Irys (IRYS), Superform (UP2), Venice (VVV), Pharos (PROS), and dogwifhat (WIF), more than half of which are assets issued over six months ago.

Upbit's operator Dunamu disclosed this month that its consolidated revenue for Q1 2026 is approximately $157 million, a year-on-year decrease of 55%; operating profit is approximately $59 million, a year-on-year decrease of 78%; and net profit is approximately $46.6 million, a year-on-year decrease of 78%.

However, in stark contrast to the weak operating data, capital market interest in Dunamu has not diminished. Samsung Securities and Hanwha Financial Group respectively acquired 2% and 6.55% of Dunamu's shares this month, valuing it at $10.2 billion.

For institutions like Samsung Securities and Hanwha Financial, what they may be focusing on is not Dunamu's current profitability, but rather its core entry position in the South Korean digital asset market and the potential value in new business areas such as securities tokenization, stablecoin payments, and digital asset custody.