concentration

According to a research report published by RootData Research, the total trading volume of mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges in the TradFi sector surpassed $1.3 trillion in the first half of 2026, nearly a tenfold increase compared to the entire year of 2025, with TradFi derivatives accounting for over 98%, becoming the core engine driving the explosive growth of the sector.The exchange landscape is shifting from "unipolar concentration" to multipolar competition. Binance, while maintaining a leading position in the TradFi sector with a cumulative share of 68.3%, saw its monthly trading volume share decline from 78.8% at the beginning of the year to 58.2% in August. Meanwhile, second-tier exchanges such as OKX, Gate, and Hyperliquid are rapidly expanding, with market shares of 18.2%, 10.7%, and 9.9% respectively in August.In the core submarket of stock derivatives, entering August, Binance still dominated with an average daily trading volume of $14.927 billion; OKX established an advantage in trading costs with the industry's lowest spread of 0.0091%, achieving a comprehensive score tied for second with Gate. Gate has recently shown independent growth, recording four consecutive months of triple-digit month-on-month growth from May to August, and in mid-August, its ±2% weighted depth ranked first in the industry for 11 consecutive trading days. The competitive logic of the TradFi sector may be shifting from a battle for traffic to a competition across comprehensive dimensions such as position size, market depth, trading costs, and variety coverage.

Vaults.fyi released the report "2026 DeFi Custody Market Status," covering 856 vaults, 131 custodians, and 18 protocols, with a total locked value of approximately $11.29 billion. Over the past year, the TVL on the supply side of DeFi decreased by 41.8%, while the TVL of custody vaults grew by 39%, increasing market share from 5.24% to 12.51%. The top 5 custodians manage 69% of the funds, and the top 10 account for 79.1%. The leading landscape has changed dramatically, with Sentora and Concrete not making the list a year ago, now ranking second and fourth, respectively, while Usual dropped from fourth to thirty-fourth.Morpho ranks first among protocols with a custody TVL of 46.2%, with the remaining 53.8% distributed across the other 17 protocols. Bitcoin collateral accounts for 54.1% of Morpho's top 25 stablecoin vaults (approximately $3.71 billion). In terms of address concentration, weighted by TVL, a single address holds an average of 47% of vault shares, with the top ten addresses collectively controlling 74%. About 33% of the custody funds require a multi-step redemption process, with a 7-day annualized yield median of 4.82%, which is 98 basis points higher than instant redemption vaults.The report also points out that traditional financial institutions such as Société Générale, Apollo, and JPMorgan have begun to deploy custody vault strategies.

Analyst Murphy stated that the BTC supply concentration has risen to 14.8%, approaching the high-risk zone of 15%. The risk here refers to volatility rather than the direction of price changes; the supply concentration itself does not indicate direction.Murphy noted that based on historical data, a pattern has been observed: when the supply concentration curve begins to turn downward, if the BTC price has been rising beforehand, the probability of continuing to rise afterward is greater; conversely, if it has been falling, the probability of continuing to fall is greater. However, the supply concentration is still on the rise and has not yet turned, so it is currently impossible to determine which direction the probability of movement will be greater after the turn. What can be confirmed is that risk is accumulating and volatility is brewing.

Crypto analyst Murphy stated that the concentration of Bitcoin chips has risen to 14.8%, approaching a historically high-risk area. The concentration of chips itself cannot determine the future direction of BTC prices, but historical data shows that when the curve begins to turn, if BTC prices have risen previously, the probability of continuing to rise is greater; conversely, the probability of continuing to fall is greater.Currently, this indicator is still in an upward phase, so it is temporarily impossible to determine the direction of the next round of fluctuations. However, market data shows that as the concentration of chips continues to increase, potential volatility risks are accumulating, and the BTC market may face larger price changes.

Crypto analyst Murphy stated that the Bitcoin URPD (UTXO Realized Price Distribution) data shows that there are 890,000 coins concentrated at the $63,000 level and 710,000 coins at the $62,000 level, together accounting for about 8% of the circulating supply, which is significantly higher than usual.Murphy believes that this data is similar to the concentration seen just before the FTX incident in 2022. The high concentration increases Bitcoin's price sensitivity, making it prone to sharp fluctuations, ultimately leading to violent redistribution, which could be an important directional choice at the end of a bear market.In response, Jiang Zhuoer commented that if the CLARITY Act cannot be passed before Congress goes into recess, Bitcoin may complete its final drop to the bear market bottom.

According to on-chain data platform Santiment, the group of addresses holding at least 1,000 bitcoins has seen its total holdings rebound to approximately 7.17 million BTC, accounting for about 35.82% of the circulating supply of bitcoin, the highest level since March 14. Currently, the number of addresses corresponding to this holding range is about 2,044, indicating that the overall holdings of large bitcoin holders have recently increased, and on-chain assets are further concentrating towards a few large addresses.

Binance Research stated that the recent weakening of the cryptocurrency market may not be due to the cryptocurrency assets themselves, but rather due to the high concentration of funds in the U.S. stock market. It pointed out that the CBOE Discrete Index rose to 42, the third highest in history, reflecting the concentration of funds within the S&P 500 index towards a few popular themes, which has marginalized Bitcoin.

According to Jinshi reports, driven by optimistic sentiment towards AI and strong earnings reports, both the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq have reached all-time highs. However, this round of increase clearly lacks breadth, with most of the gains primarily contributed by large tech stocks. UBS analysts pointed out that in the six weeks ending May 15, the lead of the market-cap weighted S&P 500 index over the equal-weighted S&P 500 index reached the largest margin in at least 35 years. UBS recommends that investors reduce overly concentrated positions and guard against concentration risk.

Ondo Finance announced on platform X that its total locked value (TVL) of tokenized stocks has surpassed $1.5 billion and continues to show a growth trend. In its Ondo Global Markets, the five most actively traded assets currently include: Circle tokenized assets, S&P 500 ETF, Micron Technology, NVIDIA, and the tokenized version of BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).Data shows that these five asset classes account for approximately 25% of the tokenized stock sector, reflecting that the market is rapidly concentrating towards a "U.S. stocks + ETFs + crypto assets" mixed structure, and continuously expanding the on-chain mapping scale of the traditional U.S. stock market.

Cardano whales currently hold nearly 67% of the total supply of ADA, the highest concentration since 2020.

According to monitoring by Hyperinsight, in the past half hour, three major long BTC addresses on Hyperliquid simultaneously executed liquidations, creating a total of 776 BTC sell orders, worth approximately 62 million USD, with an average liquidation price around 79,880 USD, indicating that the positions were close to breakeven.It is reported that the funding sources of the three addresses can all be traced back to on-chain transfers from the HitBTC trading platform, and the on-chain transfer records are highly synchronized with trading activities, suspected to belong to the same whale.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, manipulators withdrew 1,369,000 $SIREN from the Binance Alpha wallet in the past 6 hours, worth 2.45 million dollars, with the current chip concentration exceeding 93%.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich posted on the X platform, stating that the benefits of productivity booms are almost entirely flowing to the owners of computation and capital, rather than to workers or governments. He said, "Every company holding cash or bonds is extracting from a system where the tax base is disappearing, and the system's response will be to print money. This trend is accelerating."Simon Gerovich further emphasized that AI agents do not have bank accounts or brand loyalty, and when machines optimize the financial system, they will bypass traditional banking systems and payment networks, opting to use digital assets for transactions. When it comes to storing value, AI will not park in money market funds but will hold digital capital—especially Bitcoin. As the AI economy expands, digital assets may become the primary means of value storage in the machine age.

According to on-chain analyst Murphy (@Murphychen888), the concentration of chips within a 5% range of the BTC spot price has reached 13.3%, exceeding the warning line. Data shows that when this indicator exceeds 13%, the price of Bitcoin may experience significant volatility, especially when the indicator rises above 15%, entering a high-risk zone.

On-chain data analyst Murphy stated, "The concentration of BTC chips is an effective observation for a potential 'volatility' warning indicator. When the concentration of chips rises above 13% within a 5% range of the current spot price, it enters the alert zone, and above 15% is considered a high-risk zone; the more concentrated the chips, the greater the probability and magnitude of the resulting volatility.A high concentration of chips only warns of volatility, not direction. Currently, the concentration of BTC chips is at 11%, which is on the higher side of medium, and has not yet entered the alert zone above 13%. Therefore, the probability of triggering significant volatility at this time is not high, at least from the perspective of chip structure, it does not meet the conditions for forming a 'chain reaction.'Next, the market will also focus on the CPI data to be released on the evening of the 18th at 21:30, as well as the interest rate decision from the Bank of Japan on the 19th. My personal judgment is that as long as it is not significantly beyond expectations, the impact on the market should remain within the range of 'slight fluctuations,' and will not be as drastic as on August 5th of last year (with a chip concentration of 15% before August 5, 2024)."

ChainCatcher news, according to statistics from the Web3 asset data platform RootData, the crypto primary financing market completed a total financing amount of $7.75 billion in the first half of 2025, an increase of 40.17% year-on-year and 77.75% quarter-on-quarter. In March alone, $2.895 billion was raised, with Binance completing $2 billion in financing. If we exclude the impact of this financing, the average monthly financing amount in the first half of the year remained around $950 million, with an average financing amount of $12.419 million and a median of $5.425 million.In terms of the number of financing events, there were a total of 463 financing events in the first half of the year, averaging 77 events per month, a decrease of 49.72% year-on-year and 26.27% quarter-on-quarter. In the financing track, CeFi led with $2.719 billion, surpassing the previously popular infrastructure track ($1.87 billion).It is noteworthy that merger and acquisition events reached 66, an increase of 60.9% compared to the 41 events in the second half of 2024. Additionally, crypto-related publicly listed companies like Circle and Sol Strategies raised a total of $2.233 billion. Both types of financing data set historical records.The most active institutions in the first half of the year were Coinbase Ventures, a16z, and Amber Group, each participating more than 20 times. Following them were institutions such as Animoca Brands, GSR, Selini Capital, 1kx, and Mirana Ventures. The most active angel investors were Raj Gokal, Sam Kazemian, and Balaji Srinivasan.Overall, the financing amount in the crypto primary financing market significantly increased in the first half of 2025, but the number of events continued to decline compared to previous years, showing characteristics such as the concentration of large financings, increased M&A activities, and changes in track preferences, while more funds began to shift towards the more liquid secondary stock market.

ChainCatcher news, Binance officially launched two brand new features: "Locked Address" and "Holding Concentration Indicator." This is the first time such token information features have been introduced by a mainstream exchange, reflecting Binance's ongoing commitment to enhancing platform transparency and strengthening user education. After obtaining more information related to token economic models, users can further optimize their trading decisions. The related transparency features also help project teams improve their openness and accountability, thereby interacting more effectively with the community and promoting the healthy development of the crypto industry.Binance co-founder He Yi stated, "We have always adhered to a user-centric approach, continuously promoting the enhancement of market transparency. The Locked Address and Holding Concentration Indicator features are our response to the community's demand for higher transparency and better tools, helping users better understand the tokens they are trading. We also hope that through these efforts, we can enhance the integrity of the entire market and guide the industry towards a healthier and more sustainable direction."

ChainCatcher message, Glassnode posted on social media, "During the period from the end of December 2024 to February 2025, there has been strong accumulation in the $96,000 to $98,000 range. While some addresses within these price ranges are reallocating their BTC, this supply cluster remains very dense------if we return to this level again, it could become a strong resistance level."

ChainCatcher news, according to News.bitcoin, the growth of crypto developers is slowing down in 2024, but the long-term trend remains strong. While new developers are entering the crypto space, the total number of developers working in the industry in 2024 has slightly decreased compared to the previous year. Asia has replaced North America as the region with the highest concentration of crypto developers, with India gradually becoming a key player in this space. Additionally, the number of senior crypto developers (those with two years or more of experience) has significantly increased, indicating that the ecosystem is maturing.