Crypto platform Bullish climbs past Coinbase to become third-largest crypto exchange by spot volume

Crypto platform Bullish (BLSH) climbed into the top three centralized crypto exchanges by spot trading volume for the first time in February, overtaking Coinbase (COIN), according to CoinDesk Data’s February Exchange Review.

“Crypto platform Bullish climbs past Coinbase to become third-largest crypto exchange by spot volume The institutional-focused exchange saw spot trading jump 62% to $76 billion in February, surpassing Coinbase’s market share”

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Spot trading volumes on Bullish, which operates an institutional-only crypto exchange business and is the parent company of CoinDesk, rose 62.6% month over month to $76 billion, the exchange’s highest monthly total since October 2025.

@coindesk

The surge lifted Bullish’s market share to 5.06%, up 2.04 percentage points, making it the third-largest centralized exchange by spot trading volume.

The increase pushed Bullish, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange last year, ahead of Coinbase, which held a 4.59% share of the spot market during the month.

The article’s opening summary described the jump as 62% to $76 billion, a slight discrepancy with the 62.6% figure reported later in the text.

Overall activity on centralized exchanges declined in February even as Bullish rose in the rankings.

Combined spot and derivatives trading volumes fell 2.41% in February to $5.61 trillion, the lowest level recorded since October 2024, the report said.

@coindesk

The slowdown coincided with subdued volatility in major cryptocurrencies; the article notes heavy volatility in the first and last weeks of February but the sentence about bitcoin is incomplete in the source and does not report the full outcome.

Spot trading accounted for $1.50 trillion of the total, down 3.01% from January, while derivatives trading fell 2.41% to $4.11 trillion and remained dominant, accounting for 73.2% of all trading on centralized exchanges.

Binance remained the dominant exchange by a wide margin, recording $331 billion in spot trading volume during February, which represents about 22% market share.

“Crypto platform Bullish climbs past Coinbase to become third-largest crypto exchange by spot volume The institutional-focused exchange saw spot trading jump 62% to $76 billion in February, surpassing Coinbase’s market share”

@coindesk

The report said Binance’s dominance declined to its lowest monthly level since October 2020, a change the article frames as evidence that trading activity is becoming more distributed across competing platforms.

Bullish’s rise highlights shifting dynamics among centralized exchanges amid intensifying competition.

The article says exchanges are increasingly competing on liquidity, trading incentives, and new product offerings to attract traders during periods of slower market activity.

@coindesk

It adds that some exchanges have partnered with major U.S. stock exchanges to offer tokenized securities or have launched prediction market trading.