Crypto Perpetual Contract Trading Cools: CEX Monthly Trading Volume Drops to Lowest Since Late 2023

Odaily News The heat of leveraged trading in the crypto market continues to decline. Data shows that in July 2026, the trading volume of crypto perpetual futures on centralized exchanges (CEX) fell to $4 trillion, the lowest level since December 2023. The data indicates that perpetual contract trading volume briefly recovered between April and June this year, but declined across major trading platforms in July.

As the perpetual contract market cools, spot trading activity has also decreased. According to Coinglass data, between July 1 and July 31, the average daily global crypto spot trading volume fell from $17.8 billion to $13.6 billion, a decline of 23.6%.

The perpetual contract market on decentralized exchanges (DEX) has also shown weakness. DeFiLlama data shows that DEX perpetual contract trading volume fell to $531 billion in July, the lowest level since June 2025, down approximately 21% from $676 billion in June 2026.

Looking at the longer-term trend, DEX perpetual trading volume has continued to decline since reaching a peak of $1.36 trillion in October 2025. Meanwhile, the Open Interest in DEX perpetual contracts has also dropped from a high of $19.4 billion in September 2025 to $17.9 billion in July.

Market analysts believe that the decline in perpetual contract trading volume reflects reduced investor risk appetite and the retreat of leveraged capital. However, the growth of emerging asset classes such as RWA could become an important growth direction for the on-chain derivatives market in the next phase. (Cointelegraph)