The buying, selling, and exchange of cryptocurrencies, tokens, and other blockchain-based assets through centralised exchanges, decentralised protocols, and over-the-counter markets using various order types, trading strategies, and execution mechanisms to achieve price discovery and liquidity.
Semantic Classification
Content
Technical Details
- Trading Venues:
- Centralized exchanges (CEX): Order book matching, custody
- Decentralized exchanges (DEX): AMM pools, on-chain settlement
- OTC desks: Large block trades, negotiated pricing
- Dark pools: Institutional anonymous trading
- Order Types:
- Market orders: Immediate execution at best price
- Limit orders: Execution at specified price or better
- Stop orders: Triggered execution at threshold
- TWAP/VWAP: Time/volume-weighted execution
- Market Structure (2025–2026):
- Global crypto spot trading volumes remain substantial; DEX processed $4.9 trillion in spot volume during 2025
- Derivatives volume continues to exceed spot markets
- DEX share reached 12.6% of total market in 2025, with a peak of 21.2% DEX-to-CEX ratio in November 2025; Solana DEXs captured 30.6% of all DEX volume in Q1 2026
- Institutional trading infrastructure maturing with regulated venues and custody solutions
- Key Exchanges: Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Uniswap, dYdX
Applications
- Retail cryptocurrency investing
- Institutional trading operations
- Arbitrage and market making
- Hedging and risk management
- Algorithmic strategy execution