A new report reveals a clear divide in how major cryptocurrency exchanges utilize user assets. Institutional-focused platforms like Binance and Kraken show low trading turnover, indicating assets are primarily held. Meanwhile, retail-centric exchanges and those with smaller reserves exhibit much higher asset velocity, pointing to more active trading. Overall, total reserves held across the top exchanges grew by nearly 70% from 2024 to early 2026.
Institutional platforms, including Binance and Kraken, reveal lower turnover, meaning assets are primarily held rather than traded. Retail-focused exchanges use a larger share of their reserves for trading than platforms that are institution-focused.
Exchanges with a stronger institutional focus, such as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, maintain relatively low volume-to-reserve ratios of around 0.1. This indicates that deposits are largely held rather than actively traded.
According to the latest report, platforms serving more retail traders, including Bybit and Bitget, record higher ratios of 0.3 and 0.5 on average. Crypto exchanges with smaller reserve bases, such as MEXC, HTX, and KuCoin, show high asset velocity ranging from 1.44 to 2.04.
The total value of assets held across the top 12 centralized platforms rose by nearly 70%, increasing from $152.1 billion to $225.4 billion by February 2026. Eight exchanges recorded net growth during this period, and Binance led as its reserves doubled.
Coinbase continues to hold the largest Bitcoin reserves of more than 800,000 BTC, followed by Binance. Despite this, Coinbase has witnessed significant outflows in both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Part of these funds appears to have moved to smaller platforms, as Bitget and MEXC recorded sharp increases in reserve value. The report also observed weak post-listing performance across major exchanges.
Only about 32% of newly listed tokens trade above their listing price within the first 30 days. Upbit stands out with the strongest early performance, where roughly 67% of listings remain in profit.
Next up are Binance and OKX, both at around 50%. However, gains tend to fade quickly, with only about a quarter of tokens remaining in positive territory between 30 and 60 days.
Coinbase has emerged as an exception after seeing some tokens recover after six months. By the end of one year, fewer than 10% of listed assets on most exchanges remain above their initial listing price.
