Uniswap's April Gain Ignites Debate over Strength of Decentralized Exchanges

Spot trading volume across major exchanges fell 6.2% in April compared to March, while derivatives trading volume dropped 9%, according to a new report by Wu Blockchain, a China-based crypto analysis platform. 

According to the report, Uniswap’s monthly spot volume rose, albeit mildly, 0.2% to roughly $31.4bn, making it the only exchange in the green during the month. Uniswap is the largest DEX operating on the Ethereum blockchain, with a total value locked (TVL) of over $3.5bn.

In contrast, Binance, the world’s largest exchange by spot volume, saw trading activity fall 2.3% to about $265.6bn. No. 2 Coinbase’s spot volume dropped 6.9% to $45.8bn, while OKX posted a steeper 12.2% decline to $44.5bn.

The findings come as the broader crypto market has cooled significantly from late-2025 highs. Total crypto market capitalization fell to $2.8tn from $4.2tn in October 2025.  

Meanwhile, TVL across decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols has dropped to $85bn from $171bn over the same period, according to DefiLlama data.

An ongoing debate

The figures also come as traders continue debating whether DEXs are taking market share from CEXs. 

"Uniswap being the only exchange in the green is the entire story," Nev, a Web3 Principle Architect at MB.io, said on X in response to the findings. "Spot CEX volume is leaking to DEX rails, and the spread between the two only goes one direction once smart routing improves." 

Nev added that centralized order flow is "structurally losing share."

However, Jason Rindahl, CEO at Nebula DeFi, told Sandmark the findings do not necessarily mean DEXs are overtaking CEXs altogether, but instead likely reflect where crypto’s "energy and innovation layer" still exists.

"When risk appetite returns, traders often move toward the permissionless side of crypto because that is where the asymmetric opportunities exist," he said. "CEXs tend to benefit later once assets mature enough for broader listing and institutional participation."

He also argued that self-custody and on-chain trading are becoming increasingly mainstream among crypto-native users, even as CEXs continue to dominate areas such as fiat onboarding, institutional access, compliance infrastructure, and broader market liquidity.

"So this is less about DEXs replacing CEXs and more about the market maturing into two parallel systems serving different purposes," Rindahl said. 

Other findings

Derivatives trading activity also weakened broadly in April, according to the report. Binance’s futures volume fell 7.4% to $1.48tn, while Bybit posted one of the sharpest declines among major exchanges, dropping around 20% to $333.2bn. 

Coinbase was one of the few exchanges to post derivatives growth, with volume rising 1.7% to $200bn. Gate and KuCoin also recorded gains of 3.6% and 2.4%, respectively.

The report cautioned that exchange volume figures may still include wash trading or bot-related activity despite adjustments for outliers and methodology calibration. Spot and derivatives data were sourced from CoinGecko, while traffic figures came from Similarweb.