Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has seen its spot trading volume suffer a 48% fall last month, marking the second consecutive month of declines for the cryptocurrency trading platform.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced a net profit of $1.5 billion for the first quarter of the year, more than doubling its performance from the previous period of 2022.

Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has stirred up a storm among the PEPE memecoin community after it sent out an email telling its users the meme the cryptocurrency was inspired on is a “hate symbol” hijacked by alt-right groups.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Binance Spot Trading Volume Plummets 48% in April
• Tether Reports $1.5 Billion Profit and $2.44 Billion Surplus, Discloses Crypto and Metal Reserves
• Coinbase Faces Backlash from PEPE Community
• Crypto Spot Trading Volumes Hit Lowest Level Since December 2022

Binance Spot Trading Volume Plummets 48% in April

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has seen its spot trading volume suffer a 48% fall last month, marking the second consecutive month of declines for the cryptocurrency trading platform.

According to CCData’s latest Exchange Review report, Binance’s trading volume dropped to $287 billion last month, recording its second-lowest monthly trading volume since 2021. Its market share has also kept sliding, falling for the second consecutive month to 46.3%, its lowest market share since October 2022 prior to FTX’s collapse.

Binance remains the undisputed leader in the industry, however, with a huge gap between it and Coinbase and OKX, the second and third largest exchanges, which only have 5.60% and 5.39% of the total spot trading market share respectively.

Notably the BTC-TUSD pair has seen a huge surge in TUSD trading volumes since zero-fee trading was introduced on Binance on March 22. The volumes reached a record high of $34 billion in April, an increase of 851%. TUSD has also climbed to the third spot among stablecoins by trading volume on centralized exchanges, overtaking USDC for the first time in almost a year.

Tether Reports $1.5 Billion Profit and $2.44 Billion Surplus, Discloses Crypto and Metal Reserves

Leading stablecoin issuer Tether has announced a net profit of $1.5 billion for the first quarter of the year, more than doubling its performance from the previous period of 2022.

According to the company’s Chief Technology Officer, Paolo Ardoino, Tether had a “record-breaking surplus” in its reserves of $2.44 billion. The company’s consolidated total assets were at least $81.8 billion as of May 9, while its consolidated total liabilities stood at $79.4 billion.

In an unprecedented move Tether, the company behind USDT, unveiled additional categories in its reserves report. For the first time, the company disclosed its allocations in bitcoin, physical gold, overnight repo, and corporate bonds, with holdings of $1.5 billion in bitcoin and $3.3 billion in precious metals.

According to Tether, the lion's share of its investments, approximately 85%, is held in cash, cash equivalents, and other short-term deposits. Gold and bitcoin represent about 4% and 2% of the total reserves, respectively.

It’s worth noting Tether also issues a gold-backed stablecoin called Tether Gold (XAUT).

Coinbase Faces Backlash from PEPE Community

Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has stirred up a storm among the PEPE memecoin community after it sent out an email telling its users the meme the cryptocurrency was inspired on is a “hate symbol” hijacked by alt-right groups.

The move was met with widespread indignation from the memecoin's enthusiasts, leading to heightened calls for Coinbase to issue an apology. Coinbase’s email, shared by some influencers on social media, referenced a 2016 decision by the Anti-Defamation League to include the frog-themed character in its catalogue of online hate symbols.

The depiction of the token incensed fans and holders of the frog-themed memecoin, who had been asking for Coinbase to list PEPE, prompting a backlash that included calls for users to terminate their accounts with the cryptocurrency exchange.

On the microblogging platform Twitter, the hashtage “#deletecinbase” has gained significant traction, trending with over 14,000 tweets in just two hours. PEPE has notably been listed on other major exchanges including Binance, Crypto.com, and OKX.

Crypto Spot Trading Volumes Hit Lowest Level Since December 2022IMG

Cryptocurrency spot trading volumes on centralized exchanges plummeted 40.2% to $621 billion in April, in a downturn that marked the lowest trading volumes since December 2022 and the second-lowest since July 2020, effectively bucking the year's trend in trading activity.

Alongside spot trading, derivatives volumes also experienced a decline of 23.3% to $2.15 trillion, despite achieving a new all-time high market share in the same month.

The volume decline this month can be attributed to the unclear macroeconomic situation, which includes potential recession risks and a chance of Fed rate hikes being halted amid the chaos in the banking sector.

Learn more about the current environment for cryptocurrency exchanges via CCData’s latest Exchange Review report.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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