The milestone captures the combined activity from both spot and derivatives markets, highlighting a year marked by sharp cyclical swings, structural dominance of perpetual contracts, and a new, elevated volatility baseline.
The 12-month chart divides cleanly into two trading regimes:
This regime shift suggests a market increasingly responsive to macro-political events and ETF-driven flows, breaking from the low-vol doldrums of mid-2024.
A persistent theme throughout the year has been the structural dominance of derivatives:
The data implies that institutional and speculative traders, drawn to high-leverage strategies, remain key liquidity drivers despite intermittent regulatory pushback.
While April 2025’s flatline at $6.79T suggests a cooling off from the Q4 frenzy, it’s worth noting this still represents a ~30% jump from the mid-2024 trough. In other words, the market appears to have reset to a higher baseline.
Moreover, after four months of declines, the first uptick in derivatives volumes in April hints that leverage appetite may be stabilizing, potentially setting the stage for renewed speculative surges.
The $80 trillion headline conceals a nuanced, bifurcated market story:
