Crypto market cap jumps $800 billion in Q3 as spot trading falls

Crypto market capitalization rose from about $2.1 trillion at the end of the second quarter to $2.96 trillion between July and September, according to CoinGecko data. The increase totaled nearly $800 billion.

Spot turnover at CoinGecko’s top 10 exchanges fell to $1.65 trillion in the third quarter from $1.93 trillion in the second quarter.

Binance’s share of the tracked spot market rose to 42.7% from 38.7%. Its share increased while total turnover across the 10-exchange group declined.

The dollar value of open perpetual futures positions at CoinGecko’s top 10 perpetual exchanges rose 40.6% during the quarter, ending September above $100 billion. Open interest measures contracts that remained active at a specific time, while spot turnover measures completed trades over a quarter.

The rise in dollar open interest does not establish that new money entered the market or that traders used more leverage. The dollar value can increase when the underlying assets become more expensive, even if the number of coins tied to contracts does not change. Each contract has a buyer and a seller and can be used for speculation or hedging.

CoinGecko tracks separate top 10 groups for spot and perpetual markets, so its data does not show whether funds moved from spot trading into derivatives. KuCoin and Deribit were among the tracked perpetual exchanges where open interest declined during the quarter.

In CoinGecko’s broader market-wide data, average daily trading volume reached $94.8 billion in September, up from $57.7 billion in July. The average for the third quarter was $73.3 billion per day, down 8.6% from the second quarter.