DEX vs CEX: Decentralized exchanges break a record

The balance of power between centralized and decentralized platforms has just reached a new milestone. In July 2026, DEX spot volume represented nearly 24% of CEX volumeits highest level since tracking began in 2019. The figure is real. Its interpretation, however, deserves to be examined more closely: this record owes as much to the decline of centralized platforms as to the solidity of DEXs, and it comes at the worst time for European traders, in the midst of regulatory transition.

A record which owes a lot to the decline of centralized platforms

Let’s start by putting the number in context. The ratio published by The Block does not measure the market share of DEXs; it compares decentralized spot volume to that of a set of large centralized platforms. At 24%, this means that DEXs handled just under a quarter of the volume of CEXs, not that they captured a quarter of the market. A year earlier, this ratio was around 17%.

The nuance is important, because progression mainly comes from the other side. CEX spot volume fell to its lowest level in twelve months, around $670 billion, compared to an annual peak of $2.23 trillion. For their part, DEXs did not set any absolute records: their volume actually fell by around 26% over one month. In other words, they captured a larger slice of a shrinking pie. Coinbase and Gemini reduced their headcounts over the period, while some speculative volume shifted to prediction markets, which appear nowhere in this ratio. This movement is nevertheless part of a deeper trend, started since 2025, that of Hyperliquid which is moving closer to the centralized giants.

Hyperliquid, the showcase for on-chain derivative products

It is on derivative products that the shift is most spectacular. Hyperliquid, an order book operating on its own blockchain, alone represents approximately 36% to 44% of the volume of decentralized perpetuals depending on the period. Its monthly volume oscillates between 170 and 245 billion dollars in 2026, far ahead of dYdX or GMX.

One point deserves to be corrected, because this figure is often used: the sometimes cited threshold of more than $430 billion per month corresponds to the best month of the entire on-chain perpetuals market (summer 2025), and not to Hyperliquid alone.

Behind these volumes lies a transformation in the nature of the market. Perpetual contracts backed by tokenized assets (stocks, commodities, indices) are gaining ground, to the point of sometimes rivaling Bitcoin. When a real-world asset trades on-chain, it almost always does so on decentralized infrastructure, a volume that CEXs do not capture.

Trust, UX, institutions: the three drivers

Why this shift? Three reasons combine:

The first is trust, or rather the lack of it. The collapse of FTX in November 2022 has left its mark, and each new security incident on a platform revives the old reflex: “ not your keys, not your cryptos “.

Hence the rise of wallets in self-custodywhere the user retains control of their assets instead of leaving them on an exchange. Switzerland’s Tangem, for example, claims to have produced more than six million NFC cards and achieved $61 million in sales in 2025, an increase of 102%. The compromise is real: whoever holds their keys assumes sole responsibility, and a lost key cannot be recovered.

The second reason is user experience. DeFi is no longer just for insiders. Aggregators, simplified interfaces, almost instantaneous listing of new tokens: the gap in experience with a CEX has been greatly reduced.

The third is the arrival of institutions. The tokenization of real-world assets, now exceeding $20 billion in total value locked, is attracting traditional liquidity that is mechanically flowing to decentralized platforms.

In Europe, the real dividing line is regulatory

Here’s the angle that most analyzes overlook. For a European user, the “CEX or DEX” question is replaced by a more blunt question: is the platform even allowed to serve me? As of July 1, 2026, the MiCA transition period has ended. Only providers with a CASP authorization can legally offer crypto services to EU customers, and ESMA explicitly recommends investors to check this status in its CASP register before entrusting funds to a platform. As of the end of August 2026, just over 300 businesses were licensed, compared to more than a thousand that previously operated.

In practice, this redistributes the cards. MEXC remains, on a global scale, a very accessible platform, with significant liquidity and one of the largest catalogs of tokens on the market. But it is not included in ESMA’s CASP register as of mid-2026 and appears on lists of platforms that may restrict access to EU users. For an EU resident, the first step is therefore not to register, but to check your eligibilitya point on which the French AMF issued repeated warnings.

Self-custody wallets escape this constraint: holding your own keys is not a regulated service, so that a tool like Tangem (10% off with code Milly10) remains available regardless of your country. Hence an increasingly common configuration: use an authorized platform to trade where you are authorized, then transfer your assets to a self-custody wallet to keep them. “CEX versus DEX” gives way to “CEX and self-custody”, each fulfilling the role they master best.

The real change is not the announced death of centralized platforms. This is because in Europe, the question “where to trade” is now accompanied by “do I have the right”, and a growing number of users answer both by dividing the roles: an authorized platform to trade, their own keys to keep their assets. It remains to be seen how many platforms that have left the European market will return through the MiCA door, and whether centralized volume will rebound once the summer low has passed. The MiCA review, opening in May 2026, will provide a first clue.