​Analysts call the segment of the crypto market that benefited from FTX’s collapse

What’s new? According to Kaiko, a blockchain analytics company, tokens of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) were the least affected by the market crash. Meanwhile, Layer 1 (L1) cryptocurrencies showed the worst results. The current downturn was caused by the collapse of the FTX trading platform. According to the report, DEX assets fell by 16%, performing slightly better than BTC. At the same time, L1 tokens have collapsed by 34% since the beginning of November. This was caused by a drop in the quotations of the SOL token of the Solana blockchain, whose investors are the FTX affiliated trading firm Alameda Research. On November 10, the asset’s rate fell by 42,25% to $12,37.

Kaiko’s report

What other data did Kaiko release? The token of decentralized exchange dYdX increased by 18%. This shows the competition in the derivatives markets for the place left by FTX. According to experts at Santiment, the dYDX token was one of the main beneficiaries of FTX’s collapse. It was up by 133% between November 9 and 14. The day before, the number of large holders of the asset also increased sharply.

In this, decentralized finance (DeFi) projects were hit hard by the downturn in the digital asset market, showing a decline of 25%.

The trading volumes on the leading centralized exchanges (CEXs) more than halved compared to the previous week, falling to $100 billion. Huobi and Bitfinex platforms registered the largest average weekly declines — 82% and 75%, respectively. Trading activity on Gemini dropped by 56% after the exchange suspended its Earn payments. Weekly trading volumes on Binance dropped 60%.

Meanwhile, the gap between Binance and the rest of the market widened significantly during the year. This suggests that the exchange was able to withstand the prolonged bear market better than its competitors. The weekly trading volumes on Binance remained consistently above $80 billion over the past few months, largely due to lower fees, Kaiko noted.

Trading activity on DEX Uniswap also declined last week. This came after its volumes reached one of the highest levels in history on November 7, outperforming many centralized exchanges. On November 14, Uniswap became the second-largest platform by daily trading volume of Ethereum cryptocurrency, surpassing its nearest rival, CEX Coinbase.

Before the collapse, FTX accounted for ~10% of the daily volume of bitcoin perpetual futures. Since the beginning of November, Binance’s share of that segment has grown from 56% to 63%, taking up the vast majority of the volume left by FTX. The Bybit exchange took the remaining 3% of volume, while OKX and Deribit platforms failed to gain new market share.

Bearish sentiment around the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has intensified due to concerns about the insolvency of its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) along with another subsidiary, Genesis. GBTC remains the largest investment product, holding more than $10 billion in BTC.

GBTC shares have lost 26% of their value since the beginning of November, significantly outperforming BTC. This exacerbated the trust’s discount, which rose sharply since the collapse of FTX and Alameda, reaching a record low of 45%. The discount is the difference between GBTC’s share price and the market value of its BTC assets.

On November 10, the BTC rate fell to a two-year low, hitting $15 780. As of November 22, 11:15 UTC, the asset is trading at $15 761, down by 2,16% in 24 hours, according to Binance. The ETH rate stood at $1089 (-3,27%), also a low since late 2020.

For more details on why traders are switching to decentralized exchanges after FTX’s crash, read GetBlock Magazine’s article.