One in Six BTC on Centralized Exchanges Despite FTX Collapse

Binance controls almost a 3rd of exchange-held provide, underscoring how liquidity energy is concentrating amongst a couple of venues.

Almost 3 million Bitcoin (BTC), value roughly $200 billion and representing 15% of the circulating provide, presently sits on centralized change platforms.

The focus of property on buying and selling venues reveals that, regardless of the shock of the FTX collapse in 2022 and years of trade messaging round self-custody, about one out of each six BTC in existence stays saved with third-party intermediaries.

Binance Dominates

Knowledge shared by crypto analyst Darkfost shows that centralized change reserves have climbed alongside the enlargement of buying and selling providers.

Platforms now supply yield era, collateralized by-product merchandise, and lending options, all of which require sustaining vital Bitcoin reserves to satisfy consumer liquidity wants. The result’s that roughly 3 million BTC now sits on exchanges, with the distribution closely skewed towards market leaders.

In accordance with the on-chain observer, Binance holds the most important share, controlling round 30% of all Bitcoin saved on centralized platforms. Bitfinex follows with nearly 20% of reserves, whereas Robinhood and South Korea’s Upbit every account for about 8.2%. Kraken, OKX, and Gemini spherical out the highest tier with holdings between 5% and seven%, respectively.

The focus turns into much more pronounced when analyzing absolute figures. Per knowledge from CoinGlass, Coinbase Professional presently holds roughly 792,000 BTC, making it the only largest change holder regardless of its smaller proportion of the CEX-specific rating. Binance follows with almost 662,000 BTC, whereas Bitfinex holds roughly 430,000 BTC.

“The liquidity depth, quick order execution, and entry to extra providers comparable to lending and staking contribute to sustaining a big share of Bitcoin’s circulating provide inside these centralized infrastructures,” Darkfost famous of their evaluation.

This statement matches up with buying and selling quantity knowledge exhibiting continued exercise focus, with a CryptoQuant report from earlier within the 12 months exhibiting that Binance captured over 40% of spot and Bitcoin perpetual volumes throughout main international exchanges in 2025. The platform additionally processed $25.4 trillion in Bitcoin perpetual futures alone.

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Market Construction Shifts Regardless of Persistent Alternate Holdings

The $200 billion held on exchanges represents a fancy market dynamic as a result of, whereas whole change reserves are substantial, the previous month has seen combined actions throughout platforms.

CoinGlass knowledge reveals total change balances elevated by some 16,990 BTC over the previous 30 days, however particular person platform traits diverged considerably. For instance, Binance added greater than 22,000 BTC throughout that interval, whereas OKX and Bithumb recorded outflows exceeding 2,700 BTC and three,600 BTC, respectively. Gemini noticed the most important 30-day decline, with balances dropping by nearly 13,900 BTC.

These actions are taking place in opposition to a backdrop of evolving change enterprise fashions and regulatory positioning. Kraken confidentially filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) in November 2025, following an $800 million funding spherical that valued the change at $20 billion.

In the meantime, Robinhood, which holds roughly 8.2% of change BTC reserves, just lately launched the general public testnet for Robinhood Chain in February 2026, an Ethereum Layer 2 community constructed on Arbitrum designed to speed up growth of tokenized property.