CoinDesk's weekly ‘Chart of the Week’ highlights topical digital asset developments with vital commentary and analysis.
In this week's Chart of the Week (COTW), we look at Spot DEX Volumes versus an equally weighted DEX Token Index. As per DeFillama's data, Spot DEX volumes have been climbing for the past few weeks and soared to a new yearly high last week, hitting $178 billion, showing robust on-chain activity. However, the DEX Token Index - comprising key tokens like AERO, UNI, RAY, VELO, and CAKE - has been broadly trending downwards.
This divergence, where volume is peaking but the underlying token valuations are lagging, presents a curious situation: it could be an opportunity if the tokens' fundamentals are set to catch up with trading activity, or it might be a market signal that the tokens' value proposition is not yet reflecting the high volume.
This week’s Chart of the Week highlights May’s correlation of daily returns between BTC, ETH and the SP500, falling to 15.8% and 18.2%, respectively, the lowest level since August 2022.
Digital assets have benefitted from a significant price appreciation following signs that tight monetary policy and high interest rates may soon reach their peak. This comes after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, causing a stir in the banking system, and amplifying the interest in digital assets.
The depegging of USDC and regulatory issues with BUSD has led to Binance converting $1 billion of their Industry Recovery Initiative funds to BTC, ETH, and BNB, triggering further buy pressure for digital assets.
In this week's COTW (Chart of the Week), we look at centralized exchange volumes (spot + futures). Weekly volume was reported at a massive $2.7T - the highest since January 2025. This unprecedented activity is directly in line with the scale of the volatility, most notably the estimated $19B in liquidations that occurred on 10th October.
This outcome clearly demonstrates the highly impactful nature of the recent market crash.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we're looking at PancakeSwap, where volume has hit a new yearly high of around $22 billion weekly. This surge in activity is happening in parallel with a strong rally in CAKE/USD, which is up 66% month-to-date. This renewed interest in the Binance Smart Chain DEX seems to be fueled by a general increase in activity on the chain, following a period where the perp DEX Aster was a major focus in September.
The timing is notable, as Binance is also seeing its own weekly volume (spot + perps) climb to $660 million, just above its yearly average of $650 millio
In this week's Chart of the Week (COTW), we analyze the ratio of perpetuals volume on centralized (CEX) versus decentralized exchanges (DEX). The data shows a broad downtrend in this ratio since late 2023, indicating that while CEXs have historically conducted significantly more volume, the gap is steadily closing. Historically, CEXs have done 5 to 10 times the volume of DEXs, with the ratio averaging around 10 for most of 2025.
However, in the last two weeks, following the launch of Aster on the Binance Smart Chain, a "perp dex mania" has driven the ratio to all-time lows, currently sitting at around 1.9x for the present week, signaling a clear continuation of the downtrend and a significant shift in market activity towards DEXs
In this week's COTW we look at stable volumes on centralized exchanges (spot + perps). Stablecoin volumes have grown dramatically since early 2023, closing in on $7 trillion in Q3 2025. While the market saw a notable volume peak in late 2024, volumes have stabilized at a highly elevated baseline. Furthermore, the data reveals the continued dominance of USDT, which accounts for >60% of all centralized exchange stablecoin volumes.
This is relevant given the mainnet beta launch of Plasma, a stablecoin centric chain aiming to potentially cannibalize some of this USDT volume.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we're looking at the performance of SOL/BTC, which has turned positive for the first time since its yearly highs in January (+23%). This move is being driven by DAT flows, with Forward Industries buying 6.8 million SOL in the past week, bringing the total SOL held by treasury companies to over 13 million.
Assuming these DAT flows continue, the SOL/BTC trend could be sustained, but it remains to be seen.
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