Kaiko: spot bitcoin ETFs' launch in the US helped Bybit double its market share to 16% in March, crossing Coinbase to become the world's second-largest exchange
Benjamin Taubman / Bloomberg :
Context & Ripple Effects
Bybit’s rise was already visible in Kaiko’s earlier data: its non-US bitcoin trading share increased as Binance’s declined, indicating that exchange liquidity was becoming less concentrated. Bybit’s earlier share gains alongside Binance’s retreat provide the immediate backdrop for this ranking change.
A subsequent profile tied Bybit’s expansion partly to former FTX users, while this report connects its March acceleration to the changed trading environment around US spot bitcoin ETFs. Bybit’s effort to serve displaced FTX users suggests the gain built on an existing customer-acquisition base rather than a single event.
First-order effects
- Bybit doubles its market share to 16% in March and moves ahead of Coinbase into the No. 2 global exchange position, according to Kaiko.
- Coinbase loses its second-place standing in this measure as trading activity shifts toward Bybit.
Second-order effects
- The result puts greater competitive pressure on Coinbase and other large venues to defend liquidity and active-trader flow as ETF-related market activity changes where trades are executed.
- Bybit’s gain reinforces the broader redistribution already seen in Kaiko’s data, where Binance’s non-US bitcoin share fell while challengers including Bybit and OKX gained. The earlier Binance-to-challenger share shift makes a more fragmented exchange market more consequential.
Third-order effects
- If ETF-driven changes in trading behavior persist, bitcoin market structure may be shaped less by a single dominant offshore venue and more by competition among several deep-liquidity exchanges.
- The pattern also suggests that regulated investment products can affect crypto-market intermediaries indirectly: even when ETFs do not trade on crypto exchanges, the activity and trading rhythms around them can reshape exchange share.
The trend: Spot bitcoin ETFs are becoming a market-structure catalyst, altering trading patterns and redistributing liquidity among crypto exchanges.