SEC crackdown on Binance and Coinbase surge DeFi trading volumes 444%

The median trading volume across the top three decentralized exchanges (DEX) jumped 444% in the past 48 hours as crypto investors reeled from the United States securities regulator’s recent legal actions against cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance.

According to aggregated data from CoinGecko, total daily trading volumes on Uniswap V3 (Ethereum), Uniswap V3 (Arbitrum) and Pancakeswap V3 (BSC) — which account for 53% of the total DEX trading volume in the last 24 hours — increased by more than $792 million between June 5 and June 7.

Additionally, the trading volume on Curve, a DEX that allows for the trading of stablecoins spiked by 328%. At the time of writing the bulk of the trading activity on Curve is focused on trading the U.S. Dollar-pegged stablecoins USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT).

Trading volumes on DEXs briefly surpassed those of Coinbase during May’s memecoin frenzy. Crypto investors rushed to purchase tokens such as Pepe (PEPE) and Turbo (TURBO) through Uniswap and a number of other decentralized protocols as the memecoins were not listed on major centralized exchanges.

Related: SEC files motion for restraining order against Binance

As DEX volumes surged, net outflows — the difference between the value of assets entering and exiting the exchange — on Binance reached a staggering $778M. It’s worth noting that current net outflows are still much lower than the exchange’s total reserve. At the time of writing Binance maintained a stablecoin balance of more than $8 billion.

Netflow to Binance over the past 24 hours is $778.6M negative on Ethereum – $871.7M in and $1.65B out

Over the past hour, netflow on Ethereum continues to be negative at $35.7M on Ethereum – $14.8M in and $50.5M out

Track it here https://t.co/nwTgpXWhZY and filter for “Binance” pic.twitter.com/jnNAN0QKVy

— Nansen (@nansen_ai) June 6, 2023

The market frenzy comes amid a swathe of legal action against crypto exchanges by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On June 6, the SEC sued Coinbase alleging it offered unregistered securities and acted as an unregistered securities broker among other charges.

A day earlier on June 5, the SEC sued Binance, Binance.US and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) under similar allegations. The SEC alleged Binance failed to register as a securities exchange and was therefore illegally operating in the U.S.. According to the charges Zhao was sued as a “controlling person.”

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