Crypto Derivatives Shakeout: Market Records Lowest Trading Volume In December 2025
The crypto market produced one in every of its most disappointing performances within the ultimate quarter of 2025, with most large-cap property ending the year within the pink. While costs struggled to make any mark in the previous few months of the yr, liquidity additionally continued to seep out of the market.
According to the newest on-chain knowledge, the crypto derivatives market posted its lowest buying and selling volumes of 2025 in December. This downturn in exercise displays the shift in buyers’ danger urge for food, particularly with costs remaining down in the previous few months of the yr.
Low Market Activity Signals Rising Risk Aversion: Analyst
In a Quicktake submit on the CryptoQuant platform, pseudonymous analyst Darkfost revealed that December was the bottom buying and selling month for the crypto derivatives market in 2025. According to the on-chain pundit, this decline of derivatives market exercise alerts a disengagement of leveraged merchants.
Using a chart displaying the buying and selling volumes of the highest 10 cash aggregated throughout a number of main exchanges, Darkfost highlighted a broad decline in liquidity. The broad nature of this liquidity decline confirms that the low buying and selling quantity pattern is unfold throughout all the derivatives market.
As noticed within the chart above, the Binance change dominates the crypto futures market with roughly $1.19 trillion in buying and selling quantity in December. However, this determine is comparatively low—its weakest buying and selling exercise up to now yr—in comparison with its efficiency in different months in 2025. For context, Binance recorded virtually double that buying and selling quantity in August 2025.
The same pattern of liquidity decline could be seen throughout different main exchanges. For occasion, OKX recorded solely $581 billion in buying and selling quantity, whereas Bybit was restricted to $421 billion. “These ranges additional affirm a big liquidity contraction within the derivatives markets, mechanically lowering danger urge for food and using leverage,” Darkfost added.
Furthermore, the crypto analyst famous that this fall in buying and selling quantity reveals how buyers behave in an unfavorable market situation.
Darkfost mentioned:
The improve in liquidations, mixed with a interval of heightened market uncertainty and unclear directionality, has bolstered danger aversion. In such situations, market individuals clearly prioritize capital preservation over efficiency.
Darkfost concluded that this stage of decline in derivatives has traditionally typically aligned with transitional phases, the place the market flushes out extra leverage forward of constructing a stronger and healthier trend.
Total Crypto Market Capitalization At $3.17 Trillion
As of this writing, the entire cryptocurrency market stands at about $3.17 trillion, reflecting a 0.3% soar up to now 24 hours, in response to CoinGecko knowledge.
