Crypto Leverage Still Down 50% After October’s Black Friday Crash, CoinGecko Shows

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Crypto leverage remains sharply below its 2025 peak months after October’s market-wide liquidation shock, according to CoinGecko’s State of Crypto Perpetuals Report 2026. Total crypto open interest fell from a peak of $210 billion on October 7, 2025, just before the October 10 liquidation event, to $99.09 billion by April 2026. That leaves market-wide open interest more than 50% below its high, showing that traders have not rebuilt leverage at the same pace. Open Interest Remains More Than 50% Below Its Peak The decline comes as centralized perpetual exchanges continue to dominate crypto derivatives trading. However, their activity has weakened in 2026. The top 11 perpetual CEXs averaged $7.11 trillion in monthly trading volume in 2025. That fell to $4.69 trillion across the first four months of 2026, a 34% drop. Binance and OKX remain the largest venues. In early 2026, Binance held 33% of perp CEX market share, while OKX held 15%. Perp DEXs Gain Ground Despite CEX Dominance Still, the market shift toward on-chain derivatives remains visible. Perp DEXs recorded $6.38 trillion in trading volume in 2025, up from $1.50 trillion in 2024. Their momentum has cooled this year, but volumes remain well above early 2025 levels. The top 12 perp DEXs averaged $611.57 billion in monthly volume in 2026, compared with $531.65 billion in 2025. Hyperliquid remains the clearest example of the shift. The platform processed $190.28 billion in April volume, placing it close to BingX and well ahead of KuCoin. Perp DEXs have also gained ground in open interest. Their share rose to 13.5% by the end of April 2026, while CEX share fell from 96.4% at the start of 2025 to 86.5%. Meanwhile, CEXs continue to compete through aggressive listings. MEXC added 879 new perp contracts from January 2025 to April 2026, while BingX added 565. Newer DEXs are also gaining attention. Pacifica, Extended, and Variational have taken share from older platforms, helped by points programs that may keep airdrop-driven traders active. The data suggests leverage has reset after October. CEXs still control most of the market, but DEXs now hold enough volume and open interest to shape the next phase of crypto derivatives trading.

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