Spot Trading Pairs Decline Across Exchanges

It appears that cryptocurrency traders now have fewer options to choose from. The Block Research has compiled data that indicates a decline in the number of spot pairs available on major cryptocurrency exchanges throughout the year.

For example, Binance, the world’s largest exchange by global volume, had a decrease in monthly spot pairs from 1,420 in January to 1,380 in July, as shown in The Block’s data dashboard.

BinanceUS, which is a sister company of Binance, also experienced a decline in monthly spot pairs from 337 in June to 184 in July.

Recently, some crypto exchanges have stopped supporting certain trading pairs due to the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission’s legal actions against Coinbase and Binance in June. The allegations suggest that these exchanges were involved in trading unregistered securities.

Monthly spot trading pairs supported by Coinbase declined from 557 in March to 524 in July.

The number of spot pairs has also declined at Kraken, with the number of pairs declining from a high of 668 in February to 651 in July.

Sources reported to Fortune that top officials, such as general counsel Han Ng, chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann, and SVP for compliance Steven Christie, resigned from their positions this week due to CEO Changpeng Zhao’s handling of regulatory investigations into the firm.

Recently, Binance has experienced a decline in its market share among global exchanges, leading to some exits. In January, the company held 72% of the market share, but it has now fallen to just over 58%.

These figures only include spot trade volumes for cryptocurrency exchanges without USD support or USD pairs with insignificant volumes.

Crypto exchange Binance is under investigation by local authorities in France over the alleged illegal provision of crypto services and “aggravated money laundering.”

This morning, Le Monde reported that Binance has been under “preliminary investigation” by the financial judicial investigation service in Paris since February 2022.