Foresight or folly? Data show 70% of exchanges are unmoved by DeFi volume

A recent survey by cryptocurrency data aggregator, CryptoCompare, shows that centralized exchange operators do not see the emergence of decentralized trading venues like Uniswap as a threat despite growing volume and activity in the DeFi space.

In its September exchange review, CryptoCompare asked 26 of the leading venues in the space how likely it was for DEX liquidity to overtake that of centralized exchanges in a 2-year time span.

70% of those interviewed said that decentralized exchanges will not overtake centralized exchange volume due to their lack of liquidity.

As high APYs attract more yield farmers, decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and Curve can count on growing liquidity and as long as this cycle remains DeFi trading volumes are expected to increase.

Although data from Cointelegraph and Digital Assets Data show that the number of active users on decentralized exchanges has been in a steady decline since September, the total value locked in DeFi platforms continues to rise.

According to the CryptoCompare survey, centralized exchange representatives believe that the privacy provided by DEXs are the primary reason why traders use these exchanges.

The truth is, centralized exchanges feel threatened by DeFi.

Recently CZ told CoinDesk that he expects DeFi to "Cannibalize" his exchange and this explains the exchange has been making some serious ventures into DeFi as of late.

Even though the survey participants are effectively ignoring decentralized exchange trading volumes now, one interesting take away is that 40% of exchanges surveyed admitted that they are building or planning to build a DEX in the future.

This is a clear signal that centralized exchanges actually do view DeFi as a serious threat to their current business models.