TL;DR:
- TokenInsight’s Could 2026 report compares liquidity throughout eight CEXs utilizing order e book depth, slippage and spreads for BTC, ETH, XAU and XAG markets.
- Binance leads BTC and ETH spot depth and execution, whereas Bitget, OKX and Binance dominate futures depth throughout measured ranges.
- Bitget posts the bottom BTC futures slippage, MEXC leads ETH futures and XAG execution, and Binance anchors XAU depth, slippage and spreads within the report’s pattern interval.
TokenInsight’s Could 2026 Crypto Change Liquidity Report reframes change competitors round a much less glamorous however important query: the place can massive trades truly execute with the least friction? Protecting order e book snapshots from April 1 to Could 12, the research compares eight centralized exchanges throughout BTC, ETH, XAU and XAG markets. The report makes liquidity the aggressive scoreboard, measuring depth, slippage and spreads somewhat than model scale alone. That distinction issues as Bitcoin recovered via April, spot ETF inflows improved, and derivatives markets saved shaping intraday worth discovery for establishments routing measurement via fragmented crypto markets.
Liquidity gaps emerge throughout spot, futures and metals
In spot markets, Binance led BTC and ETH depth throughout the 0.03% and 0.05% bands, whereas Bitget ranked second total and KuCoin with OKX shaped the following tier. Binance additionally retained the tightest spot execution profile, with BTC $1M median slippage at 0.022% and ETH $1M median slippage at 0.052%. Spot liquidity nonetheless clusters across the largest venues, however ETH execution confirmed wider dispersion than BTC, suggesting order measurement and venue selection can matter extra when merchants transfer significant notional via Ether books throughout unstable classes when seen liquidity can vanish shortly throughout books quick.
Futures markets produced a special hierarchy. Bitget, OKX and Binance dominated BTC and ETH futures depth at each the 0.05% and 0.1% ranges, with Bybit narrowing the hole on the wider tier. Bitget posted the bottom BTC futures slippage, with $1M median slippage of 0.008% and $5M median slippage of 0.033%, whereas MEXC delivered the tightest ETH futures slippage throughout all order sizes. Derivatives liquidity seems structurally aggressive, with spreads extremely compressed throughout main venues and execution high quality differentiated extra by depth and slippage than headline market entry when leverage concentrates round main contracts shortly.
The report’s precious-metals futures part provides one other twist to the change map. Binance led XAU futures depth throughout each the 0.1% and 0.3% bands and anchored gold execution high quality, whereas MEXC confirmed robust XAG futures depth and the bottom silver slippage throughout all order sizes. Tokenized and artificial steel markets stay uneven, with Binance tightest on XAU at 0.020 bps and MEXC tightest on XAG at 1.196 bps, whereas HTX sat nicely exterior the cohort on each futures segments. That divergence could matter as exchanges bundle conventional property for crypto-native merchants searching for various collateral publicity.
