Crypto trading volumes are soaring amid bullish sentiment and institutional buy-in. GameStop and Trump Media’s Bitcoin moves, alongside pro-crypto policies proposed by the Trump administration—including a potential federal BTC reserve—are adding fuel to the fire.
New data from CryptoPresales.com reveals Bitcoin’s monthly trading volume surged 115% to $1.62 trillion in May. Tether followed closely with a 107% spike, hitting $3.46 trillion. Other top-traded cryptocurrencies also saw major growth last month.
Bitcoin Saw an $870 Billion Jump in Monthly Trades
Historically, May has been an unpredictable month for crypto trading, bringing strong rallies and sharp declines. For instance, Bitcoin saw impressive gains in May 2017 and 2019 and then significant losses in 2021 and 2022, and altcoins usually mirrored this trend.
May’s unpredictable price swings, fueled by seasonal trends like “Sell in May” and post-tax sell-off, often trigger a surge in crypto trading, and 2025 proved this again. According to CoinMarketCap data, all top-traded cryptocurrencies saw their trading volumes spike last month, with some seeing much bigger growth than others.
Tether, the most traded digital coin in the crypto space, saw nearly $3.5 trillion worth of trades in May, 107% more than the month before, following an already impressive April. Bitcoin saw an even bigger surge in trading activity. Last month, crypto investors bought and sold $1.62 trillion worth of BTC, 115% more than the month before and nearly triple the volume seen in March. First Digital USDC, the seventh most-traded crypto in May, is the only coin that came close to these figures, with its monthly trading volume spiking by 112% to nearly $140 billion.
Ethereum remained the third most-traded cryptocurrency, posting $696 billion in monthly trading volume in May, a 57% increase from April. Dai and USDC followed with $637 billion and $259 billion, respectively. Polyhedra Network was a new entrant in May, entering the list in sixth place with $183 billion in monthly volume. Statistics show that Solana’s monthly trading volume jumped by 42% to $104 billion, while XRP and BNB rounded out the top ten, recording $77 billion and nearly $59 billion in trades, respectively.
Combined Monthly Trading Volume of Top 10 Cryptos Surged by $3.7 Trillion
With the top three cryptocurrencies posting triple-digit trading volume spikes and others on the list following with substantial double-digit gains, total monthly trading activity surged far beyond Q1 levels. In March, the ten most-traded cryptocurrencies recorded $2.76 trillion in combined trading volume. This figure jumped to $3.47 trillion in April, marking a solid 25% increase in a single month. But the real explosion came in May when total trading volume more than doubled to a staggering $7.24 trillion.