Inside The CEX Battle: Binance vs Coinbase Reserves

• Binance dominates CEX stablecoin reserves and inflows, reflecting deep market trust and consistent institutional activity.
• Coinbase leads in total reserves, but lacks public Proof-of-Reserves, unlike Binance which provides on-chain transparency.

When you want to store large funds in crypto, your choice may not be far from CEX such as Binance or Coinbase. These two names do dominate the centralized crypto exchange industry, especially when it comes to asset reserves and fund inflows. But behind those big numbers, there is another story that is no less important.

Transparency vs. Size: Binance and Coinbase Take Different Paths

Data from CQ Research shows that Binance leads in terms of stablecoin reserves, with total USDT and USDC deposits worth $31 billion. That means almost 60% of all stablecoin reserves on CEXs in the world are on this CEX. Meanwhile, Coinbase is superior in total reserves, reaching $129 billion, compared to Binance which is at $110 billion.

However, in terms of transparency, Binance is actually more open because it provides Proof-of-Reserves complete with wallet addresses. Coinbase, although larger in value, does not open this information to the public. In the eyes of crypto users who are on-chain literate, this could be a pretty important differentiator.

Furthermore, stablecoin inflows throughout 2025 also show an interesting story. Binance has attracted $180 billion so far this year, and in May alone, it has already reached $31 billion—slightly ahead of Coinbase’s $30 billion. This shows the market’s confidence in Binance’s ability to accommodate and manage large funds, especially from institutional players.

CEX Still Busy, But Not Without Problems

However, that doesn’t mean everything is smooth sailing in the CEX world. A recent report from CoinGecko noted that spot trading volume on centralized crypto exchanges during the first quarter of 2025 reached $5.4 trillion.

While this number looks big, it actually decreased by around 16.3% compared to the previous quarter. The reason? It could be due to market volatility, or perhaps also due to increasingly stringent regulations.

On the other hand, there is also a new movement that is quite interesting. CNF previously reported that the SunPump project has launched an initiative called the CEX Alliance. This initiative is here to help TRON-based meme projects reach more users through large exchanges.

Some names like BingX and HTX have even joined in to support this community. It is indeed a bit unusual to see meme coins become the reason for cross-platform collaboration.

Back to CEX, Binance is also a favorite place for big holders. On May 22, when the BTC price hit a record high of $112,000, the average deposit per transaction on Binance rose to 7 BTC. Compare that to Coinbase, which is only 0.8 BTC, or Kraken with 0.7 BTC. This indicates that Binance is still a place where big players gather who are serious about capital.