Press note
Crypto Wash Trading and Real Liquidity: Fake-Volume Estimates Run From 51% to 95%
51%–95%Published fake-volume estimates
Share of reported bitcoin volume judged fake or non-economic: Forbes 2022, 157 exchanges, to Bitwise 2019, an 83-exchange sample
Published estimates put fake or non-economic bitcoin volume at 51% to 95%, and above 70% on unregulated venues. Why the studies disagree, why depth and slippage judge a venue better than volume (Binance: 64.3% of volume, 30.7% of depth, per Kaiko), and what to check yourself. There is no agreed figure for how much reported crypto volume is real. That regulated-versus-unregulated gap is the most consistent finding across all of them. Volume is the easiest number to inflate, because it can be printed without consuming liquidity; depth cannot be faked without capital actually at risk in the book. In Kaiko's measurement Binance accounted for 64.3% of global trade volume but 30.7% of global market depth. So judge a venue by what its book will absorb: spread, depth near the mid, how fast the book refills, and the slippage you actually pay at your size.
The observation window and population are stated in the study's method section.
Supporting figures
- >70% — Unregulated venuesShare of reported volume estimated as wash trading by Cong, Li, Tang and Yang across 29 centralised exchanges
- 64.3% vs 30.7% — Binance volume share vs depth shareShare of global trade volume against share of global market depth, in Kaiko's 2023 measurement
- 10 — Charged, March 2026Foreign nationals tied to four market-making firms, after an undercover FBI operation that traded a bureau-created token
Images
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The study’s illustration, free to run with that credit and a link. It is artwork, not a figure.
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Links
- The study
- Full text, sources and method
- Markdown edition
- Plain text for quoting and for assistants
- Open the BTC venue desk
- Compare bitcoin order-book depth and liquidity across connected exchanges, with large trades, rather than relying on reported volume.
Press contact
Vultax Research — [email protected]
Questions on method, a figure checked before you print it, a chart at another size, or a cut of the data this study does not publish. Say what you are writing and when it runs.
How to cite
Vultax Research, Crypto Wash Trading and Real Liquidity: Fake-Volume Estimates Run From 51% to 95%, 2026-09-16, https://vultax.com/research/crypto-wash-trading-what-the-research-shows
Published 2026-09-02, last revised 2026-09-16. Figures are the published study; live screens move. Plain-text version · Use our data