2025 CEX Chinese User Survey Report: Nearly 80% of respondents increased their capital investment, and 74% of respondents hope that the currency listing process is transparent

Source:ChainCatcher, RootData

Centralized exchanges (CEXs) are facing unprecedented industry changes. On the one hand, the industry faces multiple challenges, such as weakening of currency effects, frequent security incidents, intensifying trust crises and on-chain competition; on the other hand, DEXs such as Hyperliquid continue to erode market share with technological innovation. At this critical turning point, as the core customer base of CEX, Chinese-speaking users' behavior preferences will directly affect the evolution of the industry structure.

ChainCatcher and RootData recently launched the "2025 Centralized Exchange Chinese User Survey", which collected 715 valid questionnaires in more than 10 days. This report will analyze the user demands behind these trends and provide decision-making reference for industry participants. (You can click this link to download the PDF version)

Key points of core data:

• Binance and OKX are the CEXs with the most frequent use of respondents and the most custodial funds, but they are also the platforms with the highest user reduction rate in the past year.
• "Actively listing high-quality assets" is the respondent's favorite style of listing, but at the same time, a few respondents have lost confidence in the exchange's listing mechanism.
• The CEX Web3 wallet market is showing a very high concentration, with nearly 90% of respondents locking the Web3 wallet service to Binance and OKX. Among them, Binance occupies a leading position with a usage rate of 56.5%, while OKX occupies second with a usage rate of 33.1%.
• The issue of deposits and withdrawals on centralized exchanges is the most prominent, and the currency listing mechanism is questioned. 59.3% of respondents encountered deposit and withdrawal problems, 63.9% abandoned the exchange due to currency listing problems (breaking the issue price, insider trading); 74% of respondents required a transparent currency listing process.
• Most of the respondents' frequency of using centralized exchanges and investment amounts have increased in the past year, and the overall profit margin has expanded significantly. About 54.4% of respondents said that profits in CEX investment transactions exceeded the previous cycle this cycle, and only 8.7% of respondents increased their losses.
• 69.5% of respondents considered turning to decentralized solutions such as DEX, and 63.9% believed that DEX would completely replace CEX. However, 77.4% of users are still increasing their asset allocation in CEX, reflecting that short-term dependence is difficult to change.

1. Overview of the survey population

Most of the respondents are practitioners in the crypto field: almost 3/4 of the respondents are practitioners in the crypto field, and 1/4 of the respondents are non-crypto practitioners.

The respondents were mainly novice crypto investment and investors with certain experience: the proportion of novices with less than one year of investment experience reached 48.7%; the proportion of senior users with 1-3 years of investment experience and more than three years of investment reached 25.6% and 25.7% respectively.

Respondents remained cautious about crypto investment. Nearly half of the respondents who invested in cryptocurrency accounts for less than 10% of the revenue per month; 24.2% of the respondents who accounted for 10%-30%; 14.7% of the respondents who accounted for 30%-50%; 13.3% of the respondents are still aggressive, spending half of the monthly income or more funds investing in cryptocurrencies.

CEX Chinese user preferences

1. High frequency use CEX

This questionnaire survey allowed respondents to choose up to three centralized exchanges that were frequently used in the past year.

The results show that Binance, OKX, and Bitget are the top three centralized exchanges that respondents use the most frequently .

Binance was selected by 85.6% of respondents, far exceeding other platforms, nearly twice as high as OKX (43.4%), which reflects that users' choices are obviously gathering towards the top platforms, and the Matthew effect is intensified.

Bitget (25.9%) and Bybit (20%) form the third camp, which shows to a certain extent that the second echelon is fierce in competition and difficult to determine.

2. CEX that stores the largest crypto asset position

In addition to the frequency of use, the largest crypto asset position stored in the respondent also shows the trust of centralized exchanges by users.

According to the survey results, Binance is still a centralized exchange that stores the largest crypto assets positions for the most respondents , and more than 60% of respondents choose to store the most crypto assets in Binance.

18.5% of respondents placed the largest crypto asset position in OKX , significantly lower than the frequency of use of 43.4%. It may be to some extent that users tend to use it as a "trading channel" rather than an "asset warehouse".

Except for Binance and OKX, other exchanges have very fragmented market share and have a low share . Bitget and Bybit, as third and fourth exchanges, only 4.8% of respondents chose to use it as the CEX for the largest crypto asset position.

This reflects that in the crypto asset storage market, Binance and OKX have already occupied most of the market share, and other exchanges face considerable challenges in wanting to break through and attract more users to store assets. ********

3. Preference for coin style

In this cycle, due to the weakening of the listed currency effect of centralized exchanges, the exchange adopts the listing style it adopts is also the focus of common discussion in the market.

According to the survey results, 59.2% of respondents like to actively list high-quality new coins. This reflects that the cryptocurrency market is still in the innovation-driven stage and users still have high expectations for emerging assets.

15.2% of respondents prefer a more restrained style of listing: they hope to achieve less and more refined, and have selected a few high-quality assets. This reflects that some users focus on long-term value investment.

12.4% of respondents like the listing style of popular currencies in actively listed communities. In this cycle, the popularity of meme coins once again verified the power of community sentiment, and the popularity of the community is also a direction that users and exchanges must refer to.

In addition, 10.2% of respondents were not very concerned about the currency listing style, but more concerned about the money-making effect ; 2.9% of respondents lost confidence in the exchange 's currency listing . This reflects the high rate of currency breaks on exchanges in the past and insider trading scandals, which has indeed troubled some users.

Centralized exchanges may need to find positioning in dynamic balance - not only to satisfy most users' desire for "new assets", but also to build trust through screening mechanisms, and flexibly respond to changes in community culture.

4. CEX currency listing strategy and process satisfaction

Binance still ranks first with a share of 36.4%, but its lead is narrowing. Binance has repeatedly caused controversy over currency listing issues (such as insider trading questions and high break rate of some new coins) in this round of cycles, but it still has advantages in project screening capabilities, liquidity and global resources, making it the most satisfactory exchange for respondents.

However, compared with its dominant performance in dimensions such as high-frequency usage and asset custody, there is still a significant gap in user satisfaction with its currency listing strategy, indicating that audit transparency, project quality control and other links need to be optimized urgently.

KuCoin followed Binance with a share of 26.2%, becoming the second-ranked platform for coin listing strategies and process satisfaction. According to statistics from the Klein Labs report, the number of KuCoin listed in the whole year in 2024 reached 297, far higher than Binance (60) and OKX (64), but significantly lower than Gate.io (629), which listed in the most aggressive listing. This "moderately positive" currency listing strategy and community voting currency listing mechanism have attracted some investors who pay attention to their sense of participation. OKX ranks third with a share of 14.4%.

Overall, centralized exchanges still face the challenge of listing coins. More than 5% of users expressed dissatisfaction with the listing strategies and procedures of all exchanges, and many users left messages criticizing the phenomenon of listing the exchanges and smashing the market after listing the currency.

5. The popularity of CEX Web3 wallet service

According to the survey data, Binance leads the Web3 wallet services provided by centralized exchanges with a usage rate of 56.5% , and its leading advantage may be mainly due to the continuous diversion of Binance Alpha plan.

OKX ranks second with a share of 33.1% . OKX, which has a first-mover advantage in Web3 wallets, may be affected by the suspension of services and the impact of Binance Alpha.

Overall, Binance and OKX were selected by 90% of the respondents, forming a clear dual-oligarchical pattern, while the Web3 wallet usage rate on other exchanges was less than 3%. In addition, 2% of respondents said they did not use any centralized exchange Web3 wallet at all. (Note: After the investigation, Bybit announced the closure of most Web3 wallet services)

6. The core factors of choosing a certain CEX

What factors are most important when respondents are choosing a centralized exchange? This questionnaire also conducted a detailed survey.

Judging from the research results, brand effect absolutely dominates. 69.5% of respondents listed "brand visibility" as the primary consideration , reflecting the intensification of the Matthew effect in the industry, and leading exchanges have formed cognitive barriers with their first-mover advantage and scale effects.

48.8% of users emphasize "security" and 37.8% focus on "liquidity". These two urgent needs indicators together constitute the bottom line of the exchange's survival.

26.3% of users pay attention to "product function richness" , reflecting the demand of mature investors for comprehensive services such as derivatives and financial management.

19.3% prefers "selling new coins" to reflect the participation needs of primary markets. 17.6% of users take "integrated Web3 wallet" into consideration . This relatively emerging option has surpassed some traditional indicators, indicating that the integration of CEX and DeFi is reshaping industry standards.

In addition, in the interviewee's comments, you can see whether there are more welfare activities such as airdrops, platform coins empowerment, and U-card usage experience, which are also reference options for respondents to choose centralized exchanges.

7. Analysis of CEX user pain points

The problem of deposits and withdrawals has become the biggest pain point . 59.3% of users have encountered deposit and withdrawal problems, which is far higher than other types of problems, reflecting that there are still systemic obstacles to the connection between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem.

Operation and service issues are also concentrated. The delay/freeze of withdrawal (20.8%) and slow customer service response (21.8%) collectively affect more than 40% of users, exposing the shortcomings of some exchanges in fund processing efficiency and customer service system.

22.8% of users are affected by policy restrictions (such as regional blocking, KYC upgrades, etc.), and policy compliance challenges are becoming increasingly significant.

In addition, 21.3% of respondents believe that the interface operation is complex , which also reflects that there is still a lot of room for improvement in user experience design of centralized trading platforms.

3. Changes in the usage trend of CEX Chinese

language users in the past year

1. Changes in usage frequency

The questionnaire surveyed the frequency of users using CEX in the past year.

80.5% of users (62.7% increased significantly, 17.8% increased slightly) said that the frequency of using CEX increased in the past year , indicating that CEX is still strong among Chinese-speaking users. This may be related to market fluctuations, the crypto asset investment boom, and the continuous launch of new features (such as Web3 wallets, financial products, etc.).

12.4% of users said that the frequency of use remains basically the same, reflecting that some users have formed stable trading habits. Only 7.1% of users (slightly 4.6% decrease, significantly 2.5%) reduces the frequency of CEX usage, which may be related to security incidents or the increased attractiveness of DEX.

2. Changes in asset investment

The results show that 77.4% of users (58.7% increased significantly, 18.7% increased slightly) increased crypto asset allocation in CEX , of which more than half of respondents significantly increased asset allocation in the past year, and only 12% decreased asset allocation (9.1% decreased slightly, 2.9% decreased significantly).

Overall, it reflects that as Bitcoin continues to rise and the crypto market rebounds, users' investment demand for crypto assets is also increasing, and CEX is still the most important cryptocurrency investment transaction portal for users.

3. Asset value-added trend

We asked respondents in the questionnaire, "Do you make more/lose more or less in this cycle (early 2022 to the end of 2023) than in the previous cycle (early 2022 to the end of 2023)?"

The results show that the overall profit margin has expanded significantly, with about 54.4% of users saying that their profits in CEX investment transactions exceeded the previous cycle this cycle, and only 8.7% of users’ losses have expanded.

4. Analysis of CEX and Causes that significantly reduce use

Binance has become the exchange with the largest reduction in respondents with a share of 51.9%, which may be affected by factors such as weakening of currency listing effect and regulatory compliance, while OKX is closely behind with a share of 26.6%.

Binance and OKX are the most frequently used by respondents and the largest amount of asset custody, and may still face a large user churn rate.

5. Analysis of the reasons for abandoning a certain CEX

The reason why the survey respondents abandoned a centralized exchange shows that the currency listing mechanism brings the greatest negative consequences.

63.9% of users abandoned CEX due to currency listing issues, accounting for the highest proportion , reflecting that users’ dissatisfaction with the currency listing mechanism is particularly concentrated. High currency fees may increase project party costs and indirectly push up token prices, while market manipulation doubts further shake users' trust in the fairness of the platform. In addition, 15.4% of users will also deprecate CEX due to the "no listing effect", which shows that CEX urgently needs to optimize the listing mechanism to rebuild user confidence.

38.7% of users deprecated CEX due to platform security incidents, showing that security issues are still one of the most concerned pain points for users. This year, Bybit's $1.5 billion theft case once again sounded the alarm for crypto CEX users and the industry.

25.6% of users abandoned CEX due to marketing ethics disputes , indicating that such problems not only damage the platform's reputation, but may also cause users to question the overall platform's operation integrity.

22.7% of users abandoned CEX due to the liquidity crisis caused by the token plunge , reflecting the lack of liquidity management capabilities of some platforms under market volatility.

11% of users deprecated CEX due to compliance issues , indicating that some platforms have shortcomings in regulatory compliance. As global crypto supervision becomes stricter, users are also worried that asset security will be affected. CEX needs to actively adapt to regulatory requirements and improve compliance levels to reduce user concerns.

6. Analysis of potential factors for reducing the overall use of CEX

The survey respondents reduced their use of centralized exchanges due to factors. The results showed that 60% of users reduced their use of CEX due to the bear market, accounting for the highest proportion, reflecting the direct impact of the macro market environment on user behavior.

35% of users reduce the use of CEX due to safety accidents, and showing safety is still the core pain point of CEX.

24.8% of users reduced their use due to suspicion of market manipulation, reflecting users' doubts about the fairness of CEX transactions.

22.7% of users have reduced their use due to the weakening of the wealth effect of listing coins, which reflects that if CEX cannot attract users through high-quality projects, it may lead to user churn. In addition, compliance issues and DEX innovations have brought challenges to CEX attracting users.

****4. Chinese-speaking users ' expectations for the future development

of CEX****

1. Are you considering using a decentralized solution to replace CEX

69.5% of respondents said they would consider replacing CEX with more decentralized solutions such as DEX , accounting for a significant proportion, which reflects the intensified crisis of trust users in CEX and the competitive pressure brought by the rise of DEX to CEX.

But 10.1% of respondents still said they were on the go, which shows that some users may still have a strong dependence on CEX's brand and are also skeptical about the maturity of so-called decentralized solutions such as DEX.

2. Judgment of the future pattern of CEX and DEX

Regarding the question of "Will CEX be completely replaced by DEX in the future?", 63.9% of respondents believe that DEX will completely replace CEX , reflecting the strong appeal of the concept of decentralized finance (DeFi) in the cryptocurrency community, and the gradually narrowing the gap with CEX in user experience.

Nearly 30% of respondents believe that CEX and DEX will coexist for a long time , indicating that some people are optimistic about the continued existence of CEX. The advantages of CEX are fast transaction speed, friendly user experience, high liquidity, support for fiat currency trading, etc., which is especially attractive to novice users and institutional investors. A small number of respondents are on the wait-and-see attitude, probably because they have uncertainties about blockchain technology, market supervision, DEX technology maturity (such as transaction efficiency, gas fee issues), or CEX iterative capabilities. This reflects the complexity of the crypto market and the variability of future developments.

3. Analysis of the improvement measures that respondents are most looking forward to to improve trust in CEX

The transparency of the currency listing process is still the most concerned. More than 74% of respondents believe that further disclosure of the currency listing process is needed , which also reflects that users generally believe that the CEX's currency listing process is not open enough, and there may be doubts about "blind-box operations" or transfer of interests.

More than 37% of respondents are concerned about the transparency of CEX 's asset reserves , reflecting concerns about the security of platform funds. The shadow brought by bankruptcy incidents such as FTX on some users may not have dissipated

In addition, more than 35% of respondents hope that CEX will establish unified industry risk control standards , which may indicate that the current CEX risk control measures are uneven, which may lead to systemic risks; more than 18% of respondents hope to limit high leverage trading.