Exchange ranking pages put a 24h volume figure next to every venue. On a centralized exchange, that figure is self-reported, and three studies since 2019 have found that a large share of it was faked. In 2025, a US court sent a market maker’s founder to prison for manufacturing that volume for clients.
What is trading volume? Put simply, it is how much of an asset changed hands in a period. That answer is correct but useless to anyone who has to grow the number or defend it to a board.
If you run growth at an exchange or a perp DEX, your job is to win its next 1,000 traders. If you launched a token, you are judged on its 24h volume. This Surgence Labs guide covers how volume is counted, what it signals, how much of it is real, and the six levers exchanges use to grow it.
Trading volume is the total quantity of an asset bought and sold on a market over a set period, usually reported in units or in dollar value across 24 hours. Volume measures activity, not depth, and depth is what liquidity in crypto measures. A market can trade a billion dollars a day and still move 3 percent on a mid-size order. Base volume counts units, quote volume counts dollars, and derivatives volume counts notional value. Market makers tighten spreads, tighter spreads draw real traders, and real traders draw more market makers. Count volume, then audit it.
