Foreign exchange (FX) trading volumes declined month-over-month across major institutional platforms in February, but the pullback largely reflected a shorter calendar rather than a loss of market appetite. With only 19-20 trading sessions compared to January's 21, total figures fell at most venues while average daily volumes held up or posted year-on-year gains.
The pattern mirrors what happened twelve months earlier, when February 2025 delivered similar calendar-driven optics. Headline totals dipped from January but daily averages climbed, pointing to sustained underlying activity.
Cboe Spot Volumes Hold Year-on-Year Gains
Cboe's spot FX platform processed $1.19 trillion in total February volumes, down from $1.33 trillion in January across 20 trading days. Average daily volume came in at $59.7 billion, compared to $63.3 billion the prior month.
On a year-over-year basis, however, the picture looks notably stronger, February 2025 had generated an ADV of $48 billion, putting this February roughly 24% ahead of year-ago levels.
January's rebound had already set a high bar, with Cboe posting $63.3 billion in daily turnover as dollar volatility returned to markets. February's modest pullback from that level is broadly in line with seasonal norms.
FXSpotStream and 360T Face Month-on-Month Dip
FXSpotStream's institutional ECN recorded total ADV of $151.7 billion in February, with spot ADV at $105.6 billion and other products contributing $46 billion. That compares to $154.3 billion total ADV in January, a modest decline consistent with the reduced trading day count. Year-over-year comparisons remain favorable given that the platform had reported $101.2 billion total ADV in January 2025, though February 2025 comparable figures were not immediately available.
- Institutional FX Volumes Ease in December After Three-Month Rally
- CME January 2022 Volumes Released, Strong Gains in Equities
- Cboe Posts a Marginal Drop in October’s FX Volume
Deutsche Börse's 360T recorded total monthly volumes of $798.2 billion in February, translating to average daily turnover of $39.9 billion. That daily figure edged up from January's $38.8 billion despite the shorter month, suggesting underlying flow remained steady. In February 2025, 360T had posted an ADV of $33.9 billion, putting the year-on-year gain at roughly 18%.
Euronext Trails Peers on Daily Average
Euronext FX processed $622 billion in total February volumes with a daily average of $31.1 billion. That figure represents a decline from January's $34.9 billion daily pace and sits modestly above the $29.4 billion recorded in February 2025.
The platform has consistently trailed its European peer 360T on ADV growth over the past year, a gap that widened further in February.
Tokyo FX Contracts Fall, but Exotic Pairs Surge
Tokyo Financial Exchange 's Click 365 platform saw 1.76 million contracts change hands in February, down 13.4% from January and 2.9% below year-ago levels. Daily averages came in at 88,073 contracts. USD/JPY remained the most traded pair with 462,105 contracts, though it fell 9.7% from January and 8.7% year-on-year.
The month's more notable moves came in less-traded pairs. Offshore Chinese yuan-yen contracts exploded 254.6% month-on-month to 46,382 contracts, while the Hungarian forint-yen pair jumped 30.7% to 61,009. The Australian dollar-yen pair posted a 62.6% year-on-year gain, reaching 153,182 contracts.
On the other end, GBP/JPY and EUR/JPY both fell sharply, down 24.4% and 31.8% from January, respectively, and both more than 50% below their February 2025 levels.
Retail trading activity more broadly remained elevated. Interactive Brokers reported daily trades approaching 4.4 million in February, with retail client accounts reaching 4.6 million, up 2% from January - suggesting consumer-level engagement with financial markets stayed firm even as institutional FX flows softened.
Tradeweb Posts Broad Fixed-Income Gains
Outside spot FX, fixed-income electronic trading showed robust year-on-year growth in February. Tradeweb Markets reported total monthly trading volume of $61.8 trillion, with average daily volume reaching $3.1 trillion, up 23.4% from February 2025.
The company said rates derivatives ADV climbed 38.9% year-on-year to $1.2 trillion, driven by what Tradeweb attributed to "evolving U.S. inflation expectations, shifting global monetary policy outlooks, and elevated geopolitical risk."
U.S. government bond ADV rose 6.4% to $268.4 billion, while European government bond ADV jumped 34.5% to $77.3 billion, the firm said. Repo ADV hit a record $866.4 billion, up 21% year-on-year, according to the company.
U.S. ETF ADV on the platform reached $10.8 billion, up 40.3% year-on-year, with Tradeweb attributing the gain to broader client participation and growth in automated trading adoption.
MarketAxess Sees Credit Gains Offset by Market Share Pressure
MarketAxess posted total trading ADV of $45.7 billion in February, up 5% year-on-year but down 4% from January's $47.7 billion. Credit ADV excluding single-dealer portfolio trading came in at $17.3 billion, 11% above year-ago levels but 7% below January. The company operated across 19 U.S. and 20 U.K. trading days.
CEO Chris Concannon acknowledged pressure on the high-grade market share metric, noting that "our estimated U.S. high-grade market share in February was negatively impacted by strong new issuance and a decrease in portfolio trading activity by our core clients." The company's estimated share of fully electronic U.S. high-grade TRACE slipped to 16.7% from 17.6% in January and 17.8% a year earlier.
Still, the company pointed to growth across its newer trading channels. Block trading ADV in U.S. credit rose 30% year-on-year to $3.4 billion. Emerging markets ADV climbed 13% to $4.6 billion, and eurobonds ADV gained 18% to $2.7 billion. Open Trading ADV rose 17% year-on-year to $5.4 billion, the firm said.
Concannon said the company believes "recent geopolitical events, as well as the very strong new issuance calendar year-to-date are supportive of a return to higher levels of volatility, as well as an increase in the velocity of trading in the global credit markets."
