Bullish releases September 2026 monthly metrics

September options volume declined from August, while Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoin and other spot trading volumes increased.

Rhea-AI Summary

Bullish (BLSH) released September 2026 monthly metrics showing total trading volume of $48.6 billion, above August and September 2025 levels. Volume compared with $42.5 billion in August 2026 and $39.6 billion a year earlier. September spot volume was $42.2 billion, options volume was $4.1 billion, and perpetual futures volume was $2.3 billion.

The average trading spread, a measure of commissions per unit of trading volume, was 2.14 basis points, compared with 2.13 in August and 1.86 a year earlier. A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point. Spot spreads fell from August, while options and perpetual futures spreads rose. Monthly average annualized volatility was 32% for Bitcoin and 42% for Ethereum, versus 30% and 39% in August. The metrics are unaudited; figures for the most recent fiscal quarter are preliminary and subject to completion of financial closing procedures.

Positive

• Minor pointBitcoin spot volume rose to $19.9 billion in September 2026, versus $17.6 billion in August and $16.4 billion a year earlier.
• Minor pointOther spot volume rose to $8.4 billion in September 2026, versus $6.6 billion in August and $4.1 billion a year earlier.
• Minor pointStablecoin spot volume rose to $9.5 billion in September 2026, versus $7.9 billion in August and $8.1 billion a year earlier.
• Minor pointEthereum spot volume reached $4.5 billion in September 2026, above August's $3.7 billion but below September 2025's $8.8 billion.
• Minor pointPerpetual futures volume rose to $2.3 billion in September 2026, versus $2.0 billion in August and $2.2 billion a year earlier.

2 minor points

• Minor pointPerpetual futures spread reached 0.38 basis points in September 2026, versus -0.32 in August and 0.21 a year earlier.
• Minor pointOptions spread reached 0.40 basis points in September 2026, above August's 0.14 but below September 2025's 0.93.

Negative

• Minor pointOptions volume reached $4.1 billion in September 2026, below August's $4.7 billion but above September 2025's $0.0 billion.
• Minor pointSpot spread reached 2.41 basis points in September 2026, below August's 2.53 but above September 2025's 1.96.
• Minor point. Forward-looking: it has not happened yet and may not happen.Latest-quarter metrics are preliminary estimates, subject to financial closing procedures; final quarterly results might vary.

News Explained

Bullish defines average trading spread as commissions relative to trading volume, but says the metric also reflects perpetual-futures fair-value changes and rebates; management uses it to assess average revenue generated per unit of trading volume.

Key Figures

Total trading volume: $48.6B Total spot volume: $42.2B Options volume: $4.1B +4 more

Total trading volume

$48.6B

September 2026

Total spot volume

$42.2B

September 2026

Options volume

$4.1B

September 2026

Perpetual volume

$2.3B

September 2026

Average trading spread

2.14 bps

September 2026

BTC monthly average volatility

32%

September 2026

ETH monthly average volatility

42%

September 2026

Historical Context

1 past event · Latest: Sep 08

1 event

1. Sep 08

   Monthly metrics

   24h Move

   -1.3%

   Reported August trading volume, average spread and BTC/ETH volatility as the prior monthly metrics baseline.

24h Move is the share-price change in the day after each event; other market factors may also have contributed.

Key Terms

central limit order book, automated market making, annualized volatility, standard deviation, +1 more

5 terms

central limit order book technical

"a high-performance central limit order book matching engine"

A central limit order book is a continuously updated electronic list that shows buy and sell orders for a stock in one place, sorted by price and time. Think of it as a public marketplace bulletin board where the highest offers to buy and the lowest offers to sell meet and get matched; it matters to investors because it determines real-time price formation, liquidity, and how quickly large trades can be executed without moving the market.

automated market making technical

"matching engine with automated market making"

Automated market making is an electronic system that uses pre-set rules to constantly quote prices and buy or sell a security so trades can happen without a human middleman. Think of it like a vending machine that always lists a price and accepts trades: it makes it easier to buy or sell quickly, usually lowers the gap between buying and selling prices, and therefore affects transaction costs and how easily investors can enter or exit positions.

annualized volatility technical

"converted to an annualized volatility"

A measure of how much a security's returns tend to fluctuate over a one‑year period, expressed as the standard deviation of returns scaled to a year. It gives investors a sense of the typical size of price swings (think of it as how “bumpy” a ride would be if short‑term ups and downs were projected over a full year), and is used to compare risk, size positions, and price derivatives.

standard deviation technical

"measuring the standard deviation of these minute-by-minute price changes"

A statistical measure of how spread out a set of numbers are around their average; in finance it quantifies how much an asset’s returns typically deviate from their mean over a given period. It matters to investors because it describes volatility—like how bumpy a road is versus smooth—so higher standard deviation means returns swing more widely and helps estimate the typical range of gains and losses.

View in glossary

perpetual futures financial

"changes in fair value of perpetual futures"

Perpetual futures are contracts that let investors bet on an asset’s price without a set expiration date, combining the ability to use borrowed funds with a recurring small payment or receipt that keeps the contract price close to the actual market price. They matter because they offer continuous, high-leverage exposure and deep liquidity—useful for quick trading and price discovery—but also raise the risk of forced exits and amplified losses, so they change how investors manage risk.

AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.

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GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, Oct. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bullish (NYSE: BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services, released its monthly metrics for September 2026 on Tuesday, October 6, 2026.

These metrics include trading volume, average trading spread, and measures of volatility for Bitcoin and Ethereum. For definitions and additional information regarding these metrics, please refer to the monthly metrics packages available on investors.bullish.com.

About Bullish

Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) is an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides regulated market infrastructure and information services. This includes Bullish Exchange – an institutionally focused digital assets spot and derivatives exchange, integrating a high-performance central limit order book matching engine with automated market making to provide deep and predictable liquidity. Bullish Europe is regulated under MiCAR as a crypto asset service provider offering spot trading and custody services for digital assets.

Bullish is the parent company of CoinDesk, a leading provider of digital asset media and information services. CoinDesk's offerings include: CoinDesk Indices – a collection of tradable proprietary and single-asset benchmarks and indices that track the performance of digital assets for global institutions in the digital assets and traditional finance industries; CoinDesk Data – a broad suite of digital asset market data and analytics, providing real-time insights into prices, trends and market dynamics; and CoinDesk Insights – a digital asset media and events provider and operator of coindesk.com, a digital media platform that covers news and insights about digital assets, the underlying markets, policy and blockchain technology.

For more information, please visit bullish.com and follow LinkedIn and X.

Use of Websites to Distribute Material Company Information

We use the Bullish Investor Relations website (investors.bullish.com) and our X account (x.com/bullish) to publicize information relevant to investors, including information that may be deemed material, in addition to filings we make with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and press releases. We encourage investors to regularly review the information posted on our website and X account in addition to our SEC filings and press releases to be informed of the latest developments.

Contacts

Media: media@bullish.com

Investor Relations: investors@bullish.com

Source: Bullish

Additional Information & Disclosures

This monthly metrics package provides certain limited purpose monthly performance results of Bullish. This information is presented without commentary and should be read together with our most recent quarterly and annual results and our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which are available on our Investor Relations website at investors.bullish.com.

The information provided is unaudited and the information for the months in the most recent fiscal quarter is preliminary, based on our estimates and subject to completion of our financial closing procedures. Final results for the quarter, as reported in our SEC filings, might vary from the information provided in this monthly metrics package.

Bullish expects to release monthly metrics packages for the prior month’s performance after the end of each month.

We use our Investor Relations website (investors.bullish.com) and our X account (x.com/bullish) to publicize information relevant to investors, including information that may be deemed material, in addition to filings we make with the SEC and press releases. We encourage investors to regularly review the information posted on our website and X account in addition to our SEC filings and press releases to be informed of the latest developments.

Definitions

Trading Volume represents the notional value of trades, i.e. the product of the quantity of assets transacted and the trade price at the time the transaction was executed. The quantity represents the total U.S. dollar equivalent value of matched trades transacted between a buyer and seller through our platform during the period of measurement.

Average Trading Spread represents total commissions earned from transactions on the Bullish Exchange for the period, expressed as a percentage of the trading volume for the period. Management reviews this metric, which reflects the cost of trading on the Bullish Exchange, changes in fair value of perpetual futures, and rebates, for insight into the average revenue generated per unit of trading volume on our platform.

Volatility is calculated using 1-minute price intervals from Coindesk Data's Adaptive Diversified Liquidity Index for BTC and ETH. We determine the daily volatility by measuring the standard deviation of these minute-by-minute price changes, which provides a more granular view of price fluctuations. This daily figure is then converted to an annualized volatility by multiplying it by the square root of 365, a standard practice for making risk metrics comparable over a one-year period.

Monthly Metrics Report for September 2026
(Unaudited)
	2025													2026
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec		Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
(B - in billions)
Trading Volume ($B)
Spot - BTC	34.6	30.9	43.2	39.2	32.8	19.9	20.8	18.2	16.4	38.2	38.4	25.9		22.5	41.8	29.1	20.9	16.8	26.9	16.7	17.6	19.9
Spot - ETH	18.3	19.2	14.9	10.9	12.0	9.5	11.1	12.8	8.8	15.1	14.1	9.6		8.4	12.9	8.0	5.4	3.4	4.9	3.0	3.7	4.5
Spot - Stablecoin	19.4	20.9	17.0	13.3	10.3	8.1	12.9	8.6	8.1	19.6	18.4	13.8		11.2	19.0	13.2	9.6	7.4	10.8	7.3	7.9	9.5
Spot - Other	4.8	3.8	2.7	2.2	2.6	2.4	4.0	4.6	4.1	4.6	4.4	2.9		3.4	3.7	2.7	2.1	2.5	2.9	2.2	6.6	8.4
Total Spot	77.1	74.8	77.7	65.5	57.6	39.9	48.8	44.3	37.3	77.5	75.3	52.2		45.4	77.4	52.9	38.0	30.0	45.5	29.1	35.8	42.2
Options								0.0	0.0	0.0	2.8	6.2		4.8	3.6	3.2	5.6	0.9	2.3	0.2	4.7	4.1
Perpetual	6.6	7.8	8.0	6.8	5.8	4.1	5.0	4.6	2.2	3.0	2.7	2.6		2.0	3.1	4.4	3.4	2.0	3.1	1.5	2.0	2.3
Total Trading Volume	83.7	82.5	85.7	72.3	63.4	44.0	53.8	48.8	39.6	80.5	80.8	61.1		52.2	84.1	60.4	46.9	32.9	50.9	30.7	42.5	48.6
Average Trading Spread (bps)
Spot	2.14	1.97	1.87	1.65	1.55	1.58	1.76	2.55	1.96	1.75	1.94	1.82		1.74	2.22	2.01	2.05	2.40	2.84	2.71	2.53	2.41
Options								1.00	0.93	1.29	1.34	1.66		1.95	2.42	1.86	2.50	1.65	0.59	1.09	0.14	0.40
Perpetual	(1.06)	(1.41)	(2.38)	(1.47)	(0.86)	(1.22)	(0.80)	(0.65)	0.21	(2.67)	(0.13)	(0.30)		(0.61)	0.37	0.09	(0.08)	(0.12)	(0.14)	1.21	(0.32)	0.38
Average Trading Spread	1.90	1.65	1.47	1.36	1.32	1.32	1.52	2.25	1.86	1.59	1.85	1.71		1.67	2.16	1.86	1.95	2.23	2.56	2.62	2.13	2.14
Monthly Average Volatility
BTC	48%	44%	50%	44%	33%	28%	27%	28%	23%	38%	45%	39%		33%	61%	48%	35%	28%	47%	32%	30%	32%
ETH	60%	78%	69%	70%	67%	54%	54%	60%	42%	58%	68%	53%		46%	82%	60%	44%	36%	67%	44%	39%	42%
* Figures presented may not sum precisely due to rounding

FAQ

AI-generated questions and answers. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.

What was Bullish's total trading volume in September 2026?

Bullish's September 2026 total trading volume was $48.6 billion, compared with $42.5 billion in August 2026 and $39.6 billion in September 2025. September volume included $42.2 billion in spot trades, $4.1 billion in options and $2.3 billion in perpetual futures.

What was Bullish's average trading spread in September 2026?

Bullish's September 2026 average trading spread was 2.14 basis points, compared with 2.13 in August 2026 and 1.86 in September 2025. The metric expresses commissions earned from exchange transactions as a percentage of trading volume.

How does Bullish calculate the volatility in its monthly metrics?

Bullish calculates volatility from 1-minute price intervals using CoinDesk Data's Adaptive Diversified Liquidity Index for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Daily volatility measures the standard deviation of minute-by-minute price changes. That daily figure is annualized by multiplying it by the square root of 365.