The first month of 2025 proved relatively strong for institutional FX markets. Trading volumes at major centers rebounded for another consecutive month across Asia, the United States, and Europe. While there were some exceptions, the overall momentum remained positive.

FX Spot Volumes Continue to Strengthen

Click 365, the currency trading platform on the Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX), recorded a month-over-month (MoM) volume increase of 12.5% to 1,722,895 contracts, with an average daily volume (ADV) of 81,923. However, year-over-year (YoY) declines of over 16% persisted compared to January 2024. The USD/JPY currency pair remained the largest volume contributor with nearly 494,000 contracts, showing a 15.9% MoM increase but a 42% YoY decline.

Monthly volumes also grew in the United States on the Cboe spot exchange. January's result reached $1.04 trillion with an ADV of $47.45 billion. With more trading days than December (22 vs 21), the total volume difference compared to December exceeded 21%. Unlike TFX, the result also improved year-over-year, as January 2024 total volumes were $959.8 billion.

360T Up, Fastmatch Shows Decline

In Europe, German stock exchange-owned 360T also showed increasing volume values, growing by almost $100 billion to $760.8 billion in January. This translated into ADV growth to $33 billion, reaching four-month highs.

However, Euronext FX's Fastmatch showed the opposite results. Total volumes slightly decreased from $613 billion achieved the previous month to $609.9 billion. This negatively impacted the ADV, which contracted to $27.7 billion. Compared to the previous year, this is still a better result, as average daily volumes then were $25 billion.