Automated trading systems are taking over Ethereum’s decentralized exchanges (DEXs), with bots accounting for more than 73% of DEX trading volume in August — their highest share in 2025 — as spot ETH trading volume hit an all-time high, according to data compiled by crypto exchange CEX.IO.
Trading volumes for ETH on top centralized exchanges reached $519 billion in August, up 55% from July, while Ethereum-based DEXs processed $74 billion in volume, a 45% increase.
CEX.IO analysts explain that the surge was fueled by traders “increasingly reallocating funds toward ETH at the expense of other digital assets, including Bitcoin.”
Ethereum’s network activity also spiked. Monthly active addresses soared to 9.6 million, while transactions hit 51.8 million, setting record levels even as average fees fell nearly 40% to just $0.20, the report reads.
Bots Playing a ‘Constructive Role’
But falling fees also turned out to be a double-edged sword, as this allowed bots to trade faster while pumping up DEX volumes. Although bots are often associated with frontrunning and sandwich attacks, the analysts say their growing presence in the stablecoin market “highlights a more constructive role.”
“By supplying constant liquidity and executing trades at scale, automated systems are increasingly helping to improve market efficiency, accelerate stablecoin adoption, and enhance DEX performance — ultimately a net positive for both users and protocols,” the report reads.
While bots might help boost liquidity, Chainalysis found in early 2025 that many are actually being used for market manipulation. According to the analytics company’s report, in 2024, around 23,400 addresses were linked to potential wash trading across Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Base, with a few high-volume addresses responsible for nearly half of the $2.57 billion in flagged trades.
Around 3.6% of all tokens launched last year — about 74,000 — showed patterns that could be linked to pump-and-dump schemes, with most suspicious DEX pools being abandoned within just a week.
