The latest forex trading statistics show just how extreme the foreign exchange market is on a “money changing hands” basis. In the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) 2025 Triennial Survey, average daily FX turnover reached about $9.6 trillion in April 2025. [Source]
That scale matters because turnover (how much is traded) is what drives spreads, slippage, and the day-to-day “tradability” of currency pairs. For traders comparing markets, these numbers help answer a simple question: Is this market actually liquid enough to trade the way a strategy needs?
It also explains why prop-style platforms like Atmos Funded exist: they’re built around giving traders a structured way to trade FX markets without putting up the full account size themselves.
Key Takeaways
- Daily FX turnover (April 2025): about $9.6 trillion (BIS headline), with final annex tables showing $9.51 trillion on a net-net basis. [Source]
- Growth since April 2022: daily turnover rose from $7.51 trillion (2022) to $9.51 trillion (2025) , roughly +27% (or ~+28% using BIS rounded headline figures). [Source]
- Largest instrument: FX swaps stayed the biggest product at $3.99T/day (~41.9%) in April 2025 (net-net). [Source]
- Fastest-growing mainstream products: spot rose to $2.96T/day and outright forwards to $1.85T/day in April 2025 (net-net).
- USD is still the core funding currency: the US dollar was on one side of ~89.2% of trades in April 2025.
- Top trading hub: the UK (mainly London) handled ~37.8% of global FX turnover in April 2025 (net-gross basis).
- Retail share (BIS definition): “retail-driven” turnover was $242B/day (~2.5%) in April 2025, down from $450B/day (~6.0%) in April 2022.
How Big is the Forex Market?
When people ask how big the forex market is, the most honest answer is: there isn’t a single “market value” like there is for stocks. The closest practical size measure is turnover (how much is traded), plus the notional amounts outstanding in FX derivatives.
A widely cited recent benchmark is the April 2025 snapshot of global FX turnover at about $9.6 trillion per day, reported in coverage of the latest triennial central bank survey results.
If that daily figure is annualised across a full calendar year, it comes out to roughly $3.5 quadrillion per year (9.6 × 365 ≈ 3.50 quadrillion). (Derived from the daily turnover figure reported above.)
A more conservative annualisation using ~250–252 trading days (instead of 365) gives roughly $2.38–$2.40 quadrillion (about 9.5 × 250–252). (This uses a rounded daily figure so the math matches a weekday-only assumption.)
What changed most recently is the growth rate.Daily turnover was about $7.5T in April 2022 and about $9.6T in April 2025, which is roughly a +28% increase over three years. [Source]
One last point that often gets missed in “how big is forex” discussions: liquidity concentrates in a small set of major pairs, like EURUSD, which is why those pairs usually have the tightest spreads and the deepest order flow.
Forex Market Turnover by Instrument
In April 2025, average daily FX turnover (net-net) broke down like this:
- Spot: $2.957T/day (about 31.1% of net-net turnover)
- FX swaps: $3.986T/day (about 41.9%)
- Outright forwards: $1.847T/day (about 19.4%)
- Currency swaps: $0.172T/day (about 1.8%)
- FX options & other products: $0.547T/day (about 5.8%) in the final annex tables.
For context, in April 2022 (net-net), the same categories looked like: spot $2.106T, FX swaps $3.810T, outright forwards $1.163T, currency swaps $0.124T, and options & other $0.302T.
That implies three clear shifts from 2022 → 2025:
- Spot grew ~40% (2.106T → 2.957T).
- Outright forwards grew ~59% (1.163T → 1.847T).
- FX swaps stayed dominant but lost share because other products grew faster (swaps were ~50.8% in 2022 vs ~41.9% in 2025 on net-net).
On the derivatives side beyond FX, OTC interest rate derivatives turnover reached $7.9 trillion per day in April 2025, up 59% from April 2022.
What are the Most Traded Currencies in Forex?
In most forex trading statistics discussions, the currency shares are where the story becomes very concrete:
- USD: 89.2% (up from 88.4% in 2022)
- EUR: 28.9% (down from 30.6% in 2022)
- JPY: 16.8% (about flat vs 16.8% in 2022)
- GBP: 10.1% (down from 12.9% in 2022)
- CNY: 8.5% (up from 7.0% in 2022)
For the longer-run context, the USD share was at 85.0% (2010), 87.0% (2013), 87.6% (2016), 88.3% (2019), 88.4% (2022), and 89.2% (2025). [Source]
Two practical takeaways come out of that:
- The USD’s role as the “main leg” in FX trades is not fading. It is slowly strengthening on this measure.
- The CNY continues to rise in the BIS data series (eg, 1.0% in 2010 to 8.5% in 2025), but it is still far behind the USD and EUR by share.
What are the Most Traded Currency Pairs?
If the last section answers “which currencies,” this answers “which pairs.” These are the most-traded currency pairs by share of global turnover. In April 2025:
- EUR/USD: 21.2% (down from 22.7% in 2022)
- USD/JPY: 14.3% (up from 13.5% in 2022)
- GBP/USD: 7.6% (down from 9.5% in 2022)
- USD/CNY: 8.1% (up from 6.6% in 2022)
- USD/CAD: 5.3% (slightly down from 5.5% in 2022)
- AUD/USD: 4.9% (down from 5.1% in 2022)
- USD/CHF: 4.9% (up from 3.9% in 2022)
Those seven pairs add up to 66.3% of global turnover in 2025. [Source]
So the “majors” are still dominant, but it’s also fair to say the market is less concentrated than many traders assume. It will be interesting to see whether that trend continues, because the USD/CNY share has risen every survey cycle since 2010 (from 0.8% in 2010 to 8.1% in 2025).
This is also the practical point where a funded trading platform can matter. Atmos Funded, for example, sits in the “trade popular FX pairs” category, meaning most strategies can be run on the deep-liquidity majors. Traders can use these liquidity rankings as a starting point when choosing the best forex pairs for prop trading, especially because major pairs still make up roughly two-thirds of turnover.
Forex Trading by Country and Region
“Where the market happens” is another key part of forex trading statistics, because it affects which sessions are liquid and when big price moves tend to cluster.
In April 2025, the top five FX trading centres by share were:
- United Kingdom: 37.8%
- United States: 18.6%
- Singapore: 11.8%
- Hong Kong SAR: 7.0%
- Japan: 3.5%
Together, these five centres accounted for about 78.7% of global turnover (37.8 + 18.6 + 11.8 + 7.0 + 3.5).
The biggest structural mover since 2022 is Singapore. Its net-gross turnover rose from $1,128B/day (2022) to $1,480B/day (2025), which is about +31% growth.
For the UK, the Bank of England’s own survey summary: London remains the largest global FX hub in the latest survey cycle.
Forex Trader Demographics
This section is where many articles get shaky, because there is no single official global registry of “forex traders.” Most numbers online are estimates, broker snapshots, or survey samples.
If you want something you can actually verify, datasets where firms are required to report are best to look at. In the CFTC’s “Financial Data for FCMs” (monthly filing-based tables), the Total Amount of Retail Forex Obligation for the report as of July 31, 2025, was $497,313,530 (reports filed September 2, 2025). [Source]
For broker-level reporting, use public disclosures that publish clear KPIs. In eToro’s Q1 2025 results press release filed on SEC EDGAR, eToro reported 3.58 million funded accounts and $14.8B Assets under Administration as of March 31, 2025, and an update showing 3.61 million funded accounts and $16.9B AUA as of May 31, 2025. [Source]
Without consistent public datasets across regions, it’s better to treat demographic claims as directional rather than universal. The practical takeaway for traders is to use demographics as context, then focus on what you can measure directly in your own trading: time-in-market, risk per trade, and rule adherence.
How Much Can You Earn From Forex Trading?
The question “how much you can earn from forex trading” does not have a clean average. Returns depend on leverage, risk limits, costs, and whether a trader survives long enough for compounding to matter.
What can be checked, though, is how often retail traders make money in leveraged markets in general. One recent example: a large Indian regulator study found only 7.2% of individual derivatives traders made profits in FY2024, while 91.1% incurred losses. [Source]
That’s not a pure “retail forex” statistic, but it is a useful warning sign: in products where leverage and short-term decision-making matter, the base rate of success can be low.
This is where the structure of participation can change the outcome. Some traders choose to trade very small while learning; others use a prop-style setup (evaluations, strict drawdown rules, and so on) to put guardrails around risk. Atmos Funded sits in this second category, which can appeal to traders who want clear rules around risk and consistency rather than open-ended leverage.
Forex Trader Behavior and Preferences
Many “forex trader behaviour” stats online are survey-based and hard to verify consistently across regions. But there is one behaviour layer that is very concrete: how trades are executed.
The Foreign Exchange Committee’s Semiannual FX Volume Survey reported firms showed $1.784T in average daily OTC FX turnover (reported, not adjusted for dealer double-counting). Of that, about $709B/day (39.7%) was executed via voice channels (direct + indirect), while roughly $1.075T/day (60.3%) went through electronic methods (single-bank platforms, multi-dealer platforms, matching systems, ECNs, and other electronic routes).[Source]
That matters because it supports a practical point: execution quality is mostly about how a trader connects to liquidity (routing, spreads, slippage, fill rules), not just what pair they trade. Voice channels still matter, but they tend to show up more around larger tickets, less standard structures, and relationship-driven flow.
FX Market Trends and Technology
If someone is tracking FX market trends, one of the cleanest “tech trend” indicators s the split between electronic direct and electronic indirect trading. In April 2025:
“Electronic indirect” includes activity routed through venues and intermediaries, and it is the single largest execution bucket in the table.
This is mainly institutional plumbing, but it still shapes pricing and liquidity in many major pairs.
Forex Market Participants
In London, the Bank of England’s FX Joint Standing Committee semi-annual survey reports total UK FX turnover at $3,351B per day. Reporting dealers about $1,559B per day (~46%), other banks about $834B (~25%), other financial institutions about $849B (~25%), and non-financial institutions about $111B. [Source]
In North America, the New York Fed FX Committee’s Survey of North American Foreign Exchange Volume reports total gross volume of $1,465,578M per day, split across reporting dealers ($600,669M, ~41%), banks and other dealers ($335,622M, ~23%), other financial customers ($434,327M, ~30%), and non financial customers ($94,960M, ~6%). [Source]
The center of gravity is institutions trading with institutions, while the non-financial flow is comparatively small by turnover. Retail exists, but it’s better treated as a subset you measure through broker or venue level reporting, not as the main driver of global volume.
Forex Regulation and Risk
The cleanest risk message that can be backed by hard numbers is simple: most individuals lose money in leveraged, short-horizon trading environments. India’s derivatives participation is one recent example of that pattern. [Source]
So the practical takeaway is less about fear and more about process:
- Prefer regulated firms where client protections exist (segregation rules, conduct rules, disclosure).
- Treat leverage as a tool, not a default setting.
- Keep strategy testing and risk sizing strict, because the base rate is not friendly.
It’s also worth noting that the BIS data itself hints at why risk can feel “unfair” to newer traders: the market is heavily institutional, electronically executed, and dominated by flows that are not trying to “beat the market” in the retail sense.
Forex Trading Hours and Sessions
Forex is often described as a 24-hour market on weekdays. That is broadly true in practice because trading rolls from Asia-Pacific to Europe to North America. [Source]
Instead of obsessing over exact clock times (which shift with daylight saving), a more reliable approach is to think in session overlaps:
- Liquidity tends to rise when Europe and North America overlap, because that is when large institutions are simultaneously active.
- Liquidity is often thinner in the “in-between” hours, where spreads can widen, and stop-outs can happen faster than expected.
This session effect also matches the geographical distribution: with the UK at 37.8% and the US at 18.6%, the combined London–New York window covers a very large share of global activity.
Cryptocurrency and Forex
Crypto and forex are getting more connected at the retail product level (CFDs, “risk on or risk off” positioning, and brokers offering both), but they still run on very different plumbing. In some regions, what you can trade is also shaped by rules, like the UK FCA ban on selling crypto derivatives and ETNs to retail clients. [Source]
Average daily settled values exceeding US$7 trillion in 2024, which helps explain why FX stays deeply institutional (banks, asset managers, corporate hedging flows). [Source]
For traders, the overlap is usually portfolio level: some treat crypto as a higher volatility sleeve, while using FX majors for steadier liquidity and cleaner execution. What matters most is matching risk to the venue rules in your region, then keeping it simple on sizing, max loss, and when you do (and don’t) trade.
Conclusion
The cleanest way to understand FX is to follow turnover, not headlines. In the BIS 2025 Triennial Survey, average daily OTC FX turnover reached about $9.6T/day in April 2025 (net-net), up 28% from April 2022.
For traders, that scale matters because it’s the plumbing behind spreads, slippage, and whether a strategy can actually get filled the way it’s designed. This shows the mix shifting toward more “immediate” flow, with spot and outright forwards growing faster than swaps, which helps explain why execution quality and venue choice matter as much as pair selection.
And it explains why prop-style platforms like Atmos Funded exist: they give traders a structured path to trade the deepest FX markets on a larger account size, with rules that force risk discipline instead of open-ended leverage.
References
- Bank for International Settlements (BIS) , Global FX trading hits $9.6 trillion per day in April 2025 and OTC interest rate derivatives surge to $7.9 trillion (press release).
https://www.bis.org/press/p250930.htm - Bank for International Settlements (BIS) , OTC foreign exchange turnover in April 2025 (FX release page). https://www.bis.org/statistics/rpfx25_fx.htm
- Bank for International Settlements (BIS) , OTC foreign exchange market turnover in April 2025 , Annex tables (PDF).
https://www.bis.org/statistics/rpfx25_fx_annex.pdf - Bank for International Settlements (BIS) , OTC foreign exchange turnover in April 2022 , Annex tables (PDF). https://www.bis.org/statistics/rpfx22_fx_annex.pdf
- Bank for International Settlements (BIS) , OTC interest rate derivatives turnover in April 2025 (IRD release page). https://www.bis.org/statistics/rpfx25_ir.htm
- Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and OTC Derivatives Markets https://www.bis.org/statistics/triennialrep/2025survey_guidelinesoutstanding.pdf
- Bank of England , Results of the FXJSC Turnover Survey for April 2025. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/london-foreign-exchange-joint-standing-committee/results-of-the-semi-annual-fx-turnover-survey-april-2025
- Reuters , India’s retail derivatives traders lost 1.8 trln rupees in three years, regulator says (Sep 23, 2024). https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-retail-derivatives-traders-lost-18-trln-rupees-three-years-regulator-says-2024-09-23/
- Investopedia , Forex Market Hours: Can You Trade 7 Days a Week? https://www.investopedia.com/terms/forex/f/forex-market-trading-hours.asp
- The FX swaps market is growing.
https://mosaicsmartdata.com/the-fx-swaps-market-is-growing/ - Is the US Dollar Losing Its Global Reserve Status?
https://www.ebc.com/forex/is-the-us-dollar-losing-its-global-reserve-status - Selected FCM Financial Data
https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/2025-09/01%20-%20FCM%20Webpage%20Update%20-%20July%202025.pdf - eToro Reports First Quarter 2025 Results https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1493318/000121390025052802/ea024510401ex99-1_etoro.htm
- 2025 Q1 Crypto Industry Report
https://www.coingecko.com/research/publications/2025-q1-crypto-report - Bank of England’s FX Joint Standing Committee
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/markets/foreign-exchange-joint-standing-committee/semi-annual-fx-turnover-survey-results/2024/table-of-participating-financial-institutions-survey-results-tables-1-4-apr-2024.pdf - New York Fed FX Committee’s Survey of North American Foreign Exchange Volume
https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/Microsites/fxc/files/2024/aprfxsurvey2024.pdf - The Foreign Exchange Committee’s Semiannual FX Volume Survey
https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/Microsites/fxc/files/2025/aprfxsurvey2025.pdf - Nearly Half of $7.5T Daily Forex Transactions Take Place in London
https://www.financemagnates.com/institutional-forex/nearly-half-of-75t-daily-forex-transactions-take-place-in-london/
