While other markets in the industry continue to suffer from a period of volatility, all-to-all trading volumes soared in April 2025, a new report by Coalition Greenwich has found.
Across every surveyed trading venue, all-to-all trading constituted 11% of the month’s market volume, rising from 6% two years ago.
OpenTrading accounted for 38% of MarketAxess’ volume in April.
April also saw an average daily notional volume (ADNV) of $60 billion hit in the corporate bond market, as well as the highest single day volume – $92 billion – recorded on 30 April.
The increase aligns with similar rises during volatile periods in the bond market. For example, Coalition’s report highlights MarketAxess’ OpenTrading, and the increase in volume to 39% that it saw during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023, as well as a pandemic-induced uptake in March 2020.
According to the report, the volume increases reflect the buy-side demand for all-to-all trading, of which the “biggest ask” comes from buy-side corporate bond traders.
Primed for buy-side investment
From an analysis of 66 responses from buy-side corporate bond traders in Europe and the US, 41% named all-to-all trading solutions as the next area that corporate bond trading venues should invest in.
Continual growth however has not been a consistent theme. The report found that electronic trading usage remained largely normal, with investment grade increasing by 1%, while high –yield stayed the same.
Similar 2024 averages were also reported in the ETF-to-cash ratio, which fell from 19% to 16%, and most trading platforms retained the same market share as March, with only MarketAxess increasing by 2% driven by strengths for OpenTrading.
Despite this, Coalition Greenwich has underlined capturing volume currently executed via voice as the largest opportunity for trading venues, with dealer-to-client (D2C) voice/bilateral trading making up 34% of the market, while dealer-to-dealer (D2D) trading via interdealer brokers constitutes 23%.
The firm also stressed digitisation instead of automation as the most effective method for venues, highlighting it as a clear forward-looking trend.