Bots That Delivered: Bitsgap's H1 2026 Results, Revealed

Between January and June 2026, traders launched 81,456 bots and executed 12.6 million trades on the platform. GRID absorbed the brunt of a market that trended more than it ranged — its monthly launch share fell from 41% to 30% — but total platform launches held up far better than GRID alone: overall volume fell about a third from January's peak while GRID's fell by half, because COMBO and DCA picked up a growing share of activity. Nine in ten bots still ran on CEX, DEX activity kept building on Aster and EVEDEX, and H1's 12.6 million trades added to a running total past 2.78 billion since the platform's first trade in 2019.

TL;DR

• 81,456 bots launched, 12.6M trades executed in H1 2026 — part of a running total past 2.78 billion trades since the platform's first trade in 2019
• GRID absorbed the brunt of a trending market — its monthly launch share fell from 41% to 30% — but total platform launches held up far better than GRID alone (down ~33% peak-to-trough vs. GRID's ~51%), as COMBO and DCA picked up the difference
• GRID still leads overall at 35.5% of H1 launches, followed by DCA Futures (18.7%) and COMBO (17.8%)
• 63.5% of bots traded spot, 36.5% traded futures
• 90.4% of launches happened on CEX, 9.6% on DEX — with DEX activity concentrated on Aster and EVEDEX
• 70% of active bots run on real funds, not demo — and GRID has the highest real-money conviction of any bot type at 85%
• DCA Futures bots run in demo 65% of the time — the platform's risk tooling doing its job on the most leveraged strategy on offer

How many bots did people actually launch in H1 2026?

Traders launched 81,456 bots on the platform between January and June 2026. GRID bots accounted for more than a third of that volume:

GRID's lead isn't surprising — it's the oldest and simplest bot on the platform, built for range-bound markets. What's more telling is the runner-up. DCA Futures pulled ahead of standard spot DCA by a wide margin (15,193 vs. 9,790 launches), suggesting traders increasingly prefer dollar-cost-averaging with leverage attached rather than the plain spot version. (If you're weighing these against each other, GRID vs DCA vs COMBO vs LOOP breaks down which fits which market.)

Spot still beats futures, but not by as much as you'd think

Of the 81,456 bots launched, 51,754 (63.5%) traded spot and 29,702 (36.5%) traded futures. Given that futures-linked types (DCA Futures, and a meaningful share of COMBO) make up over a third of all launches, leveraged trading through bots is no longer a niche behavior on the platform — it's approaching four in ten bots. New to the distinction? Spot Bot vs Futures Bot for Beginners covers what changes when a position is leveraged.

CEX still dominates bot activity, but DEX bots are growing from a real base

Centralized exchanges carried the large majority of bot launches in H1 2026. DEX-connected bots are smaller but not negligible:

COMBO stands out here: 40% of all COMBO bots launched on a DEX, compared to less than 1% for GRID, DCA, LOOP, or BTD. Something specific to how traders use COMBO bots — likely the ability to layer strategies — makes it the natural fit for on-chain venues.

Where DEX bot activity actually concentrates: Aster, EVEDEX, HyperLiquid

Breaking the DEX numbers down by venue shows just how lopsided COMBO's DEX activity is:

Nearly every COMBO bot launched on a DEX ran on EVEDEX — 4,568 of roughly 4,593 EVEDEX bots (99.5%) were COMBO. Aster's activity looks more balanced, split mainly between DCA Futures and COMBO. HyperLiquid, despite its trading volume in the broader market, accounts for the smallest share of bot launches among the three DEXs in this dataset — for a full breakdown of what separates these venues, see Hyperliquid vs Aster vs dYdX vs EVEDEX and Hyperliquid Fees vs Binance & Bybit.

Real money vs. demo: where traders actually trust the strategy

As of July 23, 2026, 24,301 bots were actively running (not yet closed), split between real and demo accounts:

Two things stand out here, and both work in the platform's favor. GRID has the highest real-money conviction of any bot type — 85% of active GRID bots run on real funds, the fewest traders "just testing" of any strategy on the platform. And DCA Futures is the only bot type where demo bots outnumber real ones, which reads less like hesitation and more like the risk tooling doing its job: it's also the most leveraged, most complex strategy on offer, and traders are visibly using demo mode to validate a setup before funding it. That's the same discipline behind the 10-point risk checklist: test the setup before it touches real funds, not after.

Monthly trend: the market moved away from GRID's sweet spot

GRID launches fell by more than half between January and June in absolute terms (6,827 to 3,337), and its share of total monthly launches fell even faster — from 41% in January to 30% in June. That's consistent with how GRID is built: it profits from price bouncing inside a defined range, and loses its edge the moment a market commits to a direction instead (see Grid Bot Playbook for a Range-Bound BTC Market for exactly how that mechanic works). A market that trended more than it ranged through H1 would produce precisely this pattern.

That decline in GRID didn't translate into an equivalent decline platform-wide. Total monthly launches fell about a third from January's peak to June's trough (16,632 to 11,092) — meaningfully less than GRID's roughly 51% drop over the same stretch. The gap is COMBO and DCA: COMBO's monthly share nearly doubled, from 15% in January to 24% in June, and DCA's climbed from 12% to 15%. Both fit a trending market better than GRID does — DCA builds a position gradually as price moves in one direction, and removes the two things that break manual dollar-cost-averaging — hesitating on the way down and chasing on the way back up. Worth noting for July: conditions have already shifted again, with BTC spending most of the month range-bound — the exact setup GRID needs. Whether that shows up as a rebound in GRID's share is one to check next quarter.

What traders are actually putting into these bots

Looking at the top trading pairs by bot type shows how concentrated activity is around a handful of assets — with a few exceptions. Across closed bots, BTC_USDT is the top pair for GRID (718), DCA (636), DCA Futures (1,295), LOOP (555), and BTD (119). COMBO is the outlier, with ETH_USD (931) narrowly ahead of BTC_USD (755).

DCA Futures is also where the least mainstream pairs show up: RIVER_USDT (730 closed bots) and ZEC_USDT (569 closed bots) both rank in the top five, ahead of SOL_USDT. That's a meaningfully different pair mix than any other bot type on the platform, and worth watching as a signal of where futures-bot demand is heading next.

Scale: 12.6 million trades in six months

The platform executed 12,560,774 trades in H1 2026 alone. Since the first trade on January 16, 2019, the cumulative total stands at 2,786,028,365 trades executed across all bot types and exchanges.

Bottom line: GRID slowed, COMBO and DCA picked up the difference

H1 2026 tested GRID specifically. A market that spent more time trending than ranging is the one condition it isn't built for, and the launch data reflects that clearly — a 51% drop in monthly launches by June. But the platform's total numbers moved far less: 81,456 bots launched, 12.6 million trades executed, and a running total past 2.78 billion trades since 2019. When GRID stopped fitting the market, activity shifted toward COMBO and DCA rather than dropping off the platform — traders had another bot type built for the conditions they were actually facing.

Want to see how your strategy would have performed against this year's market? Start a 7-day free trial on Bitsgap and run GRID, DCA, or COMBO bots in demo mode before committing real funds — the same way most DCA Futures traders do.

FAQ

What's the most popular type of crypto trading bot on Bitsgap? GRID bots are the most launched bot type, accounting for 35.5% of all bot launches in H1 2026 — more than double the share of any other single bot type.

Did bot usage decline on Bitsgap in H1 2026? GRID's monthly launch share fell from 41% in January to 30% in June as market conditions shifted, but platform-wide launches fell by only about a third over the same period — far less than GRID's roughly 51% drop — because COMBO and DCA picked up a growing share of activity.

Do more traders use spot or futures bots? Spot bots make up 63.5% of launches and futures bots make up 36.5%, based on H1 2026 platform data.

Are crypto trading bots mostly used on centralized or decentralized exchanges? Centralized exchanges (CEX) account for 90.4% of bot launches. DEX-connected bots make up 9.6%, concentrated almost entirely on Aster and EVEDEX.

Which bot type gets tested in demo mode the most before going live? DCA Futures bots have the highest demo-to-real ratio on the platform — 64.6% of active DCA Futures bots are running in demo, compared to just 15% for GRID.

How many trades has Bitsgap executed? Bitsgap executed 12,560,774 trades in H1 2026 and has executed 2,786,028,365 trades cumulatively since its first trade on January 16, 2019.