US electronic credit activity stayed firm in February. On FINRA’s TRACE, combined US investment-grade and high-yield average daily volume (ADV) reached US$65.3 billion, up 1.6% month on month (MoM) from January’s US$64.3 billion and 13.1% higher than in February 2025.
Across our high yield (HY) and investment grade (IG) electronic panel of MarketAxess, Tradeweb and Trumid, aggregate ADV edged up to US$29.3 billion, up 1% MoM and 19.2% YoY. Trumid reported record ADV of US$10.2 billion, up 3% MoM and 37.8% YoY; Tradeweb reported US$9.8 billion, up 4.5% MoM and 13% YoY; while MarketAxess reported US$9.3 billion, down 4.6% MoM but up 8.9% YoY.
As a reminder, we also provide a market-assessed pure electronic trading number for Trumid, adjusting its reported ADV down by 40% to US$6.1 billion. On that basis, Trumid remains below both Tradeweb and MarketAxess in February.
MarketAxess’s volume lag, but pricing improves
MarketAxess’s US IG ADV, excluding single-dealer portfolio trading, fell to US$7.8 billion in February, down 4% MoM but up 10% YoY. US high-yield ADV, excluding single-dealer PT, was US$1.48 billion, down 7% MoM and up 3% YoY, taking HY+IG to US$9.26 billion and implying 14.2% of TRACE HY+IG market share for the month on our tally.
Across its broader credit franchise, total credit ADV excluding single-dealer PT was US$17.3 billion, down 7% MoM but up 11% YoY.
Chris Concannon, chief executive at MarketAxess, said, “We generated strong variable commission revenue growth to start 2026, driven by 20% growth in total credit ADV year-to-date, and benefiting from a 3% increase in total credit FPM month-over-month in February.”
The platform said February market share in US IG was pressured by elevated new issuance and softer portfolio-trading activity from core clients. Under its revised all-in market-share methodology, which since January 2026 includes single-dealer PT, MarketAxess estimated US IG share at 16.7%, down 90 basis points MoM and 110 bps YoY, while US high-yield share was 12.5%, down 70 bps MoM but up 40 bps YoY.
Even so, the firm highlighted resilience across several of its key electronic channels. Block-trading ADV rose 30% YoY, total portfolio-trading ADV increased 5% YoY to US$1.5 billion, and Open Trading ADV climbed 17% YoY to US$5.4 billion. Preliminary total-credit variable transaction fees per million rose to US$136, up 3% MoM but still down 5% YoY.
Tradeweb outperforms TRACE
Tradeweb reported fully electronic US credit ADV of US$9.8 billion in February, up 13.1% YoY Tradeweb reported fully electronic US credit ADV of US$9.8 billion in February, up 13.1% YoY and 4.5% MoM on our panel tally, implying it held 15.0% share of TRACE HY+IG. The firm said volumes were driven by record ADV in fully electronic US IG credit and by increased client adoption of protocols including request-for-quote, portfolio trading and Tradeweb “AllTrade”.
Tradeweb said it captured 18% share of fully electronic US IG TRACE and 6.6% share of US HY TRACE. It also reported 25.5% total share of US IG TRACE and 9.3% total share of US HY TRACE on its broader market-reporting basis. Outside US corporates, European credit ADV rose 21.1% YoY to US$3.5 billion. Tradeweb also said global cash-credit portfolio-trading ADV increased 32% YoY and non-competitive portfolio trading ADV jumped 106% YoY, while noting that portfolio trading continues to carry a relatively lower fee per million than broader cash credit, with non-comp PT lower still.
Tradeweb also highlighted momentum beyond US corporate bonds. European credit ADV rose 21.1% year on year to US$3.5 billion, which the firm said was helped by record volume in its Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool. It also reported municipal-bond ADV up 11.9% YoY to US$457 million, outpacing the broader market, and credit-derivatives ADV up 89.0% YoY to US$25.6 billion as hedge fund and systematic account activity increased amid higher credit volatility.
Trumid says it topped US$10 billion ADV
Trumid reported record February ADV of US$10.2 billion, crossing the US$10 billion mark for the first time. That was up 3.0% MoM from January’s US$9.9 billion and 37% YoY from February 2025. On a reported basis, that implies 15.6% share of TRACE HY+IG for the month and would put it ahead of both Tradeweb and MarketAxess on headline ADV.
Trumid is a private company and does not disclose volume by trading protocol. As previously noted, market sources have confirmed to The Desk that a large part of its long-established attributed trading workflow should be considered processed rather than fully electronic volume, which is the measure used for MarketAxess and Tradeweb. As such, we continue to present both a Trumid reported number and a market-assessed fully electronic ADV number, which for February stands at US$6.1 billion.
The firm said February was another standout month and that record activity across list trading and legacy protocols drove volume, market share and engagement to new highs. Combined RFQ and portfolio-trading volume rose 90% YoY, while RFQ ADV alone reached a record US$1.6 billion, up 148% YoY.
Trumid also said overall platform market share reached an all-time high, US IG market share rose 23% YoY, and its legacy protocols “Swarms” and “Attributed Trading” delivered combined ADV growth of 27%. According to the firm, more than 11,000 unique bonds traded on Trumid for the third consecutive month; It also said it handled an average of 47% of all secondary trading in the first two days after issuance.
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