ICE's Bonds Surge to $229 Billion in H1 2025 as Stock Ranks 133rd on $640M Volume, Boosted by New Trading Tools

On August 18, 2025, Intercontinental (ICE) traded with a volume of $640 million, ranking 133rd in market activity. The stock closed down 1.80% for the session.

Intercontinental Exchange reported record notional trading volumes for its ICE Bonds platform in the first half of 2025. Corporate bond trading reached $120 billion, a 20% year-on-year increase, while municipal bond trading hit $109 billion, up 35% compared to the same period in 2024. The growth reflects sustained demand for fixed-income execution services and platform enhancements, including expanded functionality and institutional client networks. Peter Borstelmann, President of ICE Bonds, highlighted the fourth consecutive year of volume growth, attributing it to improved platform capabilities and customer adoption.

A notable development was the platform’s first spread-based click-to-trade order, combining institutional pricing protocols with retail-friendly execution tools. This innovation aims to streamline access to liquidity pools and accommodate smaller trade sizes increasingly prevalent in fixed-income markets. ICE Bonds also introduced a new RFQ protocol for Mortgage-Backed Securities, expanding its anonymous trading capabilities. These advancements underscore the company’s focus on execution efficiency and transparency across pre-trade, trade, and post-trade workflows.

A backtesting analysis of a strategy buying the top 500 stocks by daily trading volume and holding them for one day showed a 23.4% cumulative return from 2022 to the present. The approach generated $2,340 in total profit but experienced a maximum drawdown of -15.2%, indicating sensitivity to market volatility despite short-term momentum capture.