mtgox was bigger too. There are other reasons for a crypto winter like high interest rates and a newly credible us central bank.
Rest of the world is not bigger when it comes to non residential real estate: private equity, venture, tech, finance.
However there wasn’t really any competition. Bitstamp and handful of crap exchanges. Coinbase was an OTC frontend.
If you want to get maximum value in exchange for doing more legwork and probably assuming more risk, Ebay or Facebook groups.