CoinGecko declares that crypto exchanges are no longer confined to digital assets as these platforms diversify their services. A recent research report, developed in collaboration with MEXC, shows how leading centralized platforms are aggressively expanding into traditional finance (TradFi) products—including stocks, precious metals, commodities, and forex—to position themselves as comprehensive multi-asset trading hubs
Competition among exchanges has moved beyond crypto-native tokens toward offering access to global traditional markets under one roof. The analysis focuses on six major platforms—Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Gate, and MEXC—revealing diverging product strategies and rapidly evolving market dynamics.
The market capitalization of actively traded crypto TradFi assets expanded from $1.41 billion at the start of 2025 to $6.59 billion by the end of June 2026, a 366.7% increase over 18 months. Peaking at $7.50 billion in early February 2026, largely tracking gold’s price surge before a modest correction.
Total spot and perpetual volume for these assets reached $1.45 trillion in the first half of 2026 alone—roughly ten times the entire volume recorded in 2025.
Monthly figures climbed from a modest $3.46 billion in January 2025 to $393.15 billion by June 2026, representing more than a 100-fold rise.
Perpetual futures dominated, accounting for 98.5% of June’s activity, underscoring traders’ preference for leveraged, high-liquidity exposure rather than spot holdings.
Open interest reflects this growth, rising from just $60 million at the beginning of 2025 to $4.67 billion by mid-2026—a 77-fold jump concentrated mostly in the current year.
Precious metals, especially gold, helped to fuel the early expansion, with monthly volume peaking at $236.76 billion in March 2026 amid record prices. By June, however, that figure had fallen 48.2% to $122.59 billion. US stocks then took the lead, surging 337.4% month-over-month to $189.84 billion and capturing 48.3% of total TradFi volume.
Interest in semiconductor names and anticipation around high-profile listings such as SpaceX drove much of this shift. Open interest mirrored the change, with U.S. stocks overtaking metals in mid-June.
Among the exchanges, leadership has been fluid. Volumes remained subdued through 2025 before exploding this year. Binance emerged as the clear frontrunner by June 2026, handling $231.49 billion and more than half the combined share of the six platforms. MEXC scaled aggressively earlier, peaking at $91.12 billion in May and holding the second-largest share for five consecutive months.
In June, OKX and Bitget briefly overtook it as equity volumes soared. Demand-side data reinforces the trend.
A global survey of 6,185 users across 13 languages found that 61.9% of crypto-native traders have already begun using these platforms for traditional assets.
The report states that among those with prior TradFi experience, 74.2% have shifted some or all of their activity onto crypto exchanges. 83.3% of respondents intend to increase such trading further, citing 24/7 access, lower friction, faster execution, and the convenience of managing multiple asset classes in a single account.
These developments illustrate a structural transformation. CoinGecko indicates that crypto exchanges are evolving into full-spectrum financial gateways, blurring the lines between digital and traditional markets while capturing growing user demand for unified, always-on trading experiences.