Exchanges Reshaping Traditional Asset Trading Report 2026

Crypto exchanges are collectively expanding into traditional asset classes. Products such as stock spot and derivatives, precious metals, commodities, and forex are emerging as the new battleground for CEX differentiation. The competition is no longer limited to crypto-native assets. The race is now about which platform can become the go-to, one stop multi-asset trading gateway for global users.

In Part I of this report, we examine the product strategies and competitive positioning of six major exchanges (Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Gate, and MEXC) through a side-by-side comparison that reveals how the industry landscape is diverging.

In Part II, MEXC presents the findings from a global user survey covering 6,185 valid responses, examining the scale and drivers of user migration from the demand side.

We’ve summarized the key highlights from Part I, but be sure to dig into all 22 pages in the full report below.

Top 4 Highlights of CoinGecko’s How Crypto Exchanges Are Reshaping Traditional Asset Trading Report 2026

1. The market for actively-traded crypto TradFi assets scaled from $1.41B to $6.59B in 1.5 years

2. Crypto TradFi trading volume reached $1.45T in the first half of 2026 alone, or 10x the volume generated in 2025

3. Open interest for crypto TradFi perps grew from $0.06B to $0.52B in 2025, then skyrocketed to a high of $4.67B by end H1 2026

4. TradFi volumes across six major CEXs stayed low throughout 2025, then rose steeply this year with Binance, MEXC & Bitget in the lead

1. The market for actively-traded crypto TradFi assets scaled from $1.41B to $6.59B in 1.5 years

Crypto TradFi assets have gone from an early stage crypto sector to a multi-billion dollar market across a year and a half. Total market capitalization of crypto TradFi assets across the tracked classes multiplied five-fold from $1.41 billion on January 1, 2025 to a peak of $7.50 billion on February 5, 2026, before easing back to $6.59 billion on June 30, 2026. This means that the crypto TradFi market size has expanded by a significant 366.7% in the last 18 months.

The crypto TradFi market’s growth has been relatively front-loaded: it rose steadily through the first half of 2025, then picked up pace into the start of 2026. Because precious metals dominate the total, this mostly tracks gold's run to its early 2026 record and subsequent correction. That said, the flat first half of 2026 masked a real rotation underneath, as interest in precious metals waned slightly and US stocks were added to the pack.

2. Crypto TradFi trading volume reached $1.45T in the first half of 2026 alone, or 10x the volume generated in 2025

Monthly total spot and perpetuals trading volume for crypto TradFi grew steadily but relatively slowly in 2025, from $3.45 billion in January, to $24.05 billion in December. Demand for TradFi exposure exploded in popularity going into 2026, such that trading volume more than tripled to reach $87.58 billion in January this year. Immediately after that, crypto TradFi generated $186.32 billion in February, easily surpassing the $135.47 billion volume traded in the whole of 2025.

Precious metals saw volume climb from $23.99 billion in October 2025 to $80.97 billion in January 2026, then peaked at $236.76 billion in March 2026 as gold ran to its all-time high price. It then fell 48.2% to $122.59 billion by June 2026 as gold corrected off its highs. For most of the period, precious metals were the single largest category by volume.

Meanwhile, US stocks initially led the crypto TradFi market in early 2025, accounting for $3.08 billion of January's $3.46 billion total with mostly single-stock perps. US stocks held a base of roughly $10.25 billion a month through late 2025, dipped in early 2026 before surging to $43.40 billion in May, then a 337.4% jump to $189.84 billion in June 2026, enough to overtake precious metals for the first time. This was driven by speculation on semiconductor-related stocks such as Micron and Sandisk, as well as the highly anticipated SpaceX IPO.

3. Open interest for crypto TradFi perps grew from $0.06B to $0.52B in 2025, then skyrocketed to a high of $4.67B by end H1 2026

Total open interest (OI) across the six exchanges grew from $60.00 million on January 1, 2025 to a peak of $4.67 billion on June 30, 2026, representing a 77-fold rise that mostly occurred this year. Since OI measures positions held rather than volume churned, its steady climb is further evidence that TradFi in crypto is becoming a durable market. 

The asset class shift shows up here too: US stocks’ OI overtook precious metals on June 18, 2026 and ended the period as the largest asset class at $2.01 billion (43.1% of the total), against precious metals at $1.69 billion (36.2%). Precious metals’ OI had already peaked at $1.98 billion on May 27, 2026, tracking gold’s price rally, while US stocks’ continued steady increase points to the market's center of gravity shifting.

4. TradFi volumes across six major CEXs stayed low throughout 2025, then rose steeply this year with Binance, MEXC & Bitget in the lead

The crypto TradFi market growth was not shared evenly across the largest centralized exchanges, with the lead position changing hands more than once. Binance grew the fastest, from $39.60 billion in January 2026 to $231.49 billion in June, when it accounted for more than half the volume share of the six exchanges. MEXC scaled aggressively to become the second-largest venue for most of 2026, climbing from $17.84 billion in January to a peak of $91.12 billion in May. In June, however, the ranking reshuffled as US stock volume surged: OKX rose to $53.00 billion and Bitget to $44.23 billion, overtaking MEXC’s $38.68 billion, with Bybit ($13.29 billion) and Gate ($12.45 billion) trailing.

Market share data underscores how dynamic the competition has been. No exchange held the lead for long in the market's early, low-volume phase: MEXC briefly led in February 2025 with 35.4%, Gate took 38.2% in July 2025 on its US stocks’ and global indices’ spot listings, and Bitget led with 34.5% in December 2025 on an early push into US stock perps. Only from January 2026, as volumes scaled, did Binance establish a consistent monthly lead, jumping to 58.9% share by June 2026. MEXC has also performed strongly this year, capturing the second largest market share consecutively from January to May 2026, or more than double that of the remaining exchanges.

Read the Report: CoinGecko’s How Crypto Exchanges Are Reshaping Traditional Asset Trading 2026

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