Something unexpected happened to crypto exchanges over the past 18 months: they quietly became some of the fastest-growing venues for trading gold, stocks, and commodities. According to a new joint report by CoinGecko and MEXC, the market for crypto exchanges’ traditional assets — spanning stocks, precious metals, commodities, and forex — expanded by 366.7% between January 2025 and June 2026, growing from $1.41 billion to $6.59 billion in actively-traded market capitalization. The numbers tell a story of a structural shift, not a temporary blip.
Summary
Key takeaways
- Crypto TradFi market capitalization grew from $1.41B to $6.59B between January 2025 and June 2026, a 366.7% increase.
- Trading volume hit $1.45 trillion in H1 2026, roughly 10 times the entire volume generated in 2025.
- Open interest for crypto TradFi perpetual contracts surged from $0.06B to $4.67B by end of H1 2026.
- Binance leads with over half the market share among six major exchanges as of June 2026; MEXC and Bitget compete for second place.
- US stocks overtook precious metals as the largest TradFi category in June 2026, driven by semiconductor stocks and SpaceX IPO speculation.
Crypto Exchanges Expand into Traditional Asset Classes
The premise is simple but the implications are large. Major centralized exchanges — Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Gate, and MEXC — are no longer competing solely on crypto-native products. Stocks, precious metals, commodities, and forex are now active battlegrounds for user acquisition and platform stickiness.
The 22-page CoinGecko report, co-released with MEXC in late July 2026, combines trading data across those six platforms with findings from a global user survey of 6,185 respondents across 13 languages. The survey results add demand-side texture to the volume figures: 61.9% of crypto-native users have already traded traditional assets on a centralized exchange, while 74.2% of users with prior traditional finance experience have shifted some or all of that activity onto crypto platforms. Across all respondents, 83.3% plan to increase their traditional-asset trading volume on these platforms.
The appeal, according to survey respondents, centers on always-on access, lower friction, faster execution, and the convenience of managing multiple asset classes through a single account.
Rapid Growth of the Crypto TradFi Market
From $1.41B to $6.59B in 18 Months
The market’s expansion has not been linear. Market capitalization of actively-traded crypto TradFi assets climbed steadily through the first half of 2025, then accelerated sharply into early 2026, peaking at $7.50 billion on February 5, 2026 before settling back to $6.59 billion by June 30. Precious metals dominated the total for most of the period, meaning the arc closely tracked gold’s record-setting rally and subsequent correction.
Trading Volume Reaches $1.45 Trillion in H1 2026
The volume numbers are where the story becomes genuinely striking. Combined monthly spot and perpetuals volume across the six exchanges grew from $3.46 billion in January 2025 to $393.15 billion in June 2026 — more than a 100-fold increase. The full first half of 2026 alone generated $1.45 trillion in crypto TradFi trading volume, or about ten times the $135.47 billion traded throughout the entirety of 2025.
Perpetual futures were the dominant mechanism. In June 2026, perpetuals accounted for $387.39 billion out of $393.15 billion in total volume — approximately 98.5% of activity. Spot trading contributed just $5.75 billion. This tells a clear story: users are engaging with traditional assets on crypto exchanges primarily through leveraged, liquid derivatives products, not through outright ownership.
Open Interest Climbs 77-Fold
Open interest — a measure of active positions rather than churn — moved from $60 million in January 2025 to a peak of $4.67 billion by June 30, 2026, a roughly 77-fold rise. Because open interest reflects held positions rather than trading volume, its steady climb is a stronger signal of market maturity. Traders are not just making quick moves; they are maintaining exposure.
Market Leadership and the Asset Class Rotation
Binance’s Dominance — and How It Was Earned
Binance did not lead this market from the start. In its early, low-volume phase during 2025, leadership in crypto TradFi trading rotated among exchanges. MEXC briefly led in February 2025 with a 35.4% share. Gate took 38.2% in July 2025 on the back of US stock and global index spot listings. Bitget led with 34.5% in December 2025 driven by an early push into US stock perpetuals.
Only from January 2026, as volumes scaled dramatically, did Binance establish consistent dominance. By June 2026, Binance held 58.9% of the combined market share among the six exchanges, generating $231.49 billion in monthly TradFi volume. That market position is also being reinforced at the product level: as reported by CoinDesk, Binance launched European-style options on gold and silver in late July 2026 through its ADGM-regulated Nest Exchange, building directly on demand for its commodity perpetuals. Gold perpetuals on Binance hit a peak daily volume of $7.77 billion, while silver perpetuals reached $7.27 billion — figures representing roughly 3–8% of COMEX gold volume and 9–20% of COMEX silver volume at their respective peaks.
MEXC and Bitget Battle for Second Place
Behind Binance, the competition has been fluid. MEXC grew its monthly TradFi volume approximately 59-fold, climbing from $1.54 billion in November 2025 to a peak of $91.12 billion in May 2026, and held second-largest monthly market share for five consecutive months from January through May. In precious metals specifically, MEXC ranked first among the six exchanges in both April ($72.12 billion) and May ($85.15 billion).
In June, however, the rankings reshuffled as US stock volume surged. OKX climbed to $53.00 billion, Bitget reached $44.23 billion — overtaking MEXC’s $38.68 billion — while Bybit ($13.29 billion) and Gate ($12.45 billion) trailed the pack.
US Stocks Overtake Precious Metals
The asset class rotation happening inside this market is perhaps the most analytically interesting development. Precious metals drove the first major growth wave, peaking at $236.76 billion in March 2026 as gold hit record highs, then declining 48.2% to $122.59 billion by June as gold corrected. US stocks, meanwhile, spent most of 2025 as a secondary category, holding roughly $10.25 billion per month in late 2025.
Then, in June 2026, US stocks volume exploded — rising 337.4% month-over-month to $189.84 billion, capturing a 48.3% share of total TradFi volume and overtaking precious metals for the first time. Open interest confirmed the shift: US stocks’ OI surpassed precious metals on June 18, 2026, ending the period at $2.01 billion (43.1% of total OI) against precious metals at $1.69 billion (36.2%). The catalyst was speculative interest in semiconductor-related stocks such as Micron and Sandisk, as well as intense anticipation around a potential SpaceX IPO.
What This Shift Actually Means
The rotation from gold to equities is worth pausing on. Precious metals offered an early, intuitive use case — crypto traders seeking inflation hedges in a format they already understood. But the shift toward US stocks, particularly technology and semiconductor names, suggests a more sophisticated and volatile set of motivations. Users are not simply diversifying into stable assets; they are using crypto exchange infrastructure to make highly speculative bets on equity events that have not yet occurred.
That dynamic raises the strategic stakes for every platform in this race. Exchanges that built liquidity in gold and silver first — as MEXC did — gained an early lead. But the June data suggests the advantage now belongs to whoever can move fastest on equity derivatives, especially for high-profile listings. Binance’s response has been to layer options onto existing perpetuals, following the standard exchange playbook: build volume in futures first, then add complexity. The fact that this playbook is now being applied to commodities and equities, not just crypto assets, signals how seriously the largest platforms are treating TradFi as a core product category rather than a side offering.
MEXC CEO Vugar framed it directly: “Traditional assets are becoming a core part of how users engage with crypto exchanges, rather than an experimental product category.”
FAQ
Which traditional asset classes are crypto exchanges expanding into?
Crypto exchanges are expanding into trading stocks, precious metals, commodities, and forex — offering both spot products and perpetual futures across these asset classes.
How much did the crypto TradFi market grow between 2025 and mid-2026?
The market for actively-traded crypto TradFi assets grew from $1.41 billion to $6.59 billion between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026, representing a 366.7% increase.
Which exchange leads the crypto TradFi trading volume as of mid-2026?
Binance leads with over half the market share — specifically 58.9% — among the six major exchanges tracked in June 2026, generating $231.49 billion in monthly TradFi volume.
What asset class overtook precious metals in trading volume and open interest by mid-2026?
US stocks overtook precious metals in both trading volume and open interest by June 2026, driven by speculative interest in semiconductor stocks and anticipation of the SpaceX IPO.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
