The "new standard configuration" of crypto exchanges is still a supporting role.

Written by: CoinGecko

Translated by: Starbase Accelerator

On June 30, 2026, CoinGecko released the "TradFi on Crypto Exchanges Report 2026", an industry data report focusing on the on-chain trading status of traditional financial assets on crypto exchanges, covering RWA spot and TradFi perpetual contract data from 13 major centralized and decentralized exchanges from January 2025 to May 2026. The report unfolds from the following dimensions:

• Panorama of RWA listings on exchanges: the number of listings for spot and TradFi perpetual contracts, asset distribution, and platform strategy differences
• Dissection of RWA spot transaction: monthly transaction volume changes by the three major asset categories: commodities, stocks, and ETFs
• Product mechanism comparison: structural differences between crypto-native perpetuities, TradFi perpetuities, and traditional futures in terms of settlement, leverage, trading time, etc.
• Deep analysis of perpetual markets: the transaction volume and open interest of RWA and TradFi perpetuities, presented by asset category and exchange
• Segmentation of stock-like sub-tracks: transaction data, open interest structure, and price signals before and after the SpaceX listing for tokenized stock perpetuities and Pre-IPO perpetuities
• Market share perspective: changes in transaction and open interest share of TradFi perpetuities in the overall exchange perpetual market

RWA Spot Trading: From Marginal Category to Exchange's Standard Configuration

RWA spot has evolved from "trying out" to a standard business line for exchanges.

In January 2025, the total monthly transaction volume of tokenized RWA spot was only $850 million; by January 2026, this figure skyrocketed to $41.26 billion, a 48-fold year-on-year increase. Even though it dropped back to $19.07 billion in May, the cumulative transaction volume for the first five months of 2026 ($153.71 billion) has already surpassed the total for the entire year of 2025 ($102.71 billion) by nearly 50%.

This growth is not driven by a single asset. Commodities (mainly gold) accounted for more than half of the increase, with a cumulative transaction volume of $116.26 billion so far in 2026, averaging $23.25 billion per month, which is more than three times the monthly average of $7.06 billion in 2025. The spot transactions of tokenized stocks also grew from $2.53 billion in January 2025 to $7.51 billion in May 2026, more than doubling on a monthly average. ETFs had a stronger surge, rising from a monthly average of $0.021 billion in 2025 to $0.086 billion so far in 2026, a four-fold increase.

The differentiation at the exchange level is quite interesting. MEXC, Gate, and WEEX are "wide-net" types, listing 358, 224, and 192 RWA spot and perpetual products respectively; Kraken, by acquiring Backed Finance, pushed its spot RWA listings to second place (105), but only has 16 perpetual contracts, showing a clearly conservative strategy.

In stark contrast, leading exchanges like Binance, OKX, and Coinbase have listed only 1-2 RWA spots, but have a wide range of perpetual contracts. This indicates a shared judgment: the liquidity of RWA primarily resides in the derivatives side, while spot transactions are more about "existence" layout.

TradFi Perpetual Contracts: Growth Rate More Ferocious Than Spot, Yet Still a Single Digit in Overall Market

If spot is "quantitative change", perpetual contracts are "qualitative change".

At the beginning of 2025, the daily open interest of TradFi perpetual contracts was less than $10 million; by the end of May 2026, this figure rose to $6.24 billion. The transaction volume is even more dramatic: the total TradFi perpetual transaction volume in 2025 was $104.21 billion, which has already surpassed $13.2 trillion in the first five months of 2026, more than 12 times last year's total.

In terms of asset structure, commodity perpetuities completely dominate. The monthly average was $5.68 billion in 2025, while it has soared to $223.17 billion so far in 2026—notably, this level is already far beyond the spot side. Stock perpetuities increased from a monthly average of $4.34 billion to $26.84 billion, ETF perpetuities from $1.5 billion to $8.74 billion, and forex perpetuities from $0.07 billion to $0.41 billion.

However, a stark reality is that even with such staggering growth rates, TradFi perpetuities still account for a very small percentage of the entire exchange perpetual market. The transaction volume share grew from less than 1% in 2025 to a peak of 17.22% in March 2026, but fell back to 7.48% in May; the open interest share increased from 0.81% to 6.14%. This means that TradFi perpetuities are still "incremental toys for crypto-native traders", rather than a result of large-scale migration of traditional funds.

The competitive landscape of exchanges is also rapidly reshaping. Bybit, Bitget, and OKX briefly led in 2025, but since 2026, Binance (35.9% market share), MEXC (22.8%), and Hyperliquid (19.8%) have formed a new top three. Hyperliquid is particularly noteworthy: its TradFi perpetual transaction volume market share is only 6%, but its open interest market share reaches a staggering 46.4%, with a daily open interest peak of $2.89 billion. This indicates that Hyperliquid's users tend to prefer "long-term holding" or "arbitrage strategies," rather than short-term speculation.

Tokenized Stock Perpetuities: The True Position After 40-fold Growth

Tokenized stock perpetuities are the most "narrative-driven" sub-track in the report, but the data needs to be broken down.

When launched in July 2025, the monthly transaction volume was only $831 million; by May 2026, this number surged to $34 billion, a 40-fold increase. The most active varieties include Nvidia, Tesla, and AI-related Micron— the latter's transaction volume jumped from $736 million to $13.16 billion between April and May 2026, a 17-fold leap, clearly driven by AI narrative-induced momentum.

The report emphasizes an important point: even with a 40-fold increase, the transaction volume of tokenized stock perpetuities still accounts for less than 1% of the total transaction volume in the traditional stock market. This is not modesty but a reminder—stock trading on crypto exchanges is still far from replacing or paralleling the traditional stock market.

At the exchange level, Bitget dominated this category in November 2025, but by May 2026, Binance surpassed it with a transaction volume share of 43.65%, while Hyperliquid accounted for 58.8% in open interest ($655 million). This once again confirms Hyperliquid's positioning as a "holding platform".

The ratio of open interest to transaction volume is also intriguing. The total transaction volume of tokenized stock perpetuities is 30 times that of the total open interest, indicating that the average holding period is very short, with users betting on intraday fluctuations rather than long-term holdings. This is completely different from the behavior patterns in the traditional stock market and is closer to the operational habits of crypto-native traders.

Pre-IPO Perpetuities: The SpaceX Listing is the Best Stress Test

Pre-IPO perpetuities are the freshest data in this report, as well as the segment with the most "event-driven" characteristics.

From November 2025 to May 2026, Pre-IPO perpetuities grew from nearly zero to a monthly transaction volume of $701 million. SpaceX (SPCX) stands out, accounting for 43.55% of the total transaction volume in May, and along with OpenAI and Anthropic, the three collectively account for 95.62%. This concentration indicates that Pre-IPO perpetuities are currently completely supported by "star pre-public companies," and the variety depth is still far from sufficient.

The process of SpaceX going public on NASDAQ (June 12, 2026) became the best stress test for Pre-IPO perpetual contracts. In the week leading up to the listing, the SPCX perpetual prices across exchanges varied significantly: Binance and WEEX were around $170, while Coinbase, Gate, and OKX were around $155. As IPO information gradually became available, the prices converged to the range of $160-165 by June 10. Two days before the listing, prices across exchanges synchronously broke above $180. In the end, SPCX opened at $150, while the average closing price of the perpetual contracts was $157, a premium of 4.67%.

This case illustrates two points: first, Pre-IPO perpetuities indeed play a "price discovery" function, and the closer it gets to the listing date, the more the prices converge; second, there are differences in pricing efficiency among different exchanges, with Binance and WEEX pricing higher before the listing, while Coinbase and OKX priced lower. This differentiation itself is an arbitrage space and also a source of risk.

Binance’s late rise in the Pre-IPO segment is worth noting— it only launched Pre-IPO products on May 21 but topped with a transaction volume share of 43.45% by the end of May. OKX and WEEX followed closely, while Hyperliquid, which had dominated this category since November 2025, has now been surpassed by the CEXs.

Product Mechanism Comparison: TradFi Perpetuities Are Not Simply a Replication of Crypto-native Perpetuities

The product comparison table on page 5 of the report deserves careful reading. The operation of TradFi perpetuities on crypto exchanges has obvious differences from crypto-native perpetuities and traditional futures:

• Trading time: 24/7 trading, allowing transactions even when the underlying traditional market is closed, which is the biggest differentiation selling point
• Leverage: regulated platforms typically offer 20-25 times, offshore platforms can offer more, but generally lower than the 100 times + offered by crypto-native perpetuities
• Price anchoring: Traditional markets anchor spot prices at market openings, and rely on the exchange's own order book for pricing when closed, which can lead to "basis drift", creating delta-neutral carry trade space
• Liquidation mechanism: inherits the exchange's own liquidation engine, without the CCP (central counterparty) and SPAN margin systems of traditional futures

This structure means that TradFi perpetuities on crypto exchanges are more like a "crypto shell + TradFi core" hybrid product. Its user base may not be traditional stock traders, but rather crypto traders familiar with perpetual contract mechanisms, looking for new targets.

Conclusion

The core conclusion of this report is that the trading volume of TradFi assets on crypto exchanges has experienced exponential growth over the past 17 months, but remains in the early stages relative to the entire crypto trading market.

RWA spot is predominantly driven by commodities, while stocks and ETFs have shown rapid growth but are still small in scale.

TradFi perpetual contracts represent the fastest-growing segment, achieving significant leaps in both transaction volume and open interest, yet they still account for less than 10% of the overall exchange perpetual market.

The competitive landscape of exchanges shows significant differentiation, with some platforms establishing their presence through broad coverage while others retain users through deep derivatives offerings. Hyperliquid’s unusually high proportion of open interest reflects a significant difference in its user structure compared to other platforms.

Tokenized stock perpetuities and Pre-IPO perpetuities, as emerging sub-segments, the former driven by AI narrative pulses, the latter highly reliant on individual star company targets, and the SpaceX listing providing the first complete verification case for the price discovery function of Pre-IPO perpetuities.

For project parties involved in RWA segment layout, these numbers serve as important references for assessing market maturity, competitive strategies, and user behavior.