I spent some time reading Kaiko's latest report on where crypto exchanges are headed, and one conclusion kept coming up over and over again. The next battle isn't going to be won on trading fees. The report points out that among the largest exchanges, execution quality is becoming increasingly similar. Liquidity, spreads, and latency still matter, but they're becoming table stakes. The numbers back that up. Binance processed $34.3 trillion in trading volume in 2025, compared with $13 trillion for OKX and $9 trillion for Bybit. It still accounts for more than half of global spot volume, $21 billion in futures open interest. At the same time, Hyperliquid is proving that new competitors can still gain traction on execution alone, particularly in on-chain derivatives. What stood out to me, though, wasn't who has the biggest order book. It was how much of the report focused on everything outside the order book. Yield products. Self-custody wallets. Payment rails. Tokenized Treasuries. Wrapped Bitcoin. Liquid staking. Tokenized equities. Stablecoin payments. That's where Kaiko argues the next phase of competition is moving. Crypto exchanges, especially Binance, are creating more opportunities for users and institutions to access crypto native infrastructure. Therefore, evolving from offering a single financial product into platforms people use for almost every part of their financial lives.(Ali Charts)