Recently, there have been quite a few people in the FUD cryptocurrency circle, and everyone has turned to the US stock market, which has gradually become mainstream. But as an indigenous member of the native cryptocurrency circle, no one will truly lose their fans and step into the cryptocurrency circle. It's just that the trend is temporarily not here, and in order to make a living, they have to turn their attention to US stocks, precious metals, and crude oil futures. After all, in the financial world where trading is highly valued, wherever there are better trading opportunities, people migrate to them. The old strategy has failed In previous bull markets, not only did big cakes lead the way in rising, but various imitations also created countless myths of sudden wealth. The core competitiveness of an exchange is actually very simple: who can list coins faster, who has better depth, who has better liquidity, and who can capture the attention of retail investors. The bull market is here, adding new coins, playing Launchpad, pushing contracts, and rolling rates; A bear market is coming, relying on existing users, contract fluctuations, and platform activity to prolong life. This strategy used to be very effective, but the problem is that the market has changed. Firstly, the dividend of new currency has become thinner. Before, when a new concept came out, everyone would rush in first and then talk about it; And now users will first ask: What cash flow does this project have? What are the real users? Has the FDV been fully loaded? Is unlocking a smash immediately? Secondly, pure crypto assets are increasingly dependent on cycles. In a bull market, everything goes up, and the exchange looks like it's all growing; In a bear market, liquidity shrinks, user risk appetite decreases, and platform revenue and activity immediately come under pressure. If an exchange relies solely on fluctuations in currency prices to make a living, it is essentially tying its fate to the market cycle. Thirdly, the funds deposited in the exchange account are undergoing changes. Many users hold not only BTC and ETH, but more often USDT and USDC. Stablecoins are essentially a layer of dollarized liquidity. The question is: besides buying coins, making contracts, and investing in wealth management, can these stablecoins also connect to larger asset markets? It's not that the cryptocurrency industry is not doing well, it's that the problem has changed So the exchange's shift towards the US stock market is not simply a case of 'the cryptocurrency industry is not doing well'. More precisely, this is when exchanges finally realize that serving only cryptocurrency volatility is no longer enough, they must start serving users' overall asset allocation needs. The current market situation is very realistic: Bitcoin is fluctuating between 60000 and 80000, and has yet to break through the 200 day moving average of 82000, which is known as the bull bear boundary. ETFs continue to experience net outflows, with nearly 40% retracement from their peak in October last year. Retail investors are no longer trading, and exchange revenue, which relies heavily on matching fees, has immediately hit a bottom. This is a cyclical trough, not a structural death - but if the trough is deep enough and long enough, it will force everyone to think the same question: what else can I rely on to survive besides waiting for the next bull market? We can only rely on the US stock market. This is the reason why the US stock market suddenly became important. The US stock market is the world's strongest pool of risk assets. Whether you are in the United States or not, assets such as Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla, Microsoft, SPY, and QQ have a natural appeal to global investors. For many cryptocurrency users, it's not that they don't want to buy US stocks, but the traditional path is too complicated: opening an overseas brokerage account, submitting documents, exchanging US dollars, cross-border deposits, waiting for the funds to arrive, and managing positions, dividends, and records in another system after trading. This process is normal for traditional investors, but very fragmented for cryptocurrency users. A person who is already accustomed to USDT, on chain transfers, CEX spot contracts, and 7x24 fund circulation suddenly needs to return to the traditional brokerage's account opening, exchange, and transfer system. The experience is actually a step backwards. So the exchange's current involvement in the US stock market is not essentially a 'US stock patch', but rather a competition for a larger market: whoever can make stablecoins more smoothly connect with mainstream global assets has the opportunity to transition from a crypto exchange to a global asset exchange. In other words, it means upgrading oneself from a "cryptocurrency exchange" to a "full stack financial super app": coin+US stock+forex+precious metals+predictive market. Whoever has the most complete financial puzzle will have the largest share in the user's wallet. Gate founder Han Lin said it directly: He no longer believes in the four-year cycle of Bitcoin - because the market has long been tied to the global economy, the US stock market, and AI, which is a "fusion" of crypto and traditional finance, not an isolated rise and fall. Among all the directions that can be integrated, the US stock market is the biggest piece of meat. As of May 2026, the total market value of globally tokenized stocks is only $1.4 billion, accounting for only about 0.001% of the $134 trillion global stock market - a proportion that happens to be the starting point of stablecoins in 2020; Later, stablecoins grew into a multi billion dollar race track. In other words, the listing of the US stock market is still in its first mile. Proactively upgrading is also a passive and helpless option So the major exchanges turning to the US stock market is both an active upgrade and a passive helplessness. On the positive side, the US stock market is indeed a larger asset pool; The passive side is that the pure coin circle is already too competitive - in the past, who was faster to coin, now everyone can coin; In the past, it was deeper than the contract, but now the gap between top platforms is not so easy to widen; In the past, hotspot capture was more important, but now the lifecycle of hotspots is becoming shorter and shorter. Almost all top exchanges collectively rushed towards the US stock market at the same time window, which itself indicates that this is not a calm strategic layout, but a common choice under growth anxiety. So the exchange must answer a new question: what else can the platform give to users who don't want to keep their positions full, don't want to have high leverage contracts forever, and don't want to just spin around in junk altcoins? The answer is likely to be: US stocks ETF、 Bonds, gold RWA， And more traditional financial assets. This is not escaping from the cryptocurrency circle, but acknowledging a reality - what users need is not more trading pairs, but a more complete world of assets. We are all doing 'US stocks', but the essence is different At present, the routes of each company are actually quite different. Everyone is doing 'US stock', but the essence is not the same: some are stock tokens, some are derivatives, some are on chain price exposures, some are RWA asset shelves in wallets, and some are contract and traded US stock products. Each of these directions has its own advantages. Stock tokens are more crypto native, with longer trading times, lower barriers to entry, and easier integration with on chain ecosystems; But its problem is also very obvious - users need to figure out what they are buying: underlying stocks? Is it price exposure? Is it a derivative contract? Do you have the right to vote? Are there any dividends? Who is in charge? Who issued it? Who is responsible for liquidity? These issues cannot be explained clearly, the more popular the product, the more misunderstandings there will be. There is another variable that cannot be avoided here: in May 2026, the SEC issued an "innovation exemption" for tokenized stocks, allowing crypto platforms to provide on chain US stock trading without a complete brokerage license - the daily trading volume of tokenized stocks surged to a historical high of $3.57 billion on the same day. This is equivalent to opening up a compliance shortcut for the tokenization route. For players who take a more serious "real brokerage" route, this is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, your path is more solid and can withstand long-term tests; On the other hand, the weight of the card 'only direct connections are compliant' has been weakened. What's interesting about Gate What I find interesting about Gate's US stock market this time is that it did not focus entirely on the narrative of "tokenizing stocks", but rather emphasized another thing - allowing stablecoin users to enter the US stock market and ETFs with a shorter path. The core selling point is that users can directly buy, hold, and sell US stocks and ETFs within the Gate App using USDT, without the need to open a separate traditional brokerage account or manually exchange US dollars. The entire trading and settlement process revolves around a stablecoin account. This positioning is crucial - because it does not solve the technical problem of whether US stocks can be listed on the blockchain, but rather the demand problem of how crypto users can buy US stocks more smoothly. The former leans towards technical narrative, while the latter leans towards real needs. The Gate system is not based on synthetic tokens: it is traded in the market through compliant US securities firms and follows standard clearing and custody procedures. If it is true, then it is betting on the heavier and more solid one of these two paths - for a group of people who want to hold US stocks for the long term, rather than short-term speculation on a synthetic token Ultimately, as a native of the cryptocurrency industry, I don't think turning to look at the US stock market is a 'betrayal'. The general trend is not here temporarily, but money should flow towards places where it can make money, which is the instinct of traders. The stable currency's quietly laid out US dollar track in recent years has made this migration smooth for the first time - this is not the twilight of the cryptocurrency industry, but more like it is growing up and connecting itself into a larger financial world. As for who can laugh until the end, it depends on who truly achieves the three things of "authenticity, compliance, and usability" at the same time.