just now
Cryptocurrency exchange BingX has reported that traditional finance assets, including gold, forex, stocks and indices, reached a peak of 50% of its total platform volume during Q1 2026, the most striking single data point yet in a wave of crypto exchange expansion into conventional financial markets.
The figure, confirmed in BingX's official Q1 2026 review published today, comes against a backdrop of explosive industry-wide growth in so-called TradFi-perps, perpetual futures contracts linked to traditional financial assets, and a broader race among the world's largest crypto exchanges to position themselves as unified trading destinations for both digital and conventional assets.
An industry in motion
The scale of the shift taking place across crypto exchanges in Q1 2026 is hard to overstate. According to Binance Research data, average daily TradFi-perps volume across crypto exchanges rose from $3 billion in January 2026 to $8.6 billion in March, a 188% increase in a single quarter. Aggregated monthly volume climbed from $8 billion in November 2025 to $256 billion in March 2026. As recently as December 2025, traditional-asset perps represented just 0.03% of total crypto margin derivatives volume. By Q1 2026 they commanded 1.72% of all exchange-traded crypto derivatives. This was not a gradual evolution but a structural breakout, driven initially by record gold and silver prices and then by geopolitical-driven demand for crude oil exposure as Iran-related tensions escalated in March.
Three distinct models are now emerging across the competitive landscape, with meaningfully different risk, regulatory and product profiles.
Model 1: Synthetic perpetuals (BingX, Bybit and Binance)
BingX launched its TradFi Market in January 2026, initially offering perpetual futures on commodities through crypto-native infrastructure settled in USDT. Gold contracts alone drove over $1.5 billion in 24-hour volume by early February, with that figure doubling to over $2 billion within weeks. The product has since expanded to cover more than 100 traditional financial assets across stocks, indices, commodities and forex. Most recently, BingX launched a zero-fee TradFi futures campaign running through to July 31, covering all eligible TradFi futures trades for referred users while maintaining full partner and affiliate commissions through platform-funded subsidies.
The 50% peak volume figure is, as far as the market is aware, the most aggressive TradFi volume claim published by any crypto exchange. BingX has positioned itself as what it calls the first AI-native crypto exchange, with its AI suite surpassing 5 million users in Q1 and over 57 million cumulative queries resolved. TradFi is being promoted as a core pillar of that ecosystem rather than an add-on product.
Bybit is BingX's closest comparable, and by instrument count it is ahead. The Dubai-based exchange, which claims to have introduced the world's first TradFi product from a crypto exchange back in 2022, now integrates more than 200 TradFi instruments with plans to launch 500 trading pairs, including stock CFDs, forex, commodities and indices. Its TradFi platform averages billions in daily trading volume. Recent additions include BlackRock's IBIT Bitcoin ETF, Manchester United, and sector ETFs covering energy, lithium batteries and uranium, all available 24 hours a day, five days a week with a zero-fee mode where costs are built into the spread rather than charged as commission. Bybit has not published platform-level volume share data comparable to BingX's 50% figure.
Binance, despite being the last of the three to officially enter the space, is by far the largest player by TradFi-perps volume. It launched USDT-settled gold and silver perpetuals in January 2026 and now holds an estimated 41% market share of the entire TradFi-perps segment across centralised exchanges. As of this week, Binance added Microsoft, Alibaba and Broadcom as stock perpetual contracts, offering up to 10x leverage. Binance's scale means TradFi is one product line among many rather than a strategic headline. For BingX, it is the story.
Model 2: Tokenised equities (Kraken)
Kraken is pursuing a structurally different and more institutionally credible approach. Through its acquisition of Backed Finance and the xStocks platform, Kraken has established the largest tokenised equity offering in the market. xStocks has surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume across centralised and decentralised venues since launching in June 2025, with over $3.5 billion occurring directly on-chain from more than 80,000 unique on-chain holders. The platform now offers 100 fully backed, 1:1 tokenised US stocks and ETFs, with a target of 500 by end of 2026.
The critical structural distinction from the perpetuals model is that each xStock is fully backed by the underlying asset, held by a licensed custodian in a bankruptcy-remote structure, a far more regulated and transparent framework than USDT-settled synthetic perpetuals. Kraken is also partnering with Nasdaq and Deutsche Börse to extend xStocks to institutional investors. The trade-off is jurisdictional restriction, as xStocks are not currently available to residents of the US, UK, Canada or Australia. For the institutional segment that BingX is unlikely to reach given its current regulatory standing, Kraken is setting the standard.
Model 3: Deliberate abstention (OKX)
OKX, one of the world's largest derivatives exchanges by volume, has explicitly decided not to join the rush. The exchange confirmed in January that it is monitoring the TradFi asset trend but does not plan to enter the space, instead focusing its 2026 strategy on its non-custodial crypto payment card and Web3 infrastructure. Given OKX's significant US market ambitions, regulatory caution around offering synthetic equity exposure is a plausible driver of that decision.
Putting BingX's 50% in context
BingX's peak volume claim is the boldest number the market has seen, but context matters. The platform is a tier-two exchange by overall crypto derivatives volume. According to CoinGlass full-year 2025 data, BingX recorded approximately $2.27 trillion in derivatives volume, less than 40% of Gate.io's $5.91 trillion for the same period and a fraction of Binance's $4.9 trillion in Q1 2026 alone. A 50% TradFi share of BingX's total volume is impressive in relative terms, but Binance is commanding an estimated 41% of the entire TradFi-perps market across all exchanges.
It is also worth noting how significantly gold's exceptional run has driven these numbers. The precious metal climbed approximately 65% over the past year and recently tested record highs above $4,700 per ounce, drawing safe-haven demand from retail crypto user bases across multiple platforms. Whether TradFi volumes maintain their share as gold's momentum moderates will be the defining Q2 question for BingX and its peers.
What is not in question is the direction of travel. The crypto/TradFi convergence is no longer a strategic aspiration; it is a live and rapidly growing market, with institutional money, retail demand for 24/7 conventional asset access, and the infrastructure to deliver it all converging in Q1 2026. The exchanges moving fastest are setting the terms. BingX, for now, is winning the narrative.
Founded in 2018 and serving over 40 million registered users across more than 100 countries, BingX is incorporated in Panama and does not currently hold regulatory approval from a major financial authority, a factor institutional clients are likely to weigh carefully as TradFi products attract increasing regulatory scrutiny.
Found this interesting? Become a member of LiquidityFinder and get daily industry news direct to your inbox — join here.
