CoinGecko’s latest research shows crypto exchanges sharply expanded trading tied to real-world assets and traditional financial products between January 2025 and May 2026, with perpetual futures taking the lead. According to the report, TradFi-linked perpetual volume climbed from $230 million at the start of 2025 to $347.17 billion in May 2026, a rise of roughly 1,472 times.
Exchange listings tilted heavily toward perpetual contracts
On the product side, both centralized and decentralized venues added more RWA and TradFi-related instruments, but listings leaned toward perpetuals rather than spot markets. CoinGecko identified MEXC, Gate, and WEEX as the most active exchanges by listing count since early 2025. MEXC listed 358 products in total, including 199 spot RWA assets and 159 TradFi perpetual futures. Gate reached 224 listings, made up of 78 spot and 146 perpetual, while WEEX posted 192 assets, including 84 spot and 108 perpetual.
Several platforms focused almost entirely on perpetual markets. Hyperliquid and Aster listed only perpetual RWA products. By contrast, HTX, Binance, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and OKX added just one or two spot RWA assets over the past 17 months. Across exchanges, the average stood at 37 spot RWA products versus 75 perpetual contracts.
Market structure shifted in 2026 as perpetuals pulled away from spot
CoinGecko said demand for spot and perpetual RWA products looked relatively balanced in 2025. That changed in 2026. TradFi perpetual volumes moved to more than eight times spot RWA trading. The turning point first appeared in November 2025, when perpetual futures volume hit $26.39 billion, overtaking spot trading at $17.70 billion.
In the first months of 2026 alone, TradFi perpetual markets generated more than $1.32 trillion in total volume, well above the $104.21 billion recorded through all of 2025. Binance, MEXC, and Hyperliquid led the exchange rankings over the 17-month period. Binance logged $498.66 billion in TradFi perpetual turnover, followed by MEXC at $323.86 billion and Hyperliquid at $272.39 billion.
Tokenized stock contracts expanded, with Nvidia and Micron drawing heavy flow
Perpetual futures linked to tokenized stocks also posted strong growth. Monthly turnover rose from $831.17 million in July 2025 to $34 billion in May 2026, close to a 40-fold increase. Nvidia and Tesla ranked among the most heavily traded names. Micron saw one of the sharpest jumps, with volume moving from $736.21 million in April 2026 to $13.16 billion in May 2026.
Leadership among exchanges changed over time. Bitget was on top in tokenized stock perpetual trading in November 2025, but by May 2026 Hyperliquid and Binance had taken the leading positions. Binance held a 43.65% market share. Even so, CoinGecko noted that tokenized stock products still account for less than 1% of total trading volume seen on conventional stock exchanges.
SpaceX dominated pre-IPO tokenized contracts and prices narrowed before listing
In tokenized contracts tied to pre-IPO companies, SpaceX drew the most activity. Its perpetual futures posted $305 million in monthly volume in May 2026, giving it a 43.55% share of that segment. OpenAI and Anthropic ranked next, and together the three contracts represented 95.62% of all pre-IPO perpetual trading volume for the month.
Pricing for SPCX contracts was initially spread across exchanges before the expected Nasdaq listing. Binance and WEEX traded around $170, while Coinbase, Gate, and OKX were closer to $155. After IPO details became public, prices converged into the $160 to $165 range by June 10, then moved above $180 in the final two days before listing. Despite sharp volatility on listing day, SpaceX pre-IPO token contracts closed at an average of $157, about 4.67% above the SPCX opening price of $150.