Crypto stock products are becoming one of the most important ways for centralized exchanges to extend from crypto into traditional finance, and the segment is still in a rapid growth phase.
In this market cycle, TradFi has become one of the clearest expansion directions for CEXs, with equities gradually turning into the main product entry point. Since the start of 2026, more exchanges have added U.S. stocks, ETFs and even pre-IPO assets to their trading systems. Product design has also moved well beyond basic price derivatives into tokenized spot equities, transferable onchain stock assets, stock contracts, CFDs and direct access to traditional securities markets.
According to CoinGecko data cited in the source article, monthly trading volume in stock perpetuals across the top 13 crypto trading platforms rose from about $831 million in July 2025 to roughly $34 billion in May 2026, close to a 40-fold increase in less than a year.
In the first five months of 2026 alone, cumulative stock-perpetual trading volume had already exceeded the total for all of 2025. Including TradFi and RWA perpetuals tied to stocks, commodities and indexes, monthly volume reached $347.17 billion in May 2026, while the year-to-date total passed $1.32 trillion.
On the spot and onchain tokenized equity side, xStocks, described in the article as one of the most important tokenized equity systems in the market, had posted more than $35 billion in cumulative trading volume by July 2026, with close to 200,000 holders globally. The product line had also started expanding beyond U.S. stocks and ETFs into Hong Kong, the U.K., Europe and South Korea.
Judging by the pace of product iteration and the amount of exchange investment, the category is no longer easy to frame as a niche RWA experiment. It is turning into a major competitive arena for CEXs trying to bridge crypto and TradFi. Even so, the article notes that crypto stock products remain early relative to the broader global equity market. CoinGecko data shows that trading activity in crypto equity derivatives still accounts for less than 1% of traditional stock market turnover.
The article then compares the current equity-related offerings from Binance, OKX, Bitget, Gate, Kraken, Coinbase and Backpack.
Major CEX crypto stock product strategies
Binance
Binance has built a multi-layer equity product stack rather than relying on a single tokenized-stock model. The lineup includes Binance Stocks, bStocks, TradFi Perps and Pre-IPO Perps, spanning real stock trading, tokenized securities, stock perpetuals and pre-IPO derivatives.
That structure splits the same underlying equity into several trading forms. Users can hold the stock directly, convert some holdings into tokens for onchain use, or trade leveraged exposure through perpetuals.
Binance Stocks is not itself a tokenized-stock product. The service is provided by Nest Trading Limited, a broker-dealer under the Abu Dhabi Global Market framework, and connects to external securities brokerage and clearing systems. After purchasing shares, users become the beneficial owner of the securities. The shares are custodied by partner brokers, and users may receive rights tied to dividends, stock splits and other corporate actions where applicable.
At launch, Binance Stocks supported more than 7,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, covering large-cap technology, financials, consumer names, energy, semiconductors and a wide ETF range. The minimum investment threshold is $5, and some stocks support fractional trading. Purchases are mainly settled in USDC, although users can place orders directly with BNB, USDT, USD1, U and other Binance account assets, with the platform automatically converting them into USDC during execution.
Trading hours include regular U.S. market hours, pre-market and after-hours sessions. Some securities also support overnight trading, allowing for as much as 24/5 access. Market orders are mainly executed during regular hours, while limit orders cover a longer extended-hours and overnight session.
bStocks, formally called bStocks Tokenized Securities, are issued by Binance affiliate BTech Holdings Limited. Under the ADGM legal framework, they are classified as Certificates as defined in FSMR Schedule 1 Paragraph 92. Each bStock is backed 1:1 by the corresponding U.S. stock held by a regulated custodian. Still, the holder owns rights tied to the issuer’s underlying securities rather than becoming a traditional registered shareholder of the listed company.
Binance links its real-stock account and onchain stock token together. Eligible users can buy bStocks directly, or first purchase the underlying stock through Binance Stocks and then convert supported shares into the matching bStock on a 1:1 basis with zero conversion fee. The reverse conversion also exists, allowing a bStock to be turned back into the stock entitlement inside Binance Stocks.
Once converted into token form, the asset becomes a BEP-20 token on BNB Smart Chain. Users can trade it 24/7 on Binance Spot, withdraw it to a BSC wallet and use it in DeFi venues that support bStocks. Dividends and stock splits are reflected through Binance’s multiplier mechanism. Binance also allows some bStocks to enter Margin, Portfolio Margin and collateral systems.
The article notes that users can access onchain perpetuals for some blue-chip stocks, ETFs and commodities through Aster via Binance Wallet, but those trades occur on the third-party DEX Aster rather than inside Binance’s own CEX execution and clearing system.
TradFi Perps take a different route. They do not require users to hold or convert real stocks, instead offering equity price exposure through a perpetual structure familiar to Binance’s crypto users. The contracts are settled in USDT, trade 24/7, carry funding every eight hours, usually have a minimum notional amount of 5 USDT and support Multi-Assets Mode.
After May 2026, Equity TradFi Perps introduced an Orderbook EWMA Index Mode during hours when the underlying securities market is closed. That mode combines Binance order book impact mid-price data with an EWMA mechanism to create a continuous index price.
Binance’s stock perpetual lineup has expanded from early contracts focused on MSTR, AMZN, CRCL, COIN and PLTR into a broader roster of large-cap technology stocks, semiconductor names, ETFs and Asian-market underlyings. Besides POPMARTUSDT and ETF perpetuals such as TMF, TBT and BITO, the exchange also listed ZhongJi Innolight, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, HANMI Semiconductor, LG Electronics, NAVER and KODEX 200 ETF contracts. Some offer leverage of 20x to 25x.
Pre-IPO Perps were formally introduced in May 2026. These contracts can reference companies that have not yet gone public when the product launches. The first example, SPCXUSDT, was designed to let users trade market expectations around SpaceX’s potential public valuation before an IPO through a USDT-margined perpetual contract. After SpaceX listed, the product shifted from a pre-IPO perpetual into a regular TradFi perpetual, with the index switching to the public market price. At the same time, users could buy SPCX shares through Binance Stocks and obtain the tokenized version, SPCXB, through bStocks.
Kraken
Kraken has also built a broad product structure in crypto equities, combining real stock trading, xStocks tokenized equities, and derivatives built on top of xStocks, including stock perpetuals and pre-IPO perps.
xStocks sits at the center of this strategy. The product was first launched through cooperation between Kraken and Backed. Payward later announced the acquisition of Backed Finance, the issuer behind xStocks, at the end of 2025, and completed the deal in January 2026. That brought issuance, trading and settlement infrastructure more tightly into the Payward/Kraken group, giving Kraken a stack that includes securities brokerage access, tokenized-equity issuance rails and derivatives trading capability.
Real stock trading arrived in April 2025, when Kraken formally launched U.S. stocks and ETFs. The U.S. offering now covers more than 11,000 stocks and ETFs across NYSE, Nasdaq and AMEX, with management available alongside crypto assets in Kraken App, Kraken Pro and Kraken Desktop.
Securities services are provided by Kraken Securities LLC, a SEC-registered broker-dealer and a member of FINRA and SIPC. Users are buying real shares, and Kraken states that those shares belong to the customer, with cash dividends paid directly into the account.
Trading hours follow the traditional securities market. Regular U.S. stock hours run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Users may place orders outside those hours, but execution waits until the next trading session, so this part of the offering is not truly 24/7. Kraken’s help center update from July 2026 said the stock service was available in most U.S. regions, with Maine and New York not supported, and had also opened to eligible users in Germany, the Netherlands and France in the European Economic Area.
Kraken has also added brokerage-style features such as ACATS transfers for stocks and ETFs from other brokers, as well as stock lending for eligible users.
xStocks is Kraken’s flagship crypto-equity product. The basic structure is simple: real stocks or ETFs are purchased and held in custody, then matching xStocks are issued on a 1:1 basis and circulate on Kraken and onchain. Kraken works with firms including Alpaca on underlying stock purchases and custody, while the xStocks issuance system maps those securities into tokens.
Holding an xStock is not the same as directly holding the listed company’s shares in a traditional brokerage account. The user holds a token backed by real securities rather than the underlying registered stock itself, so direct voting rights are typically absent. Cash dividends from the underlying stock are usually reflected through reinvestment and increases in xStock balances.
Kraken currently lists around 131 xStocks products, with the lineup still being updated. That includes about 100 stocks, 27 ETFs and a small number of other assets, covering Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Coinbase, Robinhood, Strategy, GameStop, SPY and QQQ.
The article distinguishes Kraken’s tradable lineup from the wider xStocks ecosystem. Across the full issuance system, xStocks has already expanded to more than 500 tokenized assets, though not all of them are live on Kraken.
What sets xStocks apart from many internal synthetic stock products on CEXs is transferability. Users can buy xStocks on Kraken and withdraw them to external wallets. The assets currently run on Solana, Ethereum, TON and Ink, allowing them to be used more broadly in DeFi.
Most xStocks trade close to 24/5, while TSLAx, QQQx, SPYx, NVDAx, CRCLx, AAPLx, HOODx, MSTRx, GLDx and GOOGLx are already available for 24/7 trading on Kraken Pro.
Kraken has also integrated xStocks into its broader crypto product stack. Some core xStocks support margin trading at up to about 3x and qualify as collateral for Kraken Pro Futures and Margin, meaning users can keep holding tokenized stocks such as AAPLx, NVDAx and SPYx while posting them as margin.
Stock perpetuals and Pre-IPO Perps build on top of this spot market. Rather than relying only on traditional stock-market indexes, Kraken’s xStocks perpetual futures place more emphasis on a tokenized-equity benchmark, using xStocks pricing as a key reference. That allows price discovery to continue on Kraken and onchain after the traditional U.S. stock market closes, helping the matching perpetuals trade 24/7.
Current xStocks perpetuals include AAPLx, CRCLx, GOOGLx, HOODx, MSTRx, NVDAx, TSLAx, SPYx, QQQx and GLDx. These contracts offer leverage up to about 20x and support both long and short positioning.
That creates two different forms of the same asset on Kraken. NVDAx, for example, is a tokenized stock backed 1:1 by real NVIDIA shares, while the NVDAx perpetual is a leveraged derivative built on top of the NVDAx and stock price framework.
Kraken has extended the same derivatives logic into pre-IPO names, introducing Pre-IPO Perpetual Futures for companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Because these firms do not yet have listed public shares, Kraken uses a PreMarket Synthetic Index. The platform first forms a market price from the pre-IPO order book, then applies index and smoothing mechanisms to reduce the effect of individual trades and short-term volatility. The mark price runs around that synthetic index.
Once a company files for an IPO and the real share count and offering details become clearer, Kraken can rebase the contract based on the actual number of shares. After the company lists, the benchmark can switch to the stock or xStocks price system, turning the product into a standard stock perpetual.
OKX
Compared with Binance, OKX leans more heavily into a mix of tokenized stocks, equity perpetuals and Web3 or CeDeFi access. The article breaks its stock-related offering into three main routes: Unified Tokenized Stocks inside the CEX, currently based mainly on xStocks; Ondo Tokenized Stocks accessed through OKX CeDeFi and DEX infrastructure; and a larger stock or equity perpetuals business. In some regulated regions, including parts of the EEA, OKX also offers Equity X-Perps.
Unified Tokenized Stocks, or UTS, launched in July 2026. The product plugs stock tokens directly into OKX’s spot trading system, allowing users to trade tokenized versions of names such as Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla, Microsoft, SPY and QQQ with USDT, without opening a traditional brokerage account or converting into fiat. Trading runs 24/7 inside the same account framework used for crypto spot and equity perpetuals.
The underlying xStocks can be deposited and withdrawn through Solana and X Layer, which means users can buy a UTS asset on OKX and move the matching xStock onchain, then move it back to the exchange later. OKX provides the CEX order book and front-end experience, while the token itself remains transferable onchain.
The article points out that UTS is not issued by OKX. The assets currently come mainly from the xStocks and Backed Assets framework, where third-party issuers handle token issuance and the underlying securities arrangements. OKX’s role is distribution and trading.
One of the system’s design goals is to unify multiple issuance routes behind a single tradable asset. If several issuers eventually create different tokens for the same stock, OKX says it can map them into one UTS market with a shared order book and unified treatment of corporate actions. In that sense, UTS functions as a trading layer inside the CEX rather than a single issuance standard.
Dividends, stock splits and similar events are also handled through the token system. Cash dividends on the underlying stock are processed by the issuer, and after any applicable withholding tax, the economic benefit is passed through to users by means such as reinvestment or balance adjustments.
OKX currently lists 48 UTS assets, including MU, SPCX, SNDK, SKHY, SPY, QQQ and NVDA. The range now extends beyond large-cap technology names into semiconductors, crypto-linked equities, consumer names, healthcare, energy, industrials and ETFs. UTS has also begun entering OKX’s structured product suite, with dual-investment products now supporting 11 tokenized stocks as underlying assets.
Ondo Tokenized Stocks predate UTS on OKX. In May 2026, OKX integrated Ondo Finance’s tokenized stocks into its CeDeFi and DEX system, allowing users to trade U.S. equity-linked onchain assets with stablecoins such as USDT and USDC from OKX accounts and wallets.
Unlike UTS, which sits in the CEX spot order book and currently relies mainly on xStocks, Ondo products operate in OKX’s CeDeFi and DEX environment with self-custody. Execution comes from onchain liquidity and related providers, while OKX Wallet acts more as an entry point, aggregator and interface.
One of the biggest differences between the two routes is product breadth. When OKX rolled out Ondo stock products in May, it opened trading in more than 260 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs at once, including Apple, NVIDIA and Tesla. By pure asset count, Ondo still covers far more names than the 48 UTS assets on the CEX side.
Users can start from around $20 and get fractional exposure. Assets can remain in OKX Wallet or move to other compatible wallets, making self-custody and onchain transfer a larger part of the product design.
Still, Ondo’s stock products are not 24/7. They are organized around overnight, pre-market, regular market and post-market sessions based on the underlying U.S. securities market, giving them something close to 24/5 availability. Trading usually stops from Friday 23:59 UTC to Monday 00:05 UTC and during U.S. market holidays. UTS, by contrast, follows a more crypto-native 24/7 model.
Ondo DEX trading mainly uses market orders. Funds remain in the user’s wallet until the onchain trade is executed, and routing may run through the OKX DEX Aggregator, Aggregator+ or third-party paths, with gas fees or interface service fees depending on the route.
Stock derivatives at OKX come in two main forms. International markets are served primarily by USDT-margined stock perpetuals, while some regulated regions use USD-margined X-Perps. Both give users equity price exposure, but their legal structure, margin currency and eligible user base differ.
The international stock perpetuals largely follow the exchange’s crypto perpetual model. Index prices are built from a mix of traditional securities market prices, tokenized-asset prices and other market data, with actual execution taking place in OKX’s own order book. The contracts use USDT as margin and settlement collateral, trade 24/7 and use a funding-rate mechanism to keep pricing close to the underlying equity reference.
These products are integrated into OKX’s unified account system, so users do not need a separate securities or TradFi derivatives account. Their crypto assets can participate in spot, crypto perps and equity perps margin management within one framework.
OKX accelerated expansion in stock perpetuals starting in February 2026. Beyond earlier names such as HOOD, TSLA, MSTR, NVIDIA, Micron, SanDisk, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, SPY and QQQ, it added COIN, PLTR, QCOM, SNOW, APP and ZM, along with ETFs and leveraged ETFs such as SOXS and TMF, as well as SK hynix, Samsung, Korean equity ETFs and the KR200 index.
In some regulated regions, OKX instead uses X-Perps, which the article describes as long-dated expiry futures margined in USD rather than the usual USDT stock perpetuals offered internationally. Current X-Perps cover AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, META, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA, SPY, QQQ, SpaceX and SK hynix. Some EEA products offer leverage of up to around 10x while maintaining 24/7 trading.
Bitget
Bitget’s crypto-equity business is split into three broad areas: Stocks 2.0, made up of Stock+ and rToken; a derivatives suite centered on stock perpetuals and U.S. equity options; and a pre-listing market built around IPO Prime and Pre-IPO Perpetuals. The article also notes that Bitget’s CFD system adds single-stock and equity-index exposure, making the overall lineup resemble a broader TradFi trading platform inside a crypto venue.
Stocks 2.0 combines two routes. Stock+ is real stock trading, while rToken tokenizes real equities for use in the crypto trading system. Both allow U.S. equity exposure inside Bitget, but the underlying structure differs.
Stock+ launched in June 2026 through licensed U.S. securities partners RQD Clearing and Atomic Vaults Securities. Orders can be routed to Nasdaq, NYSE and regulated market makers, and the user ends up holding real U.S. stocks rather than price-mapping tokens. That means access to cash dividends, stock dividends and voting rights.
The service currently covers more than 10,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, supports fractional trading down to 0.0001 of a share, and offers pre-market, regular, after-hours and overnight sessions for roughly 24/5 access. Users can also transfer eligible U.S. stocks from other brokers into Bitget instead of selling and repurchasing them.
The stock account mainly uses USDC. Users can convert crypto or stablecoins inside Bitget before entering the equity market, making Stock+ function much like an embedded online brokerage inside a crypto app.
The second route is Reality rToken. Issued by Reality, each rToken corresponds to one U.S. stock or ETF and is backed 1:1 by the underlying security. Those securities are bought and held through traditional financial infrastructure including the U.S. brokerage firm Alpaca. Users can trade tokenized names such as rAAPL, rNVDA, rTSLA, rSPY and rQQQ in Bitget’s spot market with USDT.
Bitget’s official pages show coverage of more than 500 stock and ETF assets through rToken. Not every product trades around the clock, but a number of major assets have been extended to full 24/7 trading. The list includes NVIDIA, Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft, Meta, AMD, Broadcom, Micron, SpaceX, Circle, Robinhood, Strategy, QQQ, SPY, SOXL and ASML. Other assets still follow more limited market rules.
Cash dividends are converted into USDT and paid into the user account. Stock dividends, stock splits and reverse splits are reflected through token balance adjustments.
Bitget has also increased the composability of rTokens. In its cross-asset unified account, 100 rTokens have been added to the shared margin pool. The first batch of eligible assets in the system totals more than 370, including those 100 U.S. stock rTokens. Users can keep holding rAAPL, rNVDA, rTSLA and rQQQ while using them as margin for futures and leveraged trades or as collateral to borrow stablecoins.
Beyond that, rTokens have been added to Bitget’s existing spot grid, futures strategy, copy trading and Earn systems. Bitget’s elite spot copy trading also now supports stock tokens such as rTSLA and rNVDA.
The article adds that Bitget originally integrated Ondo’s stock spot products, but began transitioning away from that third-party route as its own system matured. After July 2026, eligible Ondo stock tokens were automatically converted into Reality rTokens.
Stock derivatives are another major piece of Bitget’s strategy, with stock perpetuals as the largest product line. These contracts closely mirror the exchange’s USDT perpetual model in crypto. Users do not hold the stock itself. They trade perpetual contracts referencing traditional stock prices.
Index prices come from traditional financial markets. Bitget explicitly says it uses four data sources: Pyth, dxFeed, Massive and Intrinio, and adjusts index sourcing dynamically based on market activity and source stability. Contracts are quoted and settled in USDT, trade 24/7, support isolated margin, cross margin and unified account modes, and can reach as high as 100x leverage on some underlyings.
The exchange lists not only U.S. and global large-cap names such as Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla and Microsoft, but also ETFs such as SPY, QQQ, SOXL, SQQQ, TQQQ, EWY and EWJ, index contracts such as SP500USDT and NDX100USDT, and equities from Hong Kong and South Korea including Tencent, Meituan, NetEase, Xiaomi, Pop Mart, SMIC, GigaDevice, Samsung, SK hynix and Hyundai.
For non-USD-denominated markets such as Hong Kong and Japan, Bitget launched Quanto Perpetual Futures in July. These contracts keep the underlying stock quoted in local currency, but margin, funding and profit and loss are settled entirely in USDT. The platform does not execute actual HKD/USDT or JPY/USDT conversions. Instead, it maps the local-currency price numerically into the USDT contract. The article gives a simple example: if a Hong Kong stock rises from 200 HKD to 300 HKD, the Quanto contract moves from 200 to 300, and profit and loss are calculated directly in USDT on that difference.
Beyond perps, Bitget has also launched U.S. equity options. Tradable contracts have expanded to more than 2,800, covering S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 components along with a broad set of stocks and ETFs. The options entry point is integrated into Stock+. After entering the stock account with USDC, users can view expiries, strikes and call or put contracts on names such as Tesla, NVIDIA, Apple and SPY. Pre-market trading is supported. For now, the main strategies available are long calls, long puts and closing sales. Naked option selling is not yet available. Long calls and long puts require 100% premium payment, with T+1 settlement matching the U.S. securities market.
Pre-IPO products at Bitget use two distinct routes. The first is IPO Prime, launched in April 2026. It uses compliant issuers to create digital assets tied to the economic performance of private companies, then lets users subscribe with stablecoins. Examples include preSPAX, later renamed preSPCX, for SpaceX, and preOPAI for OpenAI. These tokens are issued by firms including Republic and are meant to map the future post-listing economic performance of the relevant company under product terms. They do not mean direct ownership of SpaceX or OpenAI shares.
Users can subscribe with stablecoins such as USDT and USDGO, with minimum participation as low as around $100, and then trade the assets later in Bitget’s Pre-IPO spot market.
The second route is Pre-IPO Perpetuals. Here, users do not need to subscribe to a pre-IPO token at all. Bitget uses its stock-perpetual infrastructure to form a USDT perpetual contract based on estimated valuation and estimated share count. For OPENAIUSDT, for example, the exchange used an assumed one billion shares while the company was still private. It divided the company valuation by the estimated number of shares to arrive at a reference unit price, then planned to adjust contract parameters once actual share-count and IPO information became available. These products use USDT settlement, trade 24/7 and include a funding mechanism.
Bitget has listed Pre-IPO Perpetuals for OpenAI, Anthropic, Quantinuum, SpaceX and Moonshot AI. The article says that names such as SpaceX and SK hynix later moved into regular spot stock and stock-perpetual systems after listing.
Gate
Gate’s crypto-equity lineup follows four tracks: real stock trading, TokenStocks, equity derivatives, and Pre-IPO or IPO Access products.
Gate Stocks launched in June 2026 as a direct link into real securities markets through traditional brokerage infrastructure. It allows users to buy, hold and sell stocks and ETFs inside a Gate account.
For U.S. equities, Gate works mainly with Alpaca. Alpaca acts as the underlying broker and clearing infrastructure partner, handling order execution, clearing, settlement, custody, dividends and corporate actions. Gate handles the user entry point, identity checks, order handling, USDT funding link and account display.
The system uses an omnibus account model closer to what many traditional brokers use. End-user securities are aggregated at the clearing level into a unified omnibus account, while Gate’s own system records each customer’s position and economic entitlement. Users can receive cash dividends, stock dividends, stock splits and reverse splits, though they generally do not have formal registered-shareholder rights such as voting at shareholder meetings.
Gate Stocks has expanded to more than 12,500 stocks and ETFs, including more than 10,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs, 1,500-plus Hong Kong stocks and 1,000-plus Korean stocks. Names cited in the article include Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla and Microsoft in the U.S., Tencent, Xiaomi and Meituan in Hong Kong, and Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, Hyundai and NAVER in South Korea. The three markets share one Gate stock account, with direct trading in USDT rather than separate conversion into USD, HKD or KRW.
TokenStocks is Gate’s umbrella section for gStocks, xStocks and Ondo Stocks. The front-end presentation may look similar across them, but the issuance method and asset structure differ.
The product Gate is pushing most heavily is gStocks. These tokens use 1:1 full-reserve backing with real stocks. Every gStock in circulation corresponds to the matching quantity of underlying stock or securities assets. Users can trade them in Gate’s order book with USDT, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while also getting fractional access and onchain transferability.
The current lineup includes U.S. names such as Apple, Alphabet, Broadcom, JPMorgan, Berkshire Hathaway, Walmart, Visa and Eli Lilly, as well as Korean equities such as Samsung and SK hynix. It also extends to ETFs and leveraged ETFs such as TQQQ and KORU, and has even started to include products tied to private-company names such as Quantinuum.
gStocks can already be used in Gate’s unified account, margin trading, collateralized borrowing, yield products and stock-dividend systems. A user holding a stock token can keep using it as collateral to borrow USDT or place it inside Gate’s broader margin and yield framework.
Gate also connects xStocks and Ondo Stocks within TokenStocks. As described earlier in the article, xStocks are issued through the Backed system and backed by real securities, while Gate acts as a trading and distribution venue. Ondo Stocks are framed more as total-return or economic-exposure stock tokens, giving users onchain assets linked to the economic performance of the underlying stock rather than direct registered share ownership.
That leaves Gate with a relatively unusual aggregation market built across several issuance systems: gStocks as its own 1:1 reserve-backed token product, xStocks from the Backed tokenized equity framework, and Ondo as a separate economic-exposure structure.
Stock derivatives on Gate are led by stock perpetuals, a format already familiar to crypto users. Users do not need Gate to assign real shares to every contract. Instead, the exchange plugs traditional stock or ETF prices into its perpetual-futures infrastructure, with USDT used for margin and settlement and the ability to trade both long and short.
Coverage is broad. Beyond Apple, NVIDIA and Tesla, the article lists TSM, Walmart, Costco, Goldman Sachs, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Adobe, Palantir, SOFI, Toyota, MUFG, SK hynix, Samsung Electronics and Hyundai, along with ETFs such as SOXL, SOXS, SQQQ, XLK, XLF, EEM, KORU, TZA, IBIT and GDX. Most newly listed stock contracts offer leverage up to 20x.
For non-USD-denominated stocks such as Hong Kong names, Gate has added Quanto perpetuals on top of regular stock perps. Using Tencent as an example, the underlying remains quoted in HKD, but users do not need to convert USDT into HKD. The contract displays the HKD price numerically, while margin, funding and final profit and loss are all settled directly in USDT. The first batch included TENCENTHKD, ZHIPUHKD, MINIMAXHKD and XIAOMIHKD, each with leverage up to 20x.
Gate also runs a separate CFD system. CFDs and stock perpetuals both allow users to trade price changes without owning the underlying stock, but the mechanics are not the same. Gate CFD products are closer to the conventional contracts-for-difference market, with prices mainly following external market quotes and a cost structure centered on spreads, fees and overnight charges rather than funding rates. Users move funds into the corresponding USDx system through their Gate account, then trade long or short.
According to the article, Gate’s CFD market has reached more than 500 markets across stocks, FX, indexes, precious metals and commodities. Representative stock CFDs include Apple, Tesla, NVIDIA, Microsoft and Amazon, with leverage on stock products usually capped at 5x.
Gate also supports Pre-IPO Perps, listing products tied to names such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Anduril, Quantinuum, Neuralink, Moonshot AI and ChangXin Memory. Because these firms had no public market share price at the time, Gate used company valuation and estimated total share count to derive a unit price. The article gives an OpenAI example that assumed one billion shares. At an $800 billion valuation, a single OPENAI contract unit would be priced at roughly $800, with contract size adjusted later once actual IPO share details became known.
On the primary-market side, Gate offers both Pre-IPOs and IPO Access. Pre-IPOs let users subscribe to digitalized asset certificates with USDT or GUSD and then trade them on a secondary market. IPO Access is different: users submit IPO interest using USDT, and if Gate secures a real IPO allocation and the user is allocated shares, the result is a position in actual stock that enters the Gate Stocks account after listing.
Coinbase
Coinbase’s live crypto-equity offering currently falls into two main parts. One is direct real-stock trading through Coinbase Capital Markets. The other is a derivatives stack, including stock perpetuals, pre-IPO perpetuals and equity index futures, offered through venues such as Coinbase International Exchange. At the same time, Coinbase is building a tokenized-stock framework that has not yet formally launched to the market.
Real stock trading is provided through Coinbase Capital Markets, or CCM. CCM is a securities broker within the FINRA and SIPC system. Coinbase also connects to Apex Fintech Solutions, which handles stock execution, clearing and custody through traditional securities infrastructure. Users are buying real shares and ETFs, not price-replication tokens.
Customers can manage stocks directly inside Coinbase App and Coinbase Advanced alongside crypto. The product supports USD and USDC as funding rails, zero stock commissions, fractional trading from as little as $1, and 24/5 trading on some stocks. Securities transactions still settle in USD at the end, so if a user pays in USDC, the system converts it into USD during execution. The stocks themselves continue to settle under traditional T+1 market rules.
On Aug. 6, 2026, Coinbase expanded that real-stock service into the U.K. Eligible U.K. users can trade nearly 4,000 U.S. stocks in Coinbase, with the same 24/5 access, zero commission and fractional trading, starting from as little as GBP 1.
Stock derivatives make up the other major part of Coinbase’s equity push. The product closest to standard crypto-user behavior is the stock perpetual future on Coinbase International Exchange. Coinbase formally launched these contracts in March 2026 for eligible non-U.S. users. They do not involve owning stock. Instead, they provide synthetic stock-price exposure through USDC-denominated perpetuals with 24/7 long and short trading, using Coinbase’s existing perpetual, funding, margin and liquidation systems.
One notable feature is the shared margin architecture with crypto perpetuals. Users can manage both crypto and stock-perpetual positions from the same pool of eligible collateral, without opening a separate TradFi derivatives account.
During regular securities-market hours, Coinbase’s stock index prices rely mainly on real market data. At night or on weekends, when the underlying market is closed, the exchange combines internal index pricing with tokenized-equity price data to keep building a reference price. That is how it maintains full 24/7 stock-perpetual trading.
The first underlyings were the Magnificent Seven: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, Meta and Tesla, plus SPY and QQQ. The roster later expanded to AMD, Intel, Micron, SanDisk, TSMC and SpaceX. Leverage varies by contract. Most single-stock products offer up to around 10x, while ETFs such as SPY and QQQ can go up to around 20x. Minimum order size is typically 10 USDC.
Separate from those offshore stock perpetuals, Coinbase also operates regulated perpetual-style equity index futures in the U.S. through Coinbase Derivatives under a CFTC-supervised futures framework. These are not the same as offshore stock perps. The first indexes include AI10, China10, Defense10 and Tech100, offering basket exposure to artificial intelligence, China, defense and large-cap technology names, with cash settlement and a funding-like mechanism to keep futures pricing aligned with the underlying index.
Tokenized Stocks remain in preparation. In June, Coinbase said it planned to launch 1:1 stock-backed tokenized equities for non-U.S. users. The article highlights an important distinction from many offshore exchange stock tokens: Coinbase wants eligible token holders to receive securities rights, including dividends and shareholder rights, while also allowing those securities to trade 24/7 and move into onchain lending, collateral and transfer use cases.
Coinbase recently obtained a Financial Services Permission from ADGM and FSRA, allowing it to build an international tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi and secure permissions tied to arranging securities transactions and providing custody. The article says that tokenized securities registered and issued there would be fully backed by the corresponding underlying stocks, and that verified holders meeting the required vesting conditions could receive rights such as voting, dividends and redemption under the product terms.
Backpack
Backpack’s product range in crypto equities is less crowded than Binance, Bitget or Gate, but its structure is distinctive. The core design has two parts: Backpack Securities for real U.S. stocks and ETFs, and a tokenization layer that moves supported securities onto Solana while preserving a 1:1 two-way conversion between the traditional securities entitlement and the onchain token.
Backpack Securities launched in June 2026. This is real securities trading rather than stock-price mapping or CFDs. When users buy U.S. stocks and ETFs, they hold securities entitlements protected under New York UCC Article 8, with the underlying assets kept through traditional U.S. securities infrastructure. The custody and brokerage framework involves RQD Clearing and Atomic Vault Securities, both SEC-registered firms inside the FINRA and SIPC system.
The model is close to that of an online broker. Backpack provides the unified account, the trading interface and the stablecoin funding rail, while actual share ownership, clearing and custody stay within the traditional U.S. securities framework. Users can receive cash dividends and take part in stock splits and consolidations. They can also buy with either USD or USDC, using the same Backpack account for stocks and crypto.
Most stocks now cover overnight, pre-market, regular and after-hours sessions for nearly 24/5 access, and some go even further into weekend and holiday trading. The article specifically lists SpaceX (SPCX), Micron (MU), SanDisk (SNDK) and SK hynix (SKHY) as real stocks available 24/7. It also stresses that these are not 24/7 stock perpetuals but real UCC Article 8 security entitlements as defined by Backpack.
Tokenized Securities is Backpack’s next layer. Rather than listing a third-party stock token, Backpack lets users take a supported real security they already hold in Backpack Securities and move it onchain, or send the token back to Backpack and convert it into the matching traditional securities entitlement.
The article gives Intel as an example. A user holding INTC in Backpack can withdraw it and convert it into $INTC on Solana. If the user later deposits $INTC back from a Solana wallet into Backpack, it turns back into the Intel securities entitlement inside Backpack Securities. The conversion works on a 1:1 basis in both directions.
Many stock tokens only represent some form of economic claim against the issuer or underlying asset. Backpack’s design explicitly builds a 1:1 redemption path back into the traditional securities account. The token is framed as an onchain securities claim that can be redeemed into a UCC Article 8 securities entitlement.
These self-issued tokenized securities currently run mainly on Solana. They can be transferred between wallets 24/7 and used in Backpack Wallet as well as through Jupiter, Raydium, Kamino, Phantom and Solflare across wallets, DEXs, aggregators and DeFi apps on Solana.
Dividend treatment changes based on where the asset sits. If the security remains in Backpack Securities, cash dividends are handled like a normal securities account. If it has been tokenized and moved onchain, dividends are automatically reinvested into more tokenized shares, while stock splits are reflected through token balance adjustments to preserve economic equivalence with the underlying security.
Four broad product structures behind “crypto stocks”
The article closes by stepping away from exchange-by-exchange comparisons and classifying crypto stock products by legal relationship, custody structure, investor rights and risk-bearing design. It argues that the market has already developed at least four clearly different product structures.
1. Real stock trading and brokerage services
This category embeds traditional brokerage execution, clearing and custody into a crypto platform. What the user receives in the end is a real stock or ETF entitlement inside the conventional securities system, not just a token that tracks stock prices.
The article places Binance Stocks, Coinbase Stocks, Gate Stocks, Bitget Stock+ and Backpack U.S. Stocks in this group. Binance Stocks already offers more than 7,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs. Coinbase provides brokerage services through Coinbase Capital Markets, with execution, clearing and custody through Apex Clearing Corporation and support for thousands of listed U.S. securities plus 24/5 trading on some names. Gate has expanded into U.S., Hong Kong and Korean equities with more than 12,500 stocks and ETFs. Bitget Stock+ uses licensed securities partners such as RQD Clearing and Atomic Vaults Securities and covers more than 10,000 stocks and ETFs, with shareholder benefits such as dividends and voting rights.
In product logic, this route is the closest to a CEX extending into the online brokerage business. The crypto account acts as a unified front end and funding layer, while the securities themselves remain in traditional financial infrastructure.
2. Tokenized securities backed by real stocks
This group is closer to what most people picture as tokenized equities. There is usually a reserve of real stocks or ETFs behind the product, and tokens are issued against that reserve. But token holders generally do not become traditional registered shareholders of the listed company.
The article places Binance bStocks, OKX Unified Tokenized Stocks, Kraken’s xStocks, Bitget Reality rTokens, Gate’s gStocks and xStocks, and Backpack’s own tokenized securities in this bucket.
xStocks, for example, uses 1:1 underlying support. OKX’s UTS currently relies mainly on xStocks and allows some assets to move onchain through Solana and X Layer. Bitget’s Reality rTokens follow a similar model and cover more than 500 assets. Gate offers both gStocks and xStocks. Backpack allows some tokenized securities to move back and forth between the token and the traditional securities entitlement on a 1:1 basis.
Even within this category, legal rights still differ sharply. The article notes that Binance bStocks represent a claim tied to securities held by the issuer rather than direct registered ownership by the investor. xStocks are likewise 1:1 backed but remain tokens rather than brokerage-account shares. OKX’s UTS provides exposure to the underlying stock or ETF and typically does not include direct shareholder voting rights.
3. Total-return or synthetic equity tokens focused on economic exposure
The third structure can look similar to the second one from the outside. It may still involve real stocks as underlying assets or hedging assets and may still deliver close to 1:1 economic exposure to stock prices. The difference lies in the legal relationship and the precise economic rights the user receives.
In this model, the product usually maps the stock’s price changes, dividends or economic return to the token holder through contractual or total-return style arrangements. The token itself is not equivalent to a traditional brokerage-account share.
The article says OKX’s integration of Ondo Tokenized Stocks is closer to this structure. Ondo Global Markets stock tokens are backed by real securities held through licensed broker-dealers and regulated custodians, but the user holds an onchain equity-backed token that provides economic exposure rather than direct registered share ownership.
4. Stock perpetuals and CFDs without 1:1 share backing
The fourth category is one of the largest by trading activity on CEXs today: stock perpetual futures and CFDs. This is where the article places Coinbase International’s stock perpetual futures, Binance TradFi Perps, OKX stock and equity perpetuals, Bitget stock perps, and Gate’s stock CFDs.
These products do not require exchanges to back each user position with a matching amount of real stock on a 1:1 basis. They are much closer to the perpetual futures model crypto traders already know, using reference indexes, spot prices, oracle inputs, funding rates, margin systems and liquidation rules to provide exposure to moves in stock prices.
Coinbase International’s stock perpetual futures, for instance, give eligible non-U.S. users 24/7 access to synthetic U.S. stock exposure, which Coinbase itself describes as leveraged synthetic exposure rather than real stock ownership. Binance, OKX and Bitget plug stocks, ETFs and even stock indexes into USDT- or USDC-based margin systems. Some Bitget stock perpetuals go as high as 100x leverage.
Kraken combines xStocks with perpetuals by using a tokenized-equity benchmark to support 24/7 leveraged trading in stocks, ETFs and indexes for eligible non-U.S. users. CFDs follow a similar principle at a high level: the user trades a contract for price difference with the platform or broker rather than buying the stock itself.
Competition is getting harder
The article ends by arguing that crypto stocks are moving from a single-product experiment into a full system, with CEXs gradually evolving from pure crypto exchanges into broader financial trading platforms.
The barriers are getting higher. Real stocks, tokenized equities and stock perpetuals all bring their own demands around securities licensing, brokerage and clearing, custody, issuance structure and compliance across different jurisdictions. Once a platform moves beyond simple stock derivatives and into real securities and tokenized securities, it needs an entire framework that connects traditional finance with onchain markets.
On the supply side, the article argues that only platforms with strong compliance capacity, capital and infrastructure are likely to stand out. That naturally raises the threshold for smaller exchanges.
On the demand side, a large share of today’s crypto-stock users are already crypto users. In that sense, early competition is not mainly about winning traditional brokerage clients from scratch. It is more about whether a CEX can move its existing crypto users efficiently into stocks, ETFs and other TradFi products. That helps explain why large incumbent platforms such as Binance, OKX, Bitget, Gate, Kraken and Coinbase start from a stronger position.
Crypto stocks, in the article’s framing, will expand the market boundary of CEXs while also potentially reinforcing the hierarchy that has already formed across the industry.
