Crypto Exchanges Cash In on Gold, Oil and Stocks as Bitcoin Demand Cools

Crypto exchanges are increasingly resembling traditional financial markets rather than crypto-native venues. 

A CryptoQuant report shows that traditional finance-linked perpetual futures — including contracts tied to gold, silver, oil, and equities — have surged in volume, even as native crypto trading activity has slowed to its weakest level in over a year. 

Trading volume for pre-IPO perpetual futures increased from $2 million in March to $715 million in May. In June, total trading volume has already exceeded May's level, reaching $1.2 billion. 

As a result, pre-IPO perpetuals accounted for 55% of total equities trading volume in June, up from just 5% in May.

According to a CryptoQuant report, this growth coincides with rising investor interest in pre-IPO perpetuals tied to companies such as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Quantinuum. 

Binance led the category with $10.3 billion in trading volume during June alone, approximately 20 times higher than its May volume. Bitget ranks second in Pre-IPO perpetuals activity, with $1.3 billion so far in June.

While pre-IPO contracts recorded the fastest growth rate, metals remained the dominant TradFi asset category by overall volume.

According to CryptoQuant, monthly metals futures volume climbed to nearly $500 billion in March 2026, making precious metals the primary driver of TradFi activity across crypto trading platforms.

The surge was fueled largely by gold and silver perpetual futures as both metals rallied to record highs.

Metals-linked perpetuals remain the largest TradFi product category in the sector, with trading concentrated on Gate.io, Binance, and MEXC.

Gate.io briefly emerged as the market leader in March, processing nearly $290 billion in metals trading volume during the rally. The spike proved short-lived, however, with activity declining sharply in the following months.

Binance maintained the most stable metals trading volumes, reaching roughly $100 billion in March and remaining above $50 billion thereafter. 

Meanwhile, MEXC gained market share rapidly, growing from virtually no metals trading activity at the start of 2026 to more than $80 billion in May, overtaking Binance as the largest metals trading venue that month.

Equity-linked trading on crypto exchanges has risen in 2026 but eased in recent months.

Total volume peaked at $34 billion in March, before falling to $15.2 billion in May. Even so, equities accounted for 16% of TradFi trading volume in June, up from 7% in May.

Binance dominated activity, with monthly equity trading rising from under $500 million in February to nearly $9.5 billion in May. Bitget ranked second, while Bybit, MEXC, and Gate.io trailed at lower levels.

CryptoQuant expects equity trading volumes to continue rising, supported by Binance’s expansion of equity offerings.

This month, Binance launched spot trading for more than 7,000 U.S.-listed equities for eligible users and introduced bStocks, tokenized products tracking selected US stocks and ETFs, expanding access to tokenized real-world assets.

Meanwhile, on-chain data show that trading volume in the crypto sector has slumped to its lowest level in two years.

On-chain analytics firm Santiment reports that trading volumes for the largest non-stablecoin cryptos have hit levels of mid-2024, reflecting widespread trader capitulation, exhaustion, and disinterest.

“Traders appear reluctant to aggressively buy or sell as macro uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, and recent liquidations keep participants on the sidelines,” Santiment noted. 

CryptoQuant report paints a picture of crypto exchanges evolving into round-the-clock macro trading venues, not just crypto venues. 

As gold, oil and equities draw fresh capital amid inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, exchanges built for digital assets are positioning themselves as the easiest on-ramp to that exposure — open when traditional markets are closed.

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