Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are 'Stealing' Ground from Traditional Brokers

• The five largest platforms account for nearly 81% of global open interest.
• Binance holds $22.86 billion of the global perpetual derivatives market.

Cryptocurrency exchanges continue to expand their presence in traditional financial markets. According to data published on July 28, 2026, by CryptoQuant, the open interest in perpetual contracts on stocks, indices, commodities, and metals surpassed $2 billion, doubling the level recorded in May. Binance leads this segment with around $890 million and accounts for between 35% and 39% of the global market for these derivatives.

The growth is attributed to the incorporation of products linked to traditional assets within cryptocurrency platforms. Unlike conventional brokers, these contracts allow trading 24 hours a day, using leverage and providing margins in stablecoins, which has driven their adoption among traders seeking greater flexibility to trade stocks, stock indices, oil, gold, and other financial assets.

This evolution is part of a broader process of convergence between the two sectors. While a few years ago exchanges were almost exclusively limited to bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, in 2026 platforms like Binance, Gate, Bybit, Bitget, and OKX began offering an increasing range of derivatives on traditional financial instruments.

As reported by CriptoNoticias, the data shows that Binance maintains a dominant position in this market. In addition to the nearly $890 million in perpetual contracts on traditional assets, the platform also leads the market for cryptocurrency perpetual derivatives with $22.86 billion in open interest. It is followed by Bybit, with $9.67 billion, and Gate, with $8.61 billion. Together, these three platforms account for approximately 63% of the global market, while the top five account for nearly 81% of the open capital.

The concentration also reflects the evolution of the market over the past few years. At the beginning of 2023, the open interest in cryptocurrency perpetual derivatives was between $12 billion and $15 billion. Subsequently, it reached a peak of over $80 billion in September 2025 and approached that level again at the beginning of 2026. Currently, it hovers around $65 billion, a reduction of nearly 20% from the highs, indicating a process of deleveraging rather than a mass exit of participants.

It is worth noting that, although the growth of these products suggests that cryptocurrency exchanges are capturing part of the business of financial derivatives, they still do not displace traditional intermediaries.

Brokers continue to dominate the cash stock markets, exchange-traded funds, bonds, and wealth management services. Additionally, trading derivatives with high leverage continues to pose greater risks for users and could attract more intense regulatory scrutiny as their adoption increases.

For now, the expansion of exchanges into traditional financial assets reflects a shift in competition between the two sectors. Rather than replacing conventional intermediaries, these platforms seek to become trading hubs capable of bringing together, in one environment, digital assets and traditional financial instruments.

If the trend continues, the difference between the two business models will become increasingly unclear, and competition will focus on offering greater liquidity, constant availability, and global access to an ever-expanding universe of products.

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