Over the past year, with the rise of RWA and stock tokenization, leading crypto exchanges have been "bringing in" more and more traditional financial assets: gold, foreign exchange, stock indices, and commodities have all begun to appear within crypto account systems. Against the backdrop of a shifting market cycle and emerging macro trends, TradFi products have become key weapons for exchanges to compete for trading volume, user retention, and capital deposits. This is also an inevitable choice for exchanges to upgrade from single crypto asset trading venues to multi-asset trading terminals.

This article will systematically analyze the background of TradFi's rise, its definition and mechanisms, its differences from perpetual contracts, and focus on deconstructing two mainstream product approaches: the first is the MT5/CFD brokerization path represented by Bybit, Bitget, and Gate, and the second is the TradFi Perps perpetualization path represented by Binance. Furthermore, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges TradFi faces, such as regulatory fragmentation, pricing risks during market closures, and risk control model challenges, and look ahead to the evolutionary trend of exchanges becoming "financial supermarkets": the endgame for TradFi might not just be listing more assets, but a restructuring of stablecoin deposits, cross-market circulation, and multi-asset risk control systems.

I. The Background of TradFi's Rise

The underlying logic of this round of TradFi expansion is not complicated: macro volatility has become a more stable trading theme; the strong US stock market and major commodity trends provide a continuous "tradable narrative"; the crypto cycle shift amplifies user demand for "new trading material"; meanwhile, stablecoin margin, unified accounts, and mature broker trading systems provide the infrastructure conditions for traditional asset trading to be "distributed in a crypto-native way." TradFi is seen as a new growth category: it both caters to macro trading demand and serves the platform's goals for capital deposits and user retention.

1) Macro Themes and Market Catalysts: Rising Heat in Traditional Asset Trading

Trading heat in the crypto market is highly dependent on cycles and narratives, with the "shelf life" of new coins and new concepts getting shorter; but traditional asset trends are often driven by macro variables, providing more sustained trading rationale: interest rate expectations, inflation paths, geopolitical risks, and risk appetite shifts continuously create trends and event windows for gold, forex, and indices. When US stocks remain strong and precious metal volatility increases, exchanges bringing TradFi on-platform is turning "macro volatility from the entire market" into a traffic entry point tradable within the platform.

2) Upgraded User Demand: Hedging and Multi-Asset Allocation Become Essential

As traders mature, more people realize that being exposed only to crypto assets is like tying their portfolio to a single risk factor—once risk appetite reverses, all position correlations rapidly increase. The appeal of TradFi lies in providing a basket of assets with lower correlation, useful for hedging: gold can capture safe-haven sentiment, forex reflects the dollar cycle, indices represent risk asset pricing, and commodities correspond to inflation and supply-demand shocks. Users want to complete this allocation on the same platform, rather than opening accounts on multiple platforms, swapping margin, and moving funds across systems. Exchanges launching TradFi is not just "giving users another toy," but turning "portfolio management" into an on-platform capability, thereby enhancing user retention and capital dwell time.

3) Mature Infrastructure Makes TradFi "Replicable and Scalable"

Stablecoins have become the de facto cross-market margin, solving the problem of inconsistent "fund forms" in traditional asset trading; unified accounts move TradFi from "independent systems" closer to "the same capital pool," improving capital efficiency. Furthermore, the reason TradFi can quickly roll out across multiple exchanges is its replicable engineering path:

• The MT5/CFD route can directly reuse mature broker systems, migrating the entire set of rules like spread/commission/overnight fees, margin ratios, and forced liquidation into the product layer, enabling fast deployment;
• The perpetualization route attempts to use the familiar futures framework of exchanges to carry traditional underlying assets, paired with stablecoin margin and unified accounts, reducing user migration costs.

4) Exchange Competition Pressure: Competing for "Whole Market Volatility" and Capital Deposits

When crypto asset spot trading and single contract categories increasingly struggle to support growth, exchanges must find new sources of trading volume. The core value of TradFi lies in two points:

• It brings volatility from outside crypto into the platform, allowing exchanges to no longer just feast on "crypto行情" but also have tradable themes during crypto cool-down periods;
• It improves capital deposit efficiency—users leave USDT on the platform to trade TradFi, further forming a trading cycle between TradFi and crypto contracts/spot.

From a business logic perspective, TradFi is not a "product add-on," but a redesign of the growth structure: enabling exchanges to move from single-asset trading venues to cross-asset, multi-category platforms, competing for a broader share of trading.

II. TradFi Definition and Scope

TradFi (Traditional Finance) does not mean users "buy the stock or gold itself," but rather that exchanges package the price fluctuations of traditional assets into tradable derivatives, enabling users to participate in the trading of macro assets like gold, forex, indices, and commodities under a unified account and stablecoin margin system. The core of this product form is "trading the price difference," not holding the asset itself or obtaining corresponding rights.

It is important to clarify that "TradFi" in the context of crypto exchanges is not equivalent to RWA, nor is it equivalent to stock tokenization. Although all three point to "traditional assets entering the crypto system," the essential differences are clear: exchange TradFi is more of a derivatives trading entry point for traditional asset prices; RWA emphasizes the on-chain attestation of rights and composability of real-world assets and cash flows; while stock tokens involve security rights mapping, custody structures, and regulatory approval, belonging to a more sensitive compliance area.

In terms of specific product forms, exchange TradFi typically covers precious metals, forex, indices, commodities, and some stock-like derivatives. These assets are not on-chain assets but enter the trading system in the form of index price feeds; users trade price fluctuations, not physical delivery.

1. Mainstream TradFi Product Routes

Currently, the mainstream product routes for exchange TradFi are mainly divided into two paths:

(1) CFD/MT5 Route

CFDs typically focus on "difference settlement": users do not hold the underlying asset itself, but go long/short on price increases/decreases, with fixed leverage that cannot be manually adjusted. The cost structure usually consists of spread, commission, and overnight interest. They provide 24/5 trading services for forex, US stock CFDs, indices, and commodities. Bybit, Bitget, and Gate fall into this category. This route essentially "turns the exchange into a broker entry": users activate a TradFi (MT5) account and trade traditional asset CFDs within the MT5 system.

(2) TradFi Perpetuals Route This route is more "crypto-native": making traditional underlying assets like precious metals and stocks into a contract experience similar to crypto perpetuals, settled in USDT, with no expiration date, emphasizing a more unified in-exchange experience. Binance is closer to this type. Binance defines it as: TradFi Perpetual Contracts are USDT-settled, track traditional asset prices, and have margin and settlement methods similar to existing crypto perpetual contracts. Its key selling points are 7x24 continuous trading, using stablecoins like USDT as margin, and adjustable leverage.

2. TradFi (MT5/CFD) Contract Mechanisms

Traded Instrument: CFDs are essentially bets on the price movement of the underlying, involving no delivery. You profit from the盈亏 (profit/loss) brought by price changes, not from holding the rights of the stock or gold itself.

Fee Structure: In the MT5 system, TradFi trading fees are broken down into: trading costs (spread, commission per lot) + overnight swap fees.

Trading Hours: Not 24/7. TradFi contracts usually have fixed trading sessions and market closures, which brings gap risk and overnight fee characteristics. You face the traditional market rhythm of "market closure + gaps". Liquidation Logic: Different from crypto perpetuals, TradFi (MT5/CFD) generally triggers liquidation based on the margin ratio. A typical stop-out level is 50%, triggered后可能按“亏损最大优先”逐步平仓 (after which positions may be closed gradually based on "largest loss first").

3. TradFi (MT5/CFD) vs. Crypto Perpetual Contracts

III. Comparative Analysis of Major Exchange TradFi Products

As TradFi becomes a new battleground for exchanges, leading platforms have shown significant differentiation in product routes and user experience. Bybit, Bitget, Gate, etc., have chosen the MT5/CFD brokerization path, emphasizing rapid replication and strategy ecosystems; while Binance promotes TradFi perpetualization, emphasizing a unified entry and 7x24 trading experience. TradFi is becoming an important variable in exchange differentiation competition.

1. MT5+CFD Route

• Bybit: Exchange TradFi CFD leader, richest selection of underlying assets

Bybit renamed and upgraded "Gold & FX" to "Bybit TradFi" on June 3, 2025, and integrated it into the Bybit App. In mid-October 2025, it launched web/desktop versions and continued to add stock CFDs, indices, forex, and commodity trading. It emphasizes that users can trade gold, forex, commodities, indices, and stock CFDs based on USDT through one application and one wallet, without currency exchange or app switching, enabling diversified investment between crypto and traditional markets 24/5. It has also extended around the MT5 ecosystem to create growth drivers closer to crypto users, such as TradFi Copy Trading, allowing newcomers to enter the traditional financial trading market through "copy trading."

• Bitget: Clear categorization, emphasizes user experience

Bitget launched TradFi in December 2025, clearly defining TradFi as participating in traditional asset CFD trading with USDT through a TradFi account, covering forex, precious metals, commodities, and indices. It supports up to 500x leverage, but leverage is preset by category and users cannot manually modify it. The TradFi account is denominated in USDT. If negative balance protection is enabled, the platform automatically resets the negative balance to zero, offering a more user-friendly experience. Bitget disclosed that non-crypto products accounted for about 11.75% of its total January trading volume, with TradFi daily volume reaching $4 billion.

• Gate: Multiple leverage options + Perpetual contracts, more diverse user choices

Gate TradFi is also based on the traditional asset CFD model, with the underlying trading system being MT5. Funds are displayed as USDx after transfer from USDT, where USDx is an internal accounting unit pegged 1:1 to USDT. Its feature is "productization of precious metals with multiple leverage tiers": besides the mainstream leverage framework up to 500x, it also splits gold into multiple contract tiers like 20x/100x/200x, allowing the same underlying to adapt to different risk appetites. Gate officially announced that cumulative TradFi transaction volume since launch has exceeded $20 billion, with peak daily volume exceeding $5 billion.

2. Perpetual Contract Route

Binance: Making TradFi into "Exchange Perpetuals," smoother 24/7 trading Binance announced the launch of TradFi Perpetual Contracts on January 8, 2026, supporting up to 100x leverage, and emphasizing its pricing and risk model for 7x24 trading. Binance's differentiation lies in "making TradFi into perpetual contracts," emphasizing USDT settlement + unified contract entry + 7x24 continuous trading, using traditional assets to create a trading form familiar to crypto users. During underlying market closures, it designs specialized index/mark price and deviation constraints to support 24/7 trading, using EWMA smoothing for the mark price during non-trading hours and limiting the deviation between the mark price and the index to reduce gap and abnormal liquidation risks.

IV. TradFi Challenges and Opportunities

Macro asset volatility has brought new trading themes and product narratives for TradFi, and it is also an important opportunity window for the crypto industry to mature and move towards multi-asset platforms. However, the expansion of TradFi on exchanges is not without resistance. Regulatory fragmentation, pricing risks during market closures, technical risk control coupling, and user认知迁移 (cognitive migration) all determine that TradFi cannot simply replicate the growth model of crypto contracts.

TradFi's Opportunity Window

1. Macro Asset Volatility Becomes a "Trading Theme" for Crypto Users

The traditional growth method of the crypto market relies on "new coins, new narratives, new cycles," while the行情 of gold, forex, indices, and commodities is often driven by macro variables and events (interest rate expectations, inflation data, geopolitical risks, risk appetite shifts), naturally more "explainable," and更容易形成持续交易理由 (easier to form sustained trading rationale). This means: TradFi has the opportunity to become a stabilizer for exchanges to hedge against "altcoin cycle volatility"—when crypto themes cool down, macro themes still exist, and exchanges can use TradFi to keep users on the platform.

2. Web3 Integration Brings New Product Narratives

The key to Web3 integration is that the "form of funds and collateral" for TradFi may be rewritten. When RWA/tokenized assets mature, TradFi does not have to permanently remain in the "siloed account" of MT5; it can form stronger composability with on-chain assets: on-chain yield assets can be used as margin, on-chain risk profiles can be used for leverage tiering, and on-chain clearing and settlement can reduce reliance on单一系统 (single systems).

3. Turning TradFi from "Opportunity-Driven" to "Habit-Driven"

The advantage of TradFi (especially the MT5 system) is its mature strategy ecosystem, essentially providing a calculable cost framework for more professional strategic users. Once exchanges make TradFi's strategy templates, copy trading, risk control prompts, and portfolio margin into "default capabilities," TradFi is no longer just temporary speculation when行情 comes, but更可能变成用户的日常习惯 (more likely to become users' daily habits): trend following, arbitrage, hedging, and event trading can all precipitate into sustained trading volume.

4. Experience Certainty May Form Stronger User Trust

A long-standing criticism of crypto derivatives is: funding rates and risk parameters change quickly, making it difficult for traders to predict costs. In contrast, the cost framework of MT5/CFD is closer to traditional financial habits (spread/commission/overnight fees), with stronger readability. If exchanges can make TradFi's costs, liquidation thresholds, and market closure risk prompts into "pre-trade rehearsable," it might反而可能在“体验确定性”上对加密永续形成差异化 (instead potentially differentiate itself from crypto perpetuals in terms of "experience certainty"), attracting more rational and strategic capital.

TradFi's Realistic Challenges

1. Regulatory Uncertainty and Regional Fragmentation

Regulatory Uncertainty: CFDs are subject to intense scrutiny in most jurisdictions worldwide. Taking the EU ESMA's CFD intervention measures as an example, they set tiered leverage limits for retail clients from 30:1 to 2:1, a 50% margin stop-out rule, negative balance protection, restrictions on诱导性营销 (inducement marketing), and mandatory risk warnings. The same product may be cut into multiple versions in terms of accessibility, available leverage, marketable messaging, and even risk control parameters in different regions. If exchanges still try to run growth with "one global product," they will encounter friction throughout the entire chain of listing,投放 (placement), conversion, and retention—either被迫降杠杆导致吸引力下降 (forced to reduce leverage leading to decreased attractiveness), or缩小可覆盖市场 (reducing the addressable market) due to compliance restrictions, ultimately becoming "possible but not scalable."

2. Pricing and Liquidity Dislocations During Non-Trading Hours

The CFD/MT5 route follows traditional market trading hours, facing market closures and closes: users not only bear overnight fees (swap/overnight fee), but also the execution risk brought by "gaps"—information accumulated during market closure is reflected instantaneously at开盘 (market open), and stop-loss orders may be executed at worse prices. The perpetualization route (e.g., Binance's TradFi Perps)表面上提供 24/7 连续交易 (superficially provides 24/7 continuous trading), but the risk does not disappear, it只是转移为“模型风险” (just transfers to "model risk"): when the underlying market is closed, how the index price, mark price, funding cost, deviation constraints, and liquidation parameters are set determines whether users will encounter abnormal liquidations, extreme slippage, or unreasonable holding costs.

3. Technical and Risk Control Coupling Risks

The liquidation logic of MT5/CFD usually revolves around the margin level; users need to watch the Margin Level / Margin Ratio, not the familiar "mark price/liquidation price" in crypto perpetuals. This is a significant cognitive migration cost for many crypto users:同样是杠杆交易 (同样是 leverage trading), the risk indicators are completely different; coupled with unified accounts, multi-asset margin, cross-category hedging, and other functions, risk exposure becomes more difficult to explain, easily triggering连锁平仓 (chain liquidations) and user dissatisfaction during急剧波动 (sharp volatility).

4. Entry Friction and Scalability Conversion Challenges

The TradFi business天然依赖强刺激 (naturally relies on strong stimuli) for user acquisition, such as macro hotspots, major gold price fluctuations, index行情, but is often stuck by real-world conditions in the conversion chain: users often need to complete additional activation, additional risk disclosure, regional compliance checks, and some platforms even require opening a separate TradFi/MT5 account to isolate it from the original crypto account, creating "entry friction." This is also why Binance's approach of putting TradFi Perps directly into the original contract entry and emphasizing a unified experience without additional accounts has a growth advantage—it reduces the friction cost from emotion to order placement.

V. TradFi Evolution Outlook and Conclusion

The future evolution of TradFi on exchanges will not only be "listing more underlying assets," but a systematic competition in product form, compliance tiering, and risk control experience, promoting stablecoin deposits and cross-market circulation, forming new moats for exchanges.

TradFi Evolution Outlook

1. Product Forms Continue to Diverge, but Will Learn from Each Other

The MT5/CFD route will strengthen "low-threshold strategization": making copy trading, strategy templates, cost calculators, margin warnings, and pre-trade risk演练 (drills) standard features, reducing the learning cost of traditional rules;同时继续扩张品类 (while continuing to expand categories) (index/commodity/stock CFDs), turning macro themes into常态化入口 (normalized entry points). The perpetualization route will continue to expand underlying assets and optimize closure risk control: Binance has clearly disclosed its closure pricing mechanism (index fixed, mark price EWMA, deviation constraints), the next更关键的是 (more critical step) is to "productize" these rules—letting users understand what happens during closures, how costs change, and how liquidation thresholds dynamically adjust when opening positions.

2. Compliance Shifts from "Can We Do It" to "How to Do It in Tiers"

The regulatory direction is basically clear: regionalized product distribution, stricter risk disclosure and suitability, restrictions on诱导性激励 (inducement incentives), and more standardized risk warnings. If exchanges want to make TradFi a long-term business, they must turn to Compliance Partitioning + Risk Tiering + Leverage Grading: the same user sees different tradable categories, leverage上限 (upper limits), and提示方式 (prompting methods) in different regions and under different risk profiles, even marketing materials must be "compliantly generated." Compliance is no longer just a legal cost, but will become the underlying architecture of products and growth.

3. Moving from Trading Volume Driven to Asset Deposit Driven

The real value of TradFi is not having one more category, but allowing users to leave USDT on the platform to form cross-market circulation: traditional asset volatility provides trading motivation, crypto assets provide high-frequency and 7x24 scenarios, using stablecoin deposits to承接 (accommodate) traditional asset trading. Long-term, TradFi will be deeply bound with the platform's unified accounts, risk control models, market maker depth, and user tiering systems, forming a stronger moat.

4. Moving from "Single Product Trading" to "Portfolio Risk Control"

The competition in the next stage will likely not be "who lists more TradFi underlying assets," but who can make TradFi into a portfolio tool, using gold/US dollar index positions to hedge crypto risk, using index trend allocation to replace high-Beta altcoin risk exposure. This will require platforms to provide stronger portfolio margin explanation, correlation prompts, stress testing, and position suggestions.

Conclusion

The rise of TradFi on crypto exchanges is a key标志 (marker) of the industry moving from a "single crypto narrative" to a "multi-asset financial supermarket." It allows exchanges to no longer rely solely on the crypto cycle, but to承接更广泛的宏观交易需求 (accommodate broader macro trading demand). For investors, the significance of TradFi is not just more leverageable underlying assets, but new portfolio tools and risk management methods: using macro assets to hedge the systemic risk of crypto positions, using more explainable market themes to replace纯叙事投机 (pure narrative speculation). The real winner in the next round of competition may not be the platform with the most listed underlying assets, but the one that can make TradFi into a "sustainable, explainable, and trustworthy" multi-asset risk control system—because what ultimately remains is never the most刺激的杠杆 (stimulating leverage), but the most stable experience and the clearest rules.

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