Encrypted CEX is becoming a historical species

Author: momo, ChainCatcher

Bitcoin cannot outperform gold, silver, crude oil, and tech stocks. The altcoin season has nearly disappeared, and the voices proclaiming that "crypto has entered garbage time" are growing louder. Yet it is precisely during this so-called garbage time that crypto natives are forced to understand the world, and a profound reconstruction of future trading forms is taking place.

I. Crypto Natives Are Forced to Understand the World

If we look at two sets of data together, we might have a different perspective on the argument that "crypto has entered garbage time."

One set shows the emerging trading boom of TradFi in crypto. Over the past year, whether it’s gold, U.S. stocks, or commodities like crude oil, they have been continuously siphoning global liquidity; meanwhile, the trading volume of TradFi assets on crypto trading platforms is also expanding. Recently, RWA trading volume on Hyperliquid has been hitting new highs; Binance's trading volume for gold and silver contracts has also reached record levels; and Bitget's CFD segment has integrated 79 popular trading categories, including gold, silver, and crude oil, with daily trading volume recently surpassing $6 billion, setting a new high. What does this trading volume signify? Recently, Binance's spot daily trading volume has been around $8 billion.

This also means that in a bear market environment, for crypto traders, "leaving" is no longer the only option as it once was. Instead, they can stay within the crypto account system, unrestricted by geography and market hours, and directly switch to TradFi assets to seek new profit opportunities or complete risk hedging.

Although crypto natives often complain about being stuck in "garbage time," at this stage, they are forced to learn about and pay attention to variables they previously overlooked: the Federal Reserve's interest rate path, inflation data, the AI industry cycle, and even the supply-demand structure of crude oil.

This change has even spilled over into professional content production. Whether in media or among KOLs, the topics of discussion have clearly expanded—macro, AI, and commodities now appear alongside crypto, rather than just as background.

Recently, a KOL reported that a significant portion of content in many crypto media outlets is no longer "purely crypto," but instead includes a large amount of AI and traditional asset content. Even crypto CEXs like Bitget have seen their daily market reports gradually transform into a mixed information flow of macro, TradFi, AI, and crypto.

The other set of data reflects a more "counterintuitive" change in user flow.

In the past, bull markets attracted users through wealth effects, while bear markets often saw users fleeing. However, according to a report by @smartestxyz, there is a metric called "Non-Crypto-First Users"—users whose first on-chain transaction was an RWA Perp rather than crypto. As of March 2026, this number has approached 50,000, with their first encounter with crypto not being due to Bitcoin, but because of stock indices, gold, and crude oil.

This indicates that bear markets can still attract new users, and the motivations for these newcomers have changed. They are not drawn in by the "get rich quick" narrative of crypto, but rather by the pain points of traditional finance, such as high barriers to entry and low efficiency, which have pulled them into on-chain finance due to its convenience. In other words, crypto is no longer solely relying on narratives and airdrops to attract new users, but is beginning to acquire customers by "solving real trading needs."

The value of crypto presented by these two sets of data is somewhat contrary to the argument of "garbage time." Perhaps more accurately, the current crypto market appears superficially quiet, but internally, it is in a state of reconstruction.

If past crypto was more like a narrative-driven market, it is now entering a phase driven by real demand. In a sense, this may be the true beginning of its growth.

II. "Crypto CEX" May Become a Historical Species

However, the migration of users from within and outside the crypto sphere to TradFi may lead to the exit of "crypto CEX" from the historical stage. This does not mean that crypto CEXs will disappear immediately, but rather that exchanges focusing solely on crypto assets may not last long in the future.

For crypto CEXs, this crisis has already manifested in the bull market of 2024, as they did not see the anticipated influx of large-scale users from outside the crypto sphere. The consensus in the industry is that the flow of users is diminishing, and relying solely on subsidies and trading rebates to generate trading volume is becoming inefficient and unsustainable.

The reason behind this is simple: beyond crypto assets, the multi-asset trading demand targeting TradFi and on-chain assets is no longer a short-term need, but is set to become a new normal for smoothing out cyclical fluctuations in the future.

For a long time, the crypto market has been a relatively independent and self-consistent system, with narratives, liquidity, and price cycles primarily occurring within the circle. However, in the past 1-2 years, this "self-consistency" is being broken.

The simple bull-bear conversion model that used to operate on a four-year cycle is no longer effective. Surviving the bear market does not necessarily lead to a broad bull market, and the airdrop benefits have also diminished. Bitcoin is increasingly embedded in the macro cycle; it is no longer just "crypto assets," but is starting to become part of global liquidity.

In this context, crypto investors are naturally no longer satisfied with a single crypto position, but are eager to leverage the liquidity of crypto assets to capture alpha and cyclical opportunities in mainstream global assets.

The explosive growth of the RWA market also illustrates this point. Recent data from RWA.xyz shows that, excluding stablecoins, the total value of on-chain tokenized real assets has exceeded $25 billion, nearly quadrupling from $6.4 billion a year ago. Currently, six categories of assets have on-chain scales exceeding $1 billion, including U.S. Treasury bonds, commodities, private credit, institutional alternative investment funds, corporate bonds, and non-U.S. government debt.

III. UEX Takes Over, An Undercover War Has Begun

If the form of "crypto CEX" gradually fades from the historical stage, what will the next generation of trading apps look like? Mainstream crypto exchanges and TradFi institutions are engaged in a covert war around this theme.

1. Reconstruction of the Trading System of Crypto CEX

Many have noticed that mainstream exchanges like Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Bybit are launching TradFi assets. However, most people interpret this as just another round of "hot narratives" similar to Chinese memes or AI.

But one detail is often overlooked: some exchanges, represented by Bitget, are no longer placing TradFi in secondary or tertiary menus, but are instead positioning it directly alongside crypto in the primary entry. This is somewhat akin to Alibaba and JD placing food delivery options directly in the core position of their main sites during the food delivery war; it’s not just "adding another category," but a shift in the platform's focus.

In other words, TradFi is different from past memes and AI. It is not a simple asset launch, but more like an adjustment in trading structure and strategic direction.

In this context, looking at the concept of UEX (Universal Exchange) becomes easier to understand. This concept was first proposed by Bitget, essentially hoping to enable users to complete multi-asset trading on a single platform through unified accounts and stablecoin settlements, covering not just crypto, but also stocks, forex, commodities, and even on-chain assets.

A similar direction has also appeared in Coinbase's statements, where its CEO mentioned the desire to build a "one-stop exchange for everything." However, Coinbase emphasizes "on-chain" more, while Bitget emphasizes "integration," meaning that different assets and different trading forms on-chain and off-chain coexist within the same system.

Even with a consistent direction, the pace and path are still clearly differentiated.

One path is more conservative and steady, like Binance and OKX. Their overall approach is to gradually expand TradFi capabilities within the existing crypto trading system. Besides integrating some Ondo tokenized assets into their wallets, they are more focused on creating TradFi targets in a format similar to crypto perpetual contracts, settled in USDT, with no expiration date, and emphasizing a more unified experience within the exchange, while the number of covered assets remains relatively restrained.

Essentially, they are incorporating TradFi into the existing crypto trading paradigm rather than designing a separate system for it.

The other path is closer to "structural reconstruction." Taking Bitget as an example, its actions lean more towards reconstructing the entire trading system under the UEX framework: first connecting on-chain and CEX account systems last year; then introducing RWA assets to bridge on-chain and traditional assets; and completing the addition of multi-asset trading tools like TradFi asset token perpetual contracts and CFD contracts at the beginning of this year.

Here’s a point that many may find unfamiliar—CFD (Contracts for Difference), which is a strategy for introducing TradFi assets that differs from the more conservative approaches of Binance and OKX.

CFD is essentially a mature traditional financial trading framework: users do not hold the underlying assets themselves but trade based on price fluctuations, with profits and losses determined by the buy-sell price difference. This system is mainly applied in forex, precious metals, stock indices, and commodity markets, characterized by clear rules, a defined cost structure, and a complete margin and risk control mechanism.

Essentially, this approach does not transform TradFi into crypto but allows for the coexistence of multiple paradigms.

Bitget's path is also more aggressive in asset coverage; for instance, the number of stock assets on its platform has reached over 250, covering the market quite comprehensively. Bitget also disclosed that in January, TradFi accounted for over 10% of its total trading volume, and this proportion is expected to continue to expand in the future, suggesting that crypto CEXs may accelerate their exit from the stage.

2. Traditional TradFi Exchanges' Intensive On-Chain Layout

Traditional TradFi exchanges are also converging on the same path. Despite the low sentiment in the crypto market, there has never been a time when TradFi institutions and enterprises were as enthusiastic about the crypto market as they are now.

Looking at the past three months of 2026, the counter-cyclical bets by traditional TradFi institutions on crypto are astonishing.

• ICE invested $25 billion in OKX, entering the market with real money;

• The New York Stock Exchange has developed tokenization technology and plans to launch a blockchain-based platform for tokenized stocks and ETFs for around-the-clock trading;

• Nasdaq has received SEC approval to pilot tokenized securities trading, allowing stocks to circulate on-chain and share order books with existing systems;

• Robinhood has launched over 2,000 U.S. stock tokens in Europe, with plans to introduce around-the-clock trading and DeFi features in the future.

The common direction of these actions is that traditional exchanges are moving their core assets, such as stocks and ETFs, onto the blockchain and integrating many crypto assets and tools, attempting to gain the maximum advantages of crypto: 24/7 availability, borderless access, and programmability.

From this perspective, crypto CEXs and traditional exchanges are actually forming a consensus: UEX is the future form of trading exchanges.

Although many people are fatigued by institutional layouts, what’s different this time is that infrastructure and compliance are maturing simultaneously.

In this wave of crude oil trading, the choice of 50,000 people to trade on-chain already indicates that the infrastructure has met the conditions for attracting new users. On the regulatory front, the SEC's guidance released on January 28 categorized tokenized securities into direct issuance and third-party models, reducing compliance uncertainty, and Congress is advancing the stablecoin "CLARITY Act." In February, new policies on RWA tokenization from eight Chinese ministries opened up compliance channels for RWA in Hong Kong.

Conclusion

As TradFi continues to be integrated, the boundaries between crypto exchanges and traditional exchanges are rapidly disappearing. But which will ultimately define the next generation of exchanges—traditional exchanges or crypto exchanges?

Currently, both have their advantages. Traditional exchanges control the sources of assets, compliance systems, and pricing power; crypto exchanges possess global distribution, 24/7 trading capabilities, and more flexible account and product structures.

The two are not simply competing; they are converging towards the same direction, becoming "a unified multi-asset trading entry."

However, at present, the evolution of exchanges around UEX is still in its early stages, with most merely bringing CEXs and DEXs, as well as crypto and TradFi assets, onto the same platform. Yet, there are still more fundamental issues to address, such as how to achieve unified pricing, risk control, and usage of different assets under the same account.

Therefore, the real watershed may not lie at the product level but rather in more foundational issues like account systems and capital efficiency. Whoever can first bridge the margin and risk models across assets may be closer to the prototype of the next generation of exchanges.