In the first half of the year, cryptocurrency TradFi transactions exceeded $1.3 trillion, with the exchange landscape shifting from a unipolar concentration to a multipolar distribution
According to a research report published by RootData Research, the total trading volume of mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges in the TradFi sector surpassed $1.3 trillion in the first half of 2026, nearly a tenfold increase compared to the entire year of 2025, with TradFi derivatives accounting for over 98%, becoming the core engine driving the explosive growth of the sector.The exchange landscape is shifting from "unipolar concentration" to multipolar competition. Binance, while maintaining a leading position in the TradFi sector with a cumulative share of 68.3%, saw its monthly trading volume share decline from 78.8% at the beginning of the year to 58.2% in August. Meanwhile, second-tier exchanges such as OKX, Gate, and Hyperliquid are rapidly expanding, with market shares of 18.2%, 10.7%, and 9.9% respectively in August.In the core submarket of stock derivatives, entering August, Binance still dominated with an average daily trading volume of $14.927 billion; OKX established an advantage in trading costs with the industry's lowest spread of 0.0091%, achieving a comprehensive score tied for second with Gate. Gate has recently shown independent growth, recording four consecutive months of triple-digit month-on-month growth from May to August, and in mid-August, its ±2% weighted depth ranked first in the industry for 11 consecutive trading days. The competitive logic of the TradFi sector may be shifting from a battle for traffic to a competition across comprehensive dimensions such as position size, market depth, trading costs, and variety coverage.
