Author: RootData

Introduction

In 2026, stock derivatives are jumping from the periphery of the cryptocurrency market to become one of the core engines.

According to monitoring data from RootData on mainstream sample exchanges, from January to August 2026 (statistics as of the 25th), the total trading volume of stock derivatives (contracts) reached nearly $1.75 trillion, with monthly trading volume increasing from $10 billion in January to over $600 billion. The market focus quickly shifted from precious metals like gold and silver to stock assets such as U.S. and Korean stocks, making stock derivatives the strongest growth pole for crypto exchanges' TradFi businesses.

As cryptocurrency exchanges tap into the benefits of stock assets, a new round of competition has begun. This report leverages RootData's exchange ranking system to conduct a horizontal comparison of the four core exchanges Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Bybit across five dimensions: trading volume, positions, market depth, trading costs, and product matrix, analyzing the competitive barriers and evolution of the stock derivatives landscape.

1. Overview of the Stock Derivatives Market

1.1 Average Monthly Trading Volume: Transition from Billions to Trillions

From January to August 2026, the trading volume of stock derivatives has exhibited a growth curve that transitions from steady increases to steep surges. According to monitoring by RootData on mainstream sample exchanges, the trading volume for the entire month of January was approximately $11.6 billion, which then expanded month by month, reaching $73.3 billion in May. In June, the daily average trading volume surged by 353.9% month-over-month, driving the total for the month to $322 billion; in July, the monthly total doubled again to $664.4 billion, setting new highs for the year; in August (as of the 25th), it remained above $600 billion, indicating that the growth momentum has not faded.

The latest surge was mainly driven by the market for AI hardware such as storage chips. Starting from late June, contracts for targets like SanDisk (SNDK), SK Hynix (SKHYNIX), and Micron (MU) concentrated their trading volume across the market, and with the top exchanges launching a series of stock and leveraged ETF contracts in July and August, the resonance between supply and demand has jointly pushed up trading volumes.

From the cumulative data, the total trading volume of stock derivatives from January to August is approximately $1.75 trillion, with monthly volume centralizing from less than $12 billion at the beginning of the year to over $600 billion; July's single-month volume was about 57 times that of January. This transition indicates that stock derivatives have rapidly moved from being a peripheral category into mainstream trading visibility.

1.2 Stock Derivatives Dominate the TradFi Sector

Stock derivatives have transitioned from a supporting role in TradFi to a leading role. Their share within the entire TradFi sector has continuously increased. At the beginning of the year when precious metals dominated the market, the trading volume of stock derivatives accounted for less than 20% of the entire TradFi sector; subsequently, as global stock markets like U.S. and Korean stocks gained strength, funds quickly shifted towards stock derivatives. By June, the trading volume of stock derivatives accounted for over half of the TradFi sector for the first time, nearing 75%, and in July and August, it exceeded 80%, officially completing their transition from a supporting role to a leading role.

The dynamics of leading platforms also confirmed this trend, with stock derivatives transitioning from being "novel varieties" to becoming routine trading choices for platform users. Binance has disclosed that 47% of its bStocks trading occurs outside regular U.S. market hours, indicating that trading demand is no longer dependent on traditional stock market opening times but has become an independent category for crypto users to trade around the clock; on Bitget, about one out of every three derivative contracts traded comes from stock perpetual contracts, and weekend trading volumes for U.S. stock tokens once surged by 10 times, further indicating that crypto users' demand for 24/7 participation in the U.S. stock market is rapidly being released. Stock derivatives are gradually becoming an important component of the platform trading ecosystem rather than just supplementary products.

From position data, popular stock assets in the crypto market align closely with those in traditional markets, with the storage sector among the rapidly expanding popular assets. By the end of July, SK Hynix (SKHYNIX) saw its position size rise sharply, with open interest peaking at $875 million; by mid-August, SpaceX (SPCX) and SanDisk (SNDK) reached open interest peaks of approximately $910 million and $1.73 billion, respectively.

2. Competitive Landscape: Multi-Dimensional Comparison of Core Exchanges

In terms of the competitive landscape among exchanges, RootData has compared stock derivatives data for the following four core exchanges based on trading volume, position size, market depth, price differences, and number of assets.

2.1 Trading Volume: Significant Concentration Effect at the Top

From January to August 2026 (as of August 25), the cumulative trading volume indicates a significant concentration effect at the top. Among the four exchanges, Binance leads with $853.58 billion and a 61.3% share; Bitget follows with $270.85 billion and a 19.5% share; OKX ($234.39 billion, 16.8%) comes next; Bybit ($33.41 billion, 2.4%) is relatively smaller. In the trend of recent months and cumulative trading volume, competition among mainstream exchanges, excluding Binance, remains quite competitive.

2.2 Positions (OI): Differentiation in Capital Accumulation Ability

From the average open interest (OI) over the past month (July 25 - August 25), Binance leads significantly with $3.35 billion and a 69.1% share; Bitget follows with $790 million and a 16.3% share; OKX ($530 million, 10.9%) and Bybit ($180 million, 3.7%) rank third and fourth, respectively.

2.3 Market Depth: Binance and Bitget Account for 70% of Liquidity

From the ±2% weighted depth perspective, Binance and Bitget together account for 70% of the liquidity. Binance maintains the top position with an average daily depth of $10.1 million; Bitget follows with $4.82 million, around 48% of Binance's depth; OKX ($3.87 million) and Bybit ($1.16 million) lag behind the top two considerably.

The combined depth of Binance and Bitget accounts for over 70% among the four exchanges. Notably, Bitget's depth share (24.2%) exceeds its OI share (16.3%), indicating a strong investment in liquidity provision, producing market depth above the industry average.

2.4 Trading Costs: Narrowing Price Gap

From the recent weighted price differences of more than a dozen representative hot assets, Bitget ranks first with 0.0144%, offering the best pricing quality; Binance (0.0145%) closely follows, with the two almost at the same level; OKX (0.0154%) ranks third, with a small gap compared to the top two; Bybit lags at 0.0237% temporarily.

The tracked assets cover some of the most representative and popular securities in the market, including technology leaders like Apple (AAPL), TSMC (TSM), Arm (ARM), Amazon (AMZN), as well as core broad-based ETFs like QQQ (Nasdaq 100) and SPY (S&P 500), while also including popular assets in the crypto sphere like MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Circle (CRCL).

Overall, the price differences among the three leading platforms, Binance, OKX, and Bitget, have reduced to under 0.016%, resulting in a narrowing gap in trading costs. Bitget’s pricing quality on the monitored hot assets stands out, together with Binance in the top tier; Bybit shows wider pricing gaps on some assets and still has room for improvement. The differentiation among platforms is more reflected in terms of depth, product variety, and user experience.

2.5 Significant Differences in Asset Strategies

As of August 25, in terms of the number of launched contracts, Bitget ranks first with 298, following a "broad coverage" approach; Bybit (206) and Binance (170) come in second and third; OKX has 156. The disparity in product coverage among the four platforms is not extreme, with Bitget and Bybit focusing more on a "large and complete" fast-paced launch strategy, while Binance and OKX are relatively restrained.

2.6 Summary of Horizontal Comparison

Considering multiple dimensions, the current landscape of stock derivatives exchanges displays clear stratification characteristics.

Binance ranks first in trading volume, average daily OI, and average daily ±2% weighted depth, establishing itself as the absolute center of stock derivatives liquidity; however, its contract coverage is not the widest, and the weighted price gaps for popular assets do not establish an absolute leading advantage.

Bitget is currently the most balanced platform in terms of comprehensive layout, ranking first in weighted price gaps for popular assets, and has the widest contract coverage among the four; it ranks second in trading volume, OI, and depth liquidity indicators, showing no weaknesses in trading costs and liquidity dimensions.

OKX ranks third in terms of price gaps for popular assets and three liquidity indicators, with the narrowest contract coverage among the four, presenting a "curated" feature overall.

Bybit ranks second in contract coverage, but it ranks fourth in trading volume, OI, depth, and price differences, indicating that its positioning in the stock derivatives sub-segment is still in the expansion phase.

3. Conclusion

In 2026, the stock derivatives sector has moved from the "marginal experimentation" phase to the "explosive growth" stage, achieving a cumulative trading volume of approximately $1.75 trillion from January to August. The rapid expansion of the market is reshaping the competitive logic of exchanges; simply relying on traffic or singular advantages in a dimension has become difficult to establish barriers, and competition is shifting from "who has the larger trading volume" to who can achieve a better balance between costs, depth, product variety, and capital accumulation.

In the current landscape, Binance remains the absolute center of liquidity, but the paths of differentiation among leading platforms have gradually become clear. Bitget, with its optimal performance in price gaps for popular assets and the broadest contract coverage, combined with balanced leading in trading volume, depth, and OI, has become the platform with the most complete metrics and no significant weaknesses; OKX has carved out a differentiated route by selectively curating leading assets; Bybit is actively catching up in terms of asset expansion, but its overall scale still has room to grow.

Looking to the second half of the year, as the sector enters a quality competition phase under a high base, platforms with multi-dimensional comprehensive capabilities are more likely to absorb the next round of incremental growth. Exchanges that can maintain pricing and depth advantages on core assets while covering a wide range of long-tail demands and staying competitive in liquidity will occupy more favorable positions in the transition from "volume growth" to "quality competition."

The ultimate outcome of the stock derivatives sector may not belong to a single champion but to players who have no apparent weaknesses and can maintain competitiveness across multiple dimensions.

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