Summary
From August to October 2026, stock derivatives trading volume across major platforms first declined and then rebounded, while open interest and order book depth expanded steadily. Average daily volume fell from $23.360 billion in August to $17.041 billion in September, before recovering to $19.809 billion in October, still short of the August level.
Binance dominates in trading volume and open interest, but has not established an absolute advantage across multiple dimensions such as trading quality, and other major platforms hold differing strengths: OKX ranks second in both trading volume and spreads, while Bitget leads in ±2% depth. Competition has diverged along the lines of scale, product coverage and liquidity.
Tokenized stock spot products show clear differences in trading channels, dividend handling and disclosure. The five issuers each have a distinct focus: Ondo, bStocks and xStocks lead in asset size, while Reality offers the broadest product coverage and the most diverse execution methods. Industry competition is shifting from expanding coverage toward sustained conversion into holdings and trading activity.
Scope and methodology: The exchange sample comprises Binance, OKX, Bitget, Bybit, Gate, MEXC, KuCoin and HTX. The study covers stock and ETF perpetual futures denominated or settled in stablecoins such as USDT and USDC. The tokenized stock issuer sample comprises Ondo, xStocks, bStocks, Reality and Robinhood Stock Tokens.
I. Market Overview and Demand Structure
In Q3 2026, global equity markets repeatedly adjusted between earnings growth and macro tightening. The Federal Reserve raised rates by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00% in September and held rates unchanged in October, but expectations of a further hike in December remain, making the rate path the core variable for Q4. At the sector level, AI-driven storage demand and product price increases supported the rally in storage names such as SNDK and MU; after October, market concerns over returns on AI capital expenditure intensified, and tech stock volatility increased.
Looking ahead to Q4, the U.S. midterm elections, the Anthropic IPO and expectations that OpenAI's listing has been pushed back to 2027 may continue to affect tech stock valuations and trading hotspots. Against this backdrop, it is worth reviewing the trading volume, competitive landscape and liquidity of stock derivatives and tokenized stock spot on crypto trading platforms, and assessing each platform's capacity to absorb newly listed assets and event-driven trading demand.
1. Stock Derivatives Market
1.1 Trading Volume and Peaks
From August to October 2026, stock derivatives trading volume across the eight major platforms totaled approximately $1.79 trillion, or $20.113 billion per day on average. Trading was concentrated on the leading platforms, with Binance, OKX and Bitget accounting for a combined 83.99% of volume.
On a monthly basis, market volume contracted in September and recovered in October, with October's average daily volume up 16.24% month-over-month, though still below the August level. In terms of concentration, the combined share of the top three platforms by volume rose from 81.59% to 87.22%, indicating further concentration among the leaders.
Table 1:
1.2 Open Interest, ±2% Depth and Peaks
From August to October, average daily open interest (OI) across the eight major platforms was approximately $7.843 billion, and combined average daily ±2% order book depth was $1.749 billion. In contrast to volume, which fell before rebounding, OI and order book depth grew consecutively, showing more sustained expansion.
In October, average daily OI reached $9.215 billion, up 38.66% from August; average daily ±2% depth reached $2.090 billion, up 45.99%. During September's volume pullback, OI and resting orders continued to increase, indicating that capital did not exit on a large scale: traders shifted more from short-term turnover to holding positions, and market-making and order supply also kept expanding. Platform liquidity foundations were unaffected by the volume contraction, which may have supported October's volume recovery.
Table 2:
1.3 Popular Stock and ETF Contracts
In September–October, single-name trading was concentrated in semiconductors, storage and leveraged ETFs. SOXL and SNDK recorded average daily volume of approximately $2.618 billion and $2.442 billion, respectively, across the eight sample platforms, ranking at the top as the most actively traded stock assets.
Table 3:
2. Tokenized Stock Spot Market
Table 4:
From August to October, average daily spot volume for the five major tokenized stock issuance platforms was approximately $324 million, while average daily stock derivatives volume on the same platforms was approximately $19.947 billion, about 61.5 times spot. Stock derivatives remain the primary trading market.
In addition, futures volume is more concentrated. The top three by futures volume — Binance, OKX and Bitget — account for a combined 83.99%; the top three by spot volume — Binance, OKX and Gate — account for a combined 78.25%, a relatively more dispersed distribution.
However, October average daily spot volume reached $364 million, up 22.72% month-over-month, recovering faster than the futures market and narrowing the volume gap between futures and spot.
II. Exchange Competitive Landscape
1. Stock Derivatives
From August to October, leadership among major platforms diverged across dimensions. Binance ranked first in both average daily volume and average OI; Bitget ranked first in average ±2% depth; OKX held second place in both trading volume and spread. MEXC ranked second in OI and offered the largest number of stock derivatives.
Volume, open interest, product coverage and trading quality each present a different competitive picture. The following sections draw on full-period rankings and monthly changes to analyze each platform's scale, growth and liquidity performance.
Table 5:
1.1 Trading Scale
Trading Volume and Market Share
Trading volume is clearly concentrated among the leaders. From August to October, Binance's average daily volume was $13.128 billion, a 65.27% share; OKX and Bitget ranked second and third with $2.377 billion and $1.388 billion, respectively. MEXC, Gate and Bybit ranked fourth through sixth, while KuCoin and HTX together held less than 1%.
The pace of recovery in October varied by platform. Bitget ranked first in month-over-month volume growth at 54.85%, and MEXC and Bybit also rebounded. Binance retained the largest trading volume while further increasing its share.
Table 6:
Open Interest and Share
Binance dominates stock derivatives open interest. From August to October, Binance's average OI was $4.157 billion, more than half the total. Bitget, Gate and MEXC had similar OI shares, all in the 11%–12% range; OKX was mid-table at 7.61%; Bybit, KuCoin and HTX held smaller OI shares, in the 0.1%–3% range.
Table 7:
1.2 Trading Quality
Order Book Depth
From August to October, despite lower volume and OI than Binance, Bitget's average ±2% depth reached $418 million, above Binance's $407 million and ranking first among the eight platforms. In addition, Bitget's depth share was 23.90%, with larger visible resting orders within the ±2% range, indicating strong competitiveness in order book liquidity provision.
Table 8:
Weighted Spread
Binance and OKX lead on spreads. In August – October, their average daily weighted spreads were 0.0115%; Bitget ranked third at 0.018%, and Bybit ranked fourth.
In October, Bitget's and Bybit's spreads narrowed by 16.59% and 18.58%, respectively, improving trading costs on those platforms. Although Binance's and OKX's spreads widened from September, they still had the tightest spreads. HTX's spread narrowed the most, but its absolute spread remained significantly higher than other platforms.
Table 9:
2. Tokenized Stock Spot
For tokenized stock products, AUM (assets under management) reflects the size of issued assets, while the number of products reflects coverage. Based on product documentation from Ondo, bStocks, xStocks, Reality and Robinhood Stocks, this section compares the five product lines in terms of coverage, asset size, trading mechanisms and corporate action handling.
Table 10:
Table 11:
The five products differ in their emphasis on asset size versus coverage. Per Table 12, Ondo, bStocks and xStocks have AUM of $1.3 billion, $1.2 billion and $1.0 billion, respectively, leading in capital size; Reality and Robinhood follow with AUM of $161 million and $157 million, respectively. Reality is distinguished by broader coverage, with more than 3,200 assets, significantly more than the other four; Robinhood relies mainly on its own platform's user base for distribution.
Trading channels are another key distinction. Reality offers three execution methods — DMA (direct market access, with orders routed directly to traditional financial venues for matching), RFQ (request for quote, where traders obtain quotes from market makers before executing) and on-chain liquidity pools — with liquidity sourced from traditional financial venues, the Bitget CEX and on-chain. Ondo and xStocks distribute through multiple CEXs and on-chain channels, while bStocks and Robinhood rely on the Binance and Robinhood platforms, respectively, plus on-chain channels. Liquidity sources across the five range from "traditional venues + CEX + on-chain" to a single platform, and channel structure directly affects the range of capital that can be reached.
On dividend handling, the five fall into two holding experiences: "cash dividends" and "automatic reinvestment." Reality pays dividends directly to holders in stablecoins, giving investors free use of the cash flow; the other four automatically reinvest after-tax dividends, which removes manual steps but provides no direct cash distribution. The former is more favorable to investors who need cash distributions.
On disclosure, Reality lists a reserve attestation issued by an independent third-party CPA, providing externally verified reserve transparency; Ondo, xStocks and bStocks rely mainly on self-disclosure, while Robinhood does not list any reserve attestation arrangement.
On trading hours, all assets on xStocks, bStocks and Robinhood support round-the-clock trading; the main assets on Reality and Ondo support 24/7 trading, with the remaining assets trading 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, so trading hours must be checked per asset.
Overall, none of the five products leads across all dimensions; the differences essentially reflect different product strategies. Ondo, bStocks and xStocks center on asset size, deepening their existing base through channels such as multiple CEXs or Binance. Reality has taken a different path, setting itself apart from peers in coverage breadth and mechanism design: more than 3,200 assets, DMA and RFQ in parallel, dividends paid in stablecoin cash, and an independent third-party CPA attestation. Reality has built an initial share through the Bitget exchange channel, and its trading experience more closely mirrors actual U.S. equities, giving it a distinct identity; however, whether its product breadth ultimately translates into sustained volume and holdings remains to be verified by future data.
III. Q4 Outlook and Competitive Evolution
The U.S. midterm elections are a key checkpoint for policy expectations going forward. More worth tracking is how post-election tax, trade and tech regulatory arrangements progress, and whether companies adjust their investment and earnings guidance accordingly. For crypto stock trading platforms, the ability to keep quoting and maintain reasonable spreads when events occur will be more differentiating than liquidity rankings during calm periods.
Distinct competitive advantages have emerged in the stock derivatives market. Binance dominates volume and open interest, and OKX ranks second in both volume and spread. Bitget ranks first in order book depth and places in the top three on most of the metrics compared here, a relatively balanced performance.
Platforms that have expanded their product lineups quickly also face different trading quality tests. MEXC has the most contracts and ranks second in OI, but sixth in spread; Gate ranks second in contract count and third in OI, but its October volume declined. Bybit posted the largest increase in contract count during the period, yet still ranks sixth in volume, OI and depth. KuCoin and HTX currently have relatively small volume shares and relatively wide spreads; changes in their product coverage and trading activity are worth watching.
In the next phase, the focus of competition may shift from the number of new listings to sustained trading in newly listed assets, as well as quoting capability during market volatility. For MEXC, Gate and Bybit, the question is whether product expansion can drive growth in volume and open interest; for Bitget, whether its depth advantage can translate into a higher volume share; for Binance and OKX, whether they can maintain their scale and quoting advantages in popular stocks and outside U.S. equity trading hours. Going forward, key items to track are trading in newly listed assets, OI retention, and changes in depth and spreads when events occur.
Data Notes and References
Data covers August 1 to October 31, 2026, sourced from RootData futures and spot rankings and historical snapshots. Monthly and full-period averages are calculated for each platform as the sum of the metric's values on valid days divided by the number of valid days; missing dates are not filled with zeros. Cross-platform averages for the market and individual stocks are the sum of the platform averages. Trading volume uses daily 24-hour rolling values; October figures are intra-month averages through the 31st. Figures may not sum due to rounding.
[S1] Ondo Stocks: Product Operations and Reserve Verification
[S2] xStocks: Official FAQ and Corporate Actions
[S3] Binance bStocks: Official FAQ
[S4] Bitget rToken: FAQ, Trading Hours and Corporate Actions
[S5] Bitget Reality: Product and Developer Documentation
[S6] Robinhood Chain Stock Tokens Documentation and Classic Product Description
[S6a] Robinhood Classic Stock Tokens Product Description
[S7] FEC: 2026 U.S. Federal Election Dates
This report is for research reference only and does not constitute investment advice.
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