From Crypto Venues to Multi-Asset Platforms: How Leading CEXs Are Rewriting the Rules of Traditional Finance and Why Gate is Winning

Key Findings

CEXs processed $19.17 trillion in spot crypto volume in 2025 — but global equities traded $155 trillion and forex processes $9.6 trillion per day. The TAM expansion case is structural, not opportunistic.

The industry deployed $37 billion in M&A in 2025 to buy TradFi licenses and capabilities. Kraken, Coinbase, and Ripple each made headline acquisitions. Gate took a different path: building natively.

Gate has already launched 430+ TradFi CFD instruments, spanning stocks, forex, metals, indices, and commodities. The portfolio is expanding rapidly, with 10 to 20 new assets being onboarded daily, with peak daily volume exceeding $25 billion.

As a pioneer among CEXs, Gate operates five TradFi product formats simultaneously under one unified account: CFDs, perpetual futures on traditional assets, tokenized equities, RWA yield products, and pre-IPO allocations

Gate holds a No. 1 CEX Transparency ranking in TradFi and Stocks by RootData, backed by independently verified proof-of-reserves since 2020.



Introduction
Crypto exchanges are expanding their ambitions. The platforms that spent the last decade competing on token listings, trading fees, and derivatives depth are now building product stacks that look increasingly like full-service financial institutions, offering CFDs on equities and commodities, tokenized stocks, RWA yield products, and institutional prime brokerage infrastructure alongside their core crypto business.

The timing is not accidental. CEX expansion into traditional finance is driven by a macro environment shift, where institutional adoption of digital assets accelerates, while crypto and TradFi are increasingly merging. At the same time, regulatory frameworks are finally providing the clarity needed to build compliant cross-asset infrastructure.

Institutional capital is reshaping the demand side. US spot crypto ETFs have accumulated over $55 billion in cumulative net inflows since their January 2024 launch, with total AUM surpassing $120 billion.