Bitget Report: Earnings Season Frenzy – Analyzing the Explosive Growth in Demand for Tokenized US Stocks

Introduction: Three Forces Driving Global Trading Phenomena

Bitget's internal data shows a significant surge in tokenized US stock trading activity during the recent earnings season (mid-October to late November). Market participation was exceptionally high during this period, with demand surging by a record 450%. This growth momentum was evident in both the spot and futures markets, with trading volume increasing by 452% and 4,468% respectively compared to the previous period.

This earnings season frenzy is not an isolated event, but rather driven by three powerful and interconnected forces that are defining a new era for global stock trading. These three forces are the characteristics of the trading instruments, the global accessibility offered by the 24-hour market, and the unique behavioral patterns exhibited by participants. This report will analyze these three forces one by one, providing a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of this increasingly mature global market phenomenon.

Part One: Assets - The Story of the Contract and Spot Markets

Analyzing popular assets is crucial for understanding the motivations of market participants. Earnings season data reveals a clear strategic divergence between the contract and spot markets, profoundly reflecting the differentiated trading objectives of traders and investors.

"The futures market exhibits an aggressive trading style, characterized by highly leveraged earnings speculation and concentration among tech giants, while the spot market adopts a more balanced strategy, employing diversified allocations to achieve a balance between offense and defense."

Contract Market: High-Leverage Bets from Tech Giants

The stock contract market has become a stage for aggressive speculative trading, with trading activity highly concentrated on a few mega-tech companies. Traders use these tools to make directional bets on earnings-driven volatility. In fact, seven of the top ten most traded stock contracts are for mega-tech companies, indicating strong market position building.

The top five US stock contracts ranked by trading volume are as follows:

• Tesla (TSLA) : $2.54 billion

• Meta (META) : $2.05 billion

• MicroStrategy (MSTR) : $1.43 billion

• Apple (AAPL) : $1.03 billion

• Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ): $460 million

Strong holdings in key tech stocks can be gleaned from their explosive month-over-month trading volumes. Meta contract volume surged 40,774%, Microsoft by 24,339%, and MicroStrategy by 11,684%. This highly concentrated trading points to a clear strategic intent: traders are actively positioning themselves to profit from earnings season price volatility, AI strategy developments, and the volatility inherent in highly liquid tech stocks.

More notably, the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) appeared among the top five traded instruments, revealing a deeper strategic dimension. The active trading of QQQ highlights its value as an efficient hedging tool—helping investors heavily invested in technology stocks manage systemic risk, or gain overall sector exposure while mitigating individual stock risk. Meanwhile, MicroStrategy's consistently high trading volume reflects the market's enthusiasm for cryptocurrency concept stocks, making it an important indirect exposure for investing in this sector.

Spot Market: A Balanced Strategy Emphasizing Both Star Tech Stocks and Defensive Assets

In stark contrast to the frenzied speculation in the futures market, spot investors have adopted a more balanced and diversified allocation strategy. While focusing on market leaders, they diversify risk through index ETFs and allocate defensive assets to cope with the uncertainty of earnings season. This balanced approach highlights that investors value risk management while pursuing growth.

The strategy for the spot market is built on three pillars:

• Tech Leaders: Nvidia (NVDA) led the spot market with a trading volume of approximately $30 million and a month-over-month increase of 1888%, highlighting the market's continued focus on core technology assets with long-term growth potential. Star tech companies such as Tesla, Amazon, and Apple also ranked among the top in trading volume.

• Index-based diversification : Trading volume of tokenized ETFs has increased significantly, with the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) up 3492% month-over-month and the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) up 3247%, indicating that investors are using index tools to diversify risk and allocate macroeconomic assets.

• Demand for safe-haven assets surged: Long-term Treasury ETFs (TLT) saw a staggering 69,573% increase in monthly trading volume, reflecting a sophisticated defensive allocation strategy. This portfolio offers dual protection: it can serve as a hedge against disappointing earnings reports (safe-haven flows typically drive up Treasury prices), and it can also be used to bet on the possibility of a Federal Reserve rate cut when the economy weakens (lower yields would boost long-duration bond prices).

This balanced strategy of "offense and defense" in the spot market demonstrates a more cautious long-term allocation strategy.

Part Two: Accessibility: How 5x24 Hour Trading Can Unleash the Potential of Global User Participation

The 5x24 trading model has evolved from an innovative feature into the infrastructure for global market participation. This is not merely an extension of trading hours, but a structural transformation that eliminates time zone barriers, creating unprecedented opportunities for a diverse range of global investors. This model enables market participants to flexibly access pre-market information, adjust their strategies after hours, or implement precise allocations during local trading hours.

Peak Trading Session Analysis and Winning Strategies for Investors

Analysis of 24/7 trading volume reveals how global investors, particularly in Asia, are transforming this access to continuous trading into a strategic advantage. We can identify three key trading windows, each serving a unique function:

• Core trading hours for US stocks (UTC 16:00-20:00): This period overlaps with traditional US stock trading hours and is the most concentrated trading phase, especially in the closing session. However, for Asian investors, there are significant barriers to participation during this period, highlighting the unique value of earlier trading windows.

• Asian Afternoon/US Pre-Market Session (UTC 08:00-10:00) : This is the most active window outside of the regular trading session. It is of key value to Asian investors because it coincides with the local afternoon session, allowing them to respond promptly to overnight news and earnings reports, gaining a crucial pre-market positioning advantage without having to trade overnight.

• After-hours trading in the US stock market (UTC 20:00-23:00): Although trading volume is at its lowest point of the day during this period, it provides crucial emergency adjustment capabilities. Investors can react immediately to unexpected corporate announcements after the market closes, adjust their positions in a timely manner, and avoid uncontrollable overnight risks.

This democratization of market participation ensures that market participation is no longer geographically restricted, leading to an in-depth analysis of global players reshaping the market landscape.

Part Three: Participants – A Diverse Global User Base and Distinct Trading Behaviors

Analysis of user geographic distribution and trading frequency reveals a market that is both globally diverse and stratified by behavior. This surge in trading activity is driven by sophisticated investors from East Asia, exhibiting two distinct trading profiles: high-frequency trading "big players" and relatively passive "retail" investors.

Regional Distribution: Leading in East Asia, Exploring Potential Markets

The user demographics clearly demonstrate the global nature of the demand for tokenized US stocks, with each regional market exhibiting distinct local characteristics and growth potential.

East Asia: 39.66%

Latin America : 8.29%

South Asia : 7.76%

Southeast Asia: 5.91%

Europe: A key market with huge growth potential

A deeper analysis of the characteristics of each regional market reveals:

• East Asian market: As the largest and most mature user group, despite significant time zone and language barriers, investors still show strong interest in US tech giants and global asset allocation.

• European market: With its smaller time zone differences and mature global asset allocation culture, it naturally possesses enormous expansion potential and is a highly valuable growth area.

Emerging markets (Latin America and Asia) : are on a rapid development track, driven by both the widespread adoption of the internet and the application of fintech, which continues to stimulate user demand for participation in the world's largest stock market.

Trading Behavior Analysis: Differences in Behavior Between Large Investors and Retail Investors

Users were segmented based on transaction value, with the top 30% by transaction volume defined as "large investors" and the remaining 70% as "retail investors." Analysis of these segments revealed fundamental behavioral differences between the most active and least active participants in the market. The significant difference in trading frequency highlights fundamental differences between the two types of market participants in terms of information access, analytical tools, and risk tolerance. These differences reflect a fundamental distinction in market participation structure, rather than merely a difference in personal preferences.

Conclusion: The global market is moving towards a new stage of maturity and inclusiveness.

This report, through in-depth analysis of assets, access, and participants, draws compelling conclusions regarding the growing maturity of the global market for tokenized equities. Market evolution is reflected in three core themes:

1. Diversified Strategies: The market is not a single-pattern market. It can support both aggressive event-driven speculation in the contract market and balanced, long-term portfolio allocation in the spot market, reflecting a mature and efficient user base.

2. Inclusive Participation: 24/7 trading has evolved from a peripheral function into a fundamental element of a truly global market. Time zone barriers have been eliminated, enabling investors worldwide to participate on a level playing field, and significantly lowering market entry barriers.

3. Behavioral Stratification: The clear stratification between high-frequency "large investors" and cautious "retail investors" demonstrates an orderly market ecosystem. This structured participation approach indicates that the market can accommodate investors with different strategies and risk appetites.

"The convergence of these three trends signifies that tokenized stocks are becoming a mainstream component of the global modern investment landscape."