Gate Research: The "Wall Street-ization" Wave of Crypto Financial Products – Competition or Convergence?

In January 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto embedded a line in the Bitcoin genesis block: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." This line served as both a timestamp and is often seen as a commentary on the bank bailout system following the 2008 financial crisis: Bitcoin attempted to establish a peer-to-peer value transfer system that does not rely on banks or trusted third parties.

However, seventeen years later, one of the mainstream ways to hold Bitcoin is to buy shares in an ETF issued by BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, or to hold stocks in companies holding Bitcoin on their treasuries. Does this mean the crypto market has deviated from its original founding purpose? Is Wall Street systematically seizing the rights to issue, price, custody, and distribute crypto-financial assets?

1. Is Wall Street Seizing the Rights to Issue, Price, Custody, and Distribute Crypto Assets?

1.1 The Ideal: Bitcoin's Founding Purpose in 2009

This brings us back to Bitcoin's founding principles. The Bitcoin whitepaper described a financial order built around three core concepts:

• Decentralization: No central issuer, no headquarters, no server that can be shut down. The ledger is maintained by global nodes, and the rules are written into the code.

• Disintermediation: Value is transferred peer-to-peer, without needing banks, brokers, or clearinghouses for matching and endorsement. "Private key equals ownership," and self-custody is the default form.

• Debanking: Anyone can hold and transfer assets without opening an account, KYC, or being an accredited investor. One can also participate in issuing new coins through mining.

The spiritual core of this ideal is to reclaim the four powers of issuing, pricing, custody, and distributing finance from a few institutions and distribute them among every participant in the network. This was a direct response to the 2008 financial crisis and a declaration to the market: if the centralized financial system fails, then build a system that doesn't need them.

1.2 Reality: Are These Four Rights Being Seized?

However, this decentralized order seems less pure after the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs in 2024. In other words, traditional finance is incorporating crypto technology into its own system of asset issuance, settlement, and distribution.

Asset management giants like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton have packaged BTC and ETH into products purchasable within traditional financial accounts. When BTC and ETH are packaged as ETFs, they transform from "on-chain assets requiring understanding of wallets and private keys" into "financial products that can be bought in a traditional securities account." As of May 2026, ETFs hold approximately 1.5 million Bitcoins, accounting for about 7.14% of Bitcoin's total supply cap of 21 million in just two years.

Similar changes are occurring in the derivatives market. CME's Bitcoin and Ethereum futures and options provide institutions with a regulated venue for hedging and risk management. More and more institutions gain crypto exposure through futures, options, ETFs, structured products, and fund shares without directly handling on-chain assets.

RWA and tokenized treasuries further expand the boundaries of "Wall Street-ization." The RWA treasury market grew from about $380 million in early 2023 to over $11 billion in 2026, making it the fastest-growing segment in the entire RWA space. The list of issuers reads like a Wall Street roll call. Products like BlackRock's BUIDL, Franklin Templeton's Benji, JPMorgan's Kinexys, and Ondo's tokenized treasuries are all moving traditional financial assets onto the chain.

Institutions like Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, and BNY Mellon handle custody, trading, and compliance infrastructure. Furthermore, in August 2025, a US executive order allowed alternative assets like cryptocurrencies and private equity into 401(k) retirement plans, opening the door to approximately $12.5 trillion in retirement account funds for crypto assets. With increased institutional participation, many brokerages and wealth management firms are gradually bringing distribution rights under their umbrella.

Behind this is not just a change in product form, but a shift in power structure: asset managers handle issuance, brokerages and advisors handle distribution, compliant custodians handle safekeeping, market makers and authorized participants handle primary market creations/redemptions, exchanges handle listing, and the regulatory framework defines the boundaries. Crypto assets have thus entered the language system of traditional finance.

2. A Two-Way Convergence: 1+1>2

But Wall Street's "centralization" is only one side of the coin. Zooming out, the other side reveals both sides complementing each other's weaknesses. This is not a zero-sum game of one side absorbing the other, but a two-way convergence of two systems.

The crypto-native system offers permissionless openness, a 24/7 global market, and programmable on-chain settlement. Yet it consistently lacks four things: compliant issuance channels, institutional-grade custody trust, deep fiat liquidity, and a distribution network reaching the mainstream. These four things are precisely what Wall Street has in abundance.

Conversely, Wall Street has licenses, custody, trillion-dollar capital pools, and global distribution channels. But its assets are trapped in an outdated system: markets open only on business days, high cross-border barriers, T+2 settlement, and products that cannot be easily combined. These limitations are exactly what the crypto track inherently solves. Thus, the 1+1>2 effect is not just theoretical speculation.

In recent years, crypto exchanges have launched real stock trading, a trend showcasing two seemingly opposite directions converging on the same destination. One path starts from crypto exchanges and moves towards traditional finance; the other starts from traditional finance and moves towards crypto. Gate and Robinhood are the clearest representatives of these two paths.

2.1 Path A: From CEX to Traditional Finance

Gate's TradFi path can be divided into several stages. The first stage is the tokenization of traditional assets. On July 3, 2025, Gate officially launched the xStocks Trading Section, becoming one of the first crypto exchanges to open tokenized asset trading. Partnering with xStocks and Ondo, it allowed users to trade spot and perpetual contracts of US stocks like Apple, Tesla, and Meta using USDT, 24/7, without needing a traditional securities account. The core of this path is the "third-party compliant issuance + CEX distribution" model. Under this structure, Swiss regulated entity Backed Finance holds 1:1 real stocks through an SPV structure (bought via brokers like Interactive Brokers and custodied at regulated banks like InCore Bank). The tokens are issued on Solana's SPL standard, incorporating Chainlink oracles for high-frequency synchronization with off-chain markets.

The second stage is traditional assets as CFDs, offering users exposure to gold, forex, indices, commodities, and some stock prices via Contracts for Difference. In January 2026, Gate expanded its TradFi CFD products to cover gold, forex, indices, commodities, and popular stocks, using USDx as an internal unit pegged to USDT for the trading experience. In this stage, the exchange acts as an exposure provider; users trade derivatives and do not directly hold the underlying stock assets.

The third stage was the launch of real stock trading in June 2026. Gate officially launched real stock trading on June 1, 2026, currently supporting over 10,000 US stocks and ETFs, covering major markets like NYSE and Nasdaq. Users can trade directly using USDT. This signifies that a native crypto trading platform is no longer content with offering spot, futures, Launchpad, copy trading, wallets, and on-chain tools to native users but is beginning to include traditional securities traders like stock, ETF, bond, forex, and fund traders into its trading domain.

The difference from previous CFDs is that Gate emphasizes connecting to the real securities market through compliant broker infrastructure, rather than stock tokens or synthetic assets. On June 3, 2026, Gate also announced a strategic partnership with Alpaca to expand real stock trading access for eligible users. Alpaca is an SEC-registered clearing broker, and the cooperation focuses on trade execution, clearing, and custody infrastructure. In other words, Gate does not issue stocks itself but acts as a front-end interface between crypto accounts, stablecoin capital, and traditional broker settlement systems.

The fourth stage is geographic expansion. After US stocks, Gate launched Hong Kong stock trading on June 15, 2026, covering over 1,000 stocks listed on HKEX initially, including Tencent, HSBC, Xiaomi, Meituan, BYD, and China Mobile. Users can trade these using USDT, and they share the same stock account system as US stocks. On June 22, 2026, Gate further launched Korean stock trading, supporting stocks listed on the Korea Exchange (KRX). The initial coverage includes the top 1,000 companies by market cap, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, NAVER, Hyundai Motor, and Celltrion, covering both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets. Within June, Gate rapidly deployed a multi-market product matrix using USDT as a unified capital entry point and global stocks as allocation targets.

These four stages reflect a shift in the growth logic of CEXs. Previously, CEXs relied mainly on spot, futures, Launchpad, wealth management, and Web3 wallets to build user ecosystems. However, with increased crypto trading penetration, intensified fee competition, and higher regulatory requirements, the growth space reliant solely on crypto-to-crypto trading is narrowing. Traditional assets like stocks, ETFs, and commodities can expand the tradeable asset pool and improve user asset retention. For Gate, real stock trading not only serves the cross-asset allocation needs of crypto users but also helps attract traditional finance users into its account system.

2.2 Path B: From Traditional Finance to Crypto

In the opposite direction to Gate, traditional brokerages like Robinhood are gradually penetrating the crypto market. Their advantage lies in having a mature securities brokerage user base, a compliance framework, and experience in retail trading products. This allows them to integrate traditional financial products like stocks, ETFs, and options with crypto assets on a single platform at a lower customer acquisition cost. Traditional financial institutions are not only adding crypto assets as a supplement to traditional wealth management systems but are also fully leveraging crypto assets' 24/7 trading and high volatility to generate new revenue streams and enhance platform competitiveness.

Robinhood is the most representative traditional brokerage. Originally a typical retail brokerage and fintech platform starting with stocks, options, cash management, margin, and subscription services, crypto assets have become one of its growth engines in recent years. In Q4 2024, Robinhood's crypto trading revenue reached $358 million, a year-over-year increase of over 700%, driving total transaction-based revenue up over 200% year-over-year. For the full year 2025, Robinhood's total revenue reached $4.5 billion, full-year net deposits reached $68 billion, and Gold subscribers reached 4.2 million, showing its transition from a single stock trading app to a comprehensive financial account.

Robinhood's crypto strategy is not limited to offering coin trading. In June 2025, Robinhood completed its acquisition of Bitstamp, integrating its retail and institutional crypto trading business covering the EU, UK, US, and Asia, strengthening its global crypto licenses and institutional business capabilities. This shows Robinhood is not just adding crypto as a trading category in its stock app but is using acquisitions to bolster its crypto exchange, licensing, institutional clients, and global operational capabilities.

More importantly, it is moving traditional stock assets onto the chain. On June 30, 2025, Robinhood announced the launch of Stock Tokens in Europe and disclosed plans to build the Robinhood Layer 2 blockchain, designed to support real-world asset tokenization, 24/7 trading, cross-chain functionality, and self-custody. Its stock tokens were initially issued on Arbitrum, with plans to migrate to Robinhood's own Layer 2 based on the Arbitrum technology stack. These Classic Stock Tokens are derivative contracts with Robinhood that reflect the price performance of related stocks and ETPs.

This contrasts with Gate's emphasis on real stock trading. Robinhood leans more towards packaging traditional stock exposure as on-chain or quasi-on-chain tokenized exposure, while Gate connects to real securities brokerage infrastructure from its CEX account.

2.3 The Common Goal of the Two Paths: Capturing the Next-Generation Integrated Financial Account

For the average user, the financial classification behind an asset might not be very important. Most don't care if they are trading stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, event contracts, or tokenized securities. What users really care about is whether they can trade in the same account, enter and exit at low cost, see real-time price changes, and quickly switch positions during market volatility.

This is precisely the core motivation for traditional brokerages to embrace crypto assets. They are not simply trying to become another Gate or other CEX. Instead, they want to prevent the next-generation financial entry point from being captured by crypto platforms.

Therefore, the key is not whether a specific product succeeds in the short term, but that the direction of industry convergence is crystal clear: traditional brokerages want the crypto market's trading speed, global liquidity, younger user base, and high-frequency trading behavior; crypto platforms want traditional finance's real assets, compliant identity, institutional trust, and wider asset supply.

Both sides are moving towards each other's most valuable parts. The boundary between Crypto and TradFi is breaking down at the product level. The core of the next phase of competition will be compliance capabilities, asset coverage, capital efficiency, user experience, and global account systems.

3. RWA and On-Chain Treasuries: The Middle Layer Unifying Capital Markets

Gate and Robinhood, mentioned above, represent convergence at the user entry point, while RWA and on-chain treasuries represent convergence at the asset level.

In the past, one of the biggest problems in the crypto market was the relatively closed supply of on-chain assets. Apart from native tokens, stablecoins, NFTs, and a small number of derivative assets, the chain struggled to host sufficiently rich, low-volatility, real-yield assets that meet institutional demand.

On-chain treasuries changed this. When US Treasuries, money market funds, and short-term bond funds are tokenized, they become on-chain approximations of "risk-free yield." They can be used as collateral, participate in DeFi portfolios, serve institutional treasury management, and act as the yield source behind stablecoins and on-chain financial products.

However, this market is still in its early stages. Data from May 2026 shows the tokenized US Treasury market is approximately $15 billion, compared to the entire US Treasury market of about $30 trillion. The difference is over three orders of magnitude.

This gap illustrates two things. First, RWA is not a completed market but one that has just begun its institutionalization. Second, its ceiling is not determined by native crypto users but by whether traditional financial assets can enter the on-chain environment in a compliant, auditable, settleable, and distributable manner. This is why traditional institutions like JPMorgan, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, BNY, DTCC, and Nasdaq are all present in the tokenization narrative. In the long run, they are not just launching a separate crypto product; they are testing the underlying settlement and asset registration methods for future capital markets.

Data proves this convergence is not a narrative bubble but a real structural trend. In the first half of 2026, the overall crypto market fell by 28%, and DeFi TVL shrank by over 25%. Yet, the RWA sector bucked the trend, growing over 40% to surpass $32 billion. Tokenized stocks were the growth engine: the number of holding wallets grew by 188% in half a year, reaching approximately 350,000, becoming the largest RWA category by wallet count, surpassing tokenized gold. This means a large number of users who were originally in the crypto world but wanted US stock exposure found an entry point without returning to a traditional brokerage. Simultaneously, DTCC, and banks in the US and Japan, plan to enter the market in 2026-2027, "infrastructuralizing" tokenized stocks.

4. The Logical Endpoint: Stocks, Crypto, RWA, and On-Chain Treasuries Trading on the Same Platform

4.1 Unified Capital Market and the "Super Account"

In the old financial system, different assets were segmented into different accounts: stocks in a brokerage account, funds in an asset management account, bonds in an institutional system, deposits in a bank account, crypto on an exchange or wallet, and on-chain assets in a self-custody address. Each asset had its own trading hours, settlement cycle, custody rules, compliance requirements, and user interface. But next-generation platforms are trying to compress all this segmentation into a single account.

Crypto exchanges start from coins and expand towards stocks, ETFs, RWA, payments, and on-chain yields. Traditional brokerages start from stocks and expand towards crypto, tokenized securities, prediction markets, stablecoins, and 24/7 trading. Asset management companies start from funds and expand towards ETFs, tokenized funds, and on-chain