Veteran financiers, crypto OGs, quant geeks: When trading US stocks, which platform metrics really matter?

Author: TechFlow

Over the past two weeks, the US stock market has entered its busiest period of the year.

Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon…幾乎 every morning, major earnings reports are released.

For global traders, this means the densest window of opportunity of the year.

For traders who are not satisfied with "being right but not making money," compared to traditional brokers, trading US stocks via crypto platforms—which offer freer trading hours, higher execution efficiency, and lower barriers to entry—is increasingly becoming the preferred choice.

As major crypto platforms roll out US stock trading services one after another, all vying for a slice of this pie, a more pertinent question arises:

Everyone is doing it—so what is the core advantage that wins users over?

To explore this question, we had in-depth conversations with three veteran trading KOLs: @BroBean88, @xiadadhaida, and @Rocky_Bitcoin.

Trading US Stocks on CEXs: From "Novelty" to "Routine"

If you are active in the crypto US stock trading community, you have likely already heard these three names.

Rocky (X: @Rocky_Bitcoin), a crypto native who entered the space in 2017, focuses on long-term, multi-asset allocation as a fundamentals-driven player, paying close attention to on-chain asset forms, composability, and global asset allocation within next-generation financial infrastructure.

Bean (X: @BroBean88), a tech-focused trader with a long-term interest in AI. His quant trader background means his trading decisions start with dissecting earnings reports and scanning indicators—every result he gets is another validation of his data analysis model.

In contrast, with 20 years of experience in traditional financial markets and one of the earliest market makers in crypto, Xiadie Haida (X: @xiadadhaida) offers a more cross-disciplinary perspective, frequently sharing market sentiment and trading opportunities driven by macro variables and unexpected events.

All three veteran traders observed similar trends in the US stock market:

First, the rising weight of US stocks in portfolios. Rocky mentioned that his asset allocation follows a "4321" logic: 40% stocks, 30% crypto assets, 20% fixed income, 10% cash. Compared to a year ago, while the stock allocation remains steady at around 40%, the capital deployed into stocks has continued to grow alongside his total investment size. Within that 40%, US stocks have become the absolute dominant component.

Second, trading US stocks on CEXs is transitioning from a "novelty" to a "routine." Xiadie Haida stated that before May 2026, his US stock trading was primarily conducted on traditional platforms, but he has now fully shifted to crypto platforms, particularly Binance, Bitget, and Hyperliquid.

As more and more US stock trading activity takes place on crypto platforms, the most critical question in this migration from old to new systems is: which platform's US stock trading service best understands traders?

As for the answer, three traders with three different trading logics offered varying starting points and priorities—but with notable overlaps.

From Old Logic to New Systems: An Upgrade in "Time, Capital, and Information" Efficiency

As someone obsessed with dissecting data logic, Bean has extended this methodology to evaluating US stock trading platforms.

In his view, a superior US stock trading platform must pass three core benchmarks:

• Execution speed: when a stock moves sharply up or down, faster execution directly translates to better fill prices;
• Liquidity: order book depth determines the degree to which your actual fill price is eroded;
• Trading costs: explicit commissions plus implicit currency conversion spreads together constitute the true fee burden.

Applying this evaluation framework to current CEX US stock trading:

On the execution side, leading platforms including Binance, OKX, Bitget, Bybit, and Kraken all have matching engines designed for high-concurrency trading, with core matching latency ranging from tens of milliseconds to single-digit milliseconds, or even lower.

In terms of liquidity, a recent DeFiLlama report conducted a horizontal assessment of liquidity performance across mainstream platforms including Binance, Bitget, Kraken, Bybit, Gate, Hyperliquid, and Ondo Finance. In the liquidity benchmark tests across five stock spot markets—MSTR, SPY, QQQ, CRCL, and NVDA—Bitget achieved the tightest spreads on rNVDA, rSPY, and rMSTR, and also demonstrated the deepest order book liquidity across all sampled markets. For the other two tickers, Gate's xStock had the tightest spread on QQQ, while Binance's bStock had the tightest spread on CRCL.

Beyond the metrics, Bean, a self-proclaimed "data-sensitive" trader who believes "details determine success," has also paid extra attention to the information tools offered by each platform. Bean explains:

Some AI-related market moves are often triggered by specific news catalysts—for example, if Gemini releases a breakthrough model, Google's stock price could see an unexpected short-term surge. This type of information is extremely important for investors.

Therefore, among the US stock trading services offered by crypto platforms, many product designs aimed at breaking down information barriers have led Bean to believe: the people building these products are not just following the market—they have likely traded US stocks themselves, because they truly understand the decision-making logic of AI-focused traders.

Taking Bitget's millisecond-level real-time quotes and extensive news feed as an example, Bean also shared that in addition to using his own information-scraping and analysis tools, he frequently uses Bitget to assist with information aggregation and strategy formulation.

On July 22, 2026, Tesla released its earnings after market close, with Q2 operating profit coming in below market expectations. Tesla's stock fell nearly 30% in two days. Well-prepared, Xiadie Haida executed a short position on Bitget immediately when the report was released (in the early morning of July 23, Beijing time), perfectly avoiding the losses.

During the past two weeks of earnings season, scenarios like this played out in his account almost daily.

In Xiadie Haida's view, US stocks are easier to trade than A-shares because the market reacts more sensitively to news. The key lies in how quickly you can react when market data transmits a signal.

Xiadie Haida admits that he was initially drawn to trading US stocks on crypto platforms for the convenience—using USDT directly without the friction of cumbersome registration and fiat conversion processes required in traditional finance—but the freer trading hours are the core reason he made a complete switch to crypto platforms:

Escalating tensions in the Middle East, earnings releases, Trump tweeting in the middle of the night… when signals occur during market closure, he knows he cannot afford to wait a single second.

Most platforms, including Binance, Bybit, and Bitget, offer 24/7 trading for tokenized US stocks, while real US stocks cover regular hours + pre-market/post-market + overnight sessions across the full timeline, better enabling traders to respond to unexpected signals without waiting for the next opening bell.

This is not just Xiadie Haida's personal observation: according to official Binance data, in July, over 62% of bStocks trading volume occurred outside traditional trading hours. Bitget's rToken shows a similar trend, with more than one-third of trades executed during traditional US market closure hours, reflecting strong demand for US stock trading beyond regular session hours.

Building on this, another of Xiadie Haida's priorities is the breadth of asset coverage: everyone is watching the popular US stocks, but opportunities don't always occur in just a handful of tickers.

This is also one of the reasons Bitget has become one of the platforms Xiadie Haida uses most frequently: Using Binance as a reference, Binance's real stock offering supports 7,000+ US stocks and ETFs, while its tokenized stock bStocks covers fewer than 100 tickers. In contrast, Bitget's real stock offering supports 10,000+ US stocks and ETFs, and its tokenized stock rToken covers 600+ mainstream US stocks/ETFs. For a trader with diversified investment needs like Xiadie Haida, Bitget offers a broader selection.

Beyond functional needs, what keeps Xiadie Haida loyal also involves a degree of emotional attachment.

The current crypto US stock market—whether in terms of scale or product maturity—is still in its early stages, and encountering issues during trading is inevitable. Bitget's team provides timely responses, ensuring that traders always receive feedback no matter when they encounter problems or what issues they face. In particular, Bitget's Greater China lead, Xie Jiayin, has been actively engaged with the community for years, listening to traders' needs and driving product improvements.

On this point, Xiadie Haida remarked: "This makes me feel that building a 'warm' trading platform is not just an empty slogan for Bitget."

As a veteran trader who has experienced nearly every CEX US stock trading service, Rocky's expectations for crypto US stocks go beyond the basic "buy and sell" threshold, focusing more on capital efficiency: how many times can the same money work for him.

In traditional finance, stocks mostly sit idle in accounts. But once tokenized US stocks are truly on-chain, they can function like DeFi Lego blocks—enabling staking for yield and collateral for lending. When composability is fully unleashed, one asset achieves multiple efficiencies. This is one of the most compelling narratives of tokenized US stocks in Rocky's view.

This more crypto-native perspective has led Rocky to closely monitor tokenization solutions alongside real stocks.

Among current mainstream tokenized US stock solutions, Binance's bStocks was one of the earliest to gain market attention. Its BEP-20 token design allows bStocks to seamlessly integrate into the BNB Chain DeFi ecosystem, theoretically opening up composability possibilities. However, in practice, more collaboration between DeFi protocols and traders is needed to set examples. Moreover, bStocks currently covers only 50+ tickers, which remains relatively thin for most traders.

Bitget's rToken, which has recently sparked discussions on social media for its efficiency, presents a different approach in Rocky's view. According to official information, rToken currently covers 600+ mainstream US stocks and ETFs. Unlike bStocks' limited support in margin and lending scenarios, rToken allows users to earn yield while holding, while also serving as margin and collateral for borrowing—achieving triple efficiency with a single asset.

The appeal of "one asset, multiple uses" made Rocky—who was already highly focused on capital efficiency—one of the earliest adopters of rToken. He quickly integrated it into his own trading habits and developed a mature strategy for amplifying efficiency.

For Rocky, who trades relatively fewer derivatives, lending is a more familiar battleground. He shared:

rToken's current borrowing rate is around 2.2%, and 100 USDT can borrow approximately 78 USDT—both figures are very attractive;

Using low-volatility assets as underlying collateral, such as the S&P 500 index (which has averaged roughly 11% annual returns over the past 15 years), easily covers the 2.2% borrowing rate. Even if you're risk-averse, just using the borrowed funds for spot trading to capture event-driven opportunities can generate solid returns.

Running through the entire flow, Rocky gave a straightforward conclusion: among all the CEX US stock trading services he has experienced so far, Binance's strength lies in its on-chain ecosystem integration via BNB Chain, while Bitget is arguably the best when it comes to capital efficiency within the exchange.

What Else Can We Expect from US Stock Trading?

As our conversation drew to a close, we shifted away from specific products to look at the broader industry future.

The current total market size of tokenized US stocks is approximately $2.5 billion. While this represents clear growth compared to the start of the year, all three veteran traders view this number as merely a starting point.

Rocky laid out the math clearly in his sharing:

The global stock market's total market capitalization is approximately $125 trillion, and in Rocky's view, the penetration rate of tokenized stocks could reach at least 10% in the next three years—that's $12.5 trillion. In terms of holders, there are currently around 710,000 addresses holding tokenized US stocks on-chain. With the growth of CEX US stock businesses, this could expand to 50 million users in the next three years.

From $2.5 billion to $12.5 trillion—that's a massive growth opportunity. So what will be the core driving force that moves tokenized US stocks from a "niche window" to a "mainstream option"?

Both Rocky and Bean unanimously identify compliance as the primary factor:

Bean believes that compliance addresses the most fundamental trust issue. Only after genuine regulatory recognition will large capital be willing to enter, allowing the time, cost, and efficiency advantages of on-chain US stocks to be further amplified.

Rocky added another dimension: beyond compliance, the explosion of DeFi composability generating more passive income opportunities will attract more participants.

After discussing industry outlooks, the three traders also shared their specific expectations for the future evolution of crypto US stock products based on their own trading needs.

Xiadie Haida focuses on trading coverage: he hopes platforms will further expand US stock offerings and explore more IPO Prime subscription-related mechanics.

In Bean's view, the more transparent the assets, the more confident traders become. He is therefore more concerned about asset transparency, wanting clearer visibility into the real stock backing behind each token.

In his view, many projects currently adopt a "self-reported" model for their tokenized US stock reserve proofs, lacking external oversight. While Bitget's rToken has improved transparency by partnering with a US auditing firm to provide daily third-party audit reports, there is still room for enhancement—for example, further granular disclosure for rToken, such as each rToken having a dedicated transparency page showing underlying custodial assets, token issuance, latest audit timestamp, and dividend plans.

Rocky's expectations center on two aspects:

First, Rocky believes the traditional US stock market has a wealth of hedging strategies and tactics, but there are too few on-chain. He suggests bringing proven strategies that have already been validated in traditional markets onto the chain. In this context, Rocky expressed excitement about Bitget's recent launch of US stock options, which he considers a major highlight and potentially a significant future trend.