CEX가 주식을 포용하면서, 알트코인은 버림받았는가?

Original Authors: Henry Kim, Ryan Yoon

Original Compiled by: Chopper, Foresight News

TL;DR:

• The growth of crypto spot trading fee models has peaked, combined with the rise of decentralized perpetual exchanges like Hyperliquid and a loosening regulatory environment under the Trump administration. These multiple factors are prompting the world's top crypto exchanges to readjust their development strategies.
• Now, major exchanges are moving into traditional financial sectors such as stocks and financial derivatives, with their operational models gradually aligning with traditional financial institutions.
• However, a problem arises: centralized exchanges have always been the core liquidity providers for the entire crypto ecosystem. If exchanges gradually downplay their core crypto business, the existing operational order of the entire crypto market could be fundamentally disrupted.
• Crypto projects have thus entered a phase of independent survival. Whether they can operate independently without exchange support will become a watershed for project development, leading to a clear divergence in the industry landscape.

Trading Apple Stock on Binance

Starting June 1st, users can directly trade US stocks like Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOGL) through the Binance app. The next day, Binance announced the addition of trading for stocks in the Korea Composite Stock Price Index, including the three most actively traded Korean stocks: SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Hyundai Motor.

Binance's ambition to enter the stock business dates back to 2021. In April of that year, the platform launched tokenized stock trading, supporting stocks like Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSFT). However, due to increasing regulatory pressure, this service was completely shut down in July of the same year. The business was unsustainable at the time mainly due to three structural problems: the legal classification of stock tokens as securities or derivatives was never settled; the products lacked an investor prospectus as required by EU regulations; and Binance itself did not have the direct license to conduct such business. Regulators like BaFin (Germany), the FCA (UK), and the SFC (Hong Kong) all raised objections based on these issues.

With the relaunch of the stock trading service, the overall structure has been significantly adjusted. Binance now executes orders through a licensed broker in the Abu Dhabi Global Market. The business is clearly defined as a securities brokerage service, completely circumventing previous legal disputes. The core conflict that led to the 2021 suspension—the ambiguity of the underlying asset issuer—has now been largely resolved.

This industry move shows a clear temporal coincidence. In the same period, Bybit also launched a perpetual contract market for traditional financial products, listing not only Korean stock contracts like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics but also perpetual contracts for SpaceX (SPCX). Coinbase quickly followed suit, announcing support for SPCX contract trading.

This collective shift by major crypto exchanges away from a pure cryptocurrency trading model towards comprehensive traditional financial service platforms is worthy of deeper investigation.

Three Drivers of Transformation

Three external pressures are jointly pushing exchanges away from a pure crypto operation model.

Declining Cryptocurrency Trading Volume

The primary pressure comes from the shrinking overall trading volume of cryptocurrencies. An exchange's core revenue comes from crypto trading fees, and trading volume is entirely dictated by market sentiment.

Binance's daily average spot trading volume has plummeted from a peak of approximately $45 billion in October 2025 to just $7.7 billion now, a drop of nearly 80%. The combined spot trading volume of all other centralized exchanges has also fallen from a peak of $63 billion to the current $18.8 billion, a decline of about 70%. This continuous shrinkage in volume means the business model relying on trading fees is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Exchanges have long realized that relying solely on crypto trading fees cannot build a sustainable revenue system.

Hyperliquid Diverts On-Chain Liquidity

A comparison of data clearly shows the current market landscape: comparing the trading volume of altcoins (excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum) with the volume of real-world assets like stocks and commodities on the Hyperliquid platform reveals a significant gap.

Hyperliquid continuously absorbs on-chain liquidity by listing perpetual contracts for stocks and commodities. As of mid-2026, among the top 30 perpetual contract trading pairs by volume on the platform, 23 are stocks and commodities, with crypto assets becoming the minority.

The on-chain market is no longer exclusive to crypto assets. The trading volume of one decentralized exchange is now able to compete with traditional centralized exchanges, serving as a wake-up call for all major CEXs.

Shifting Regulatory Environment

The third pressure comes from the change in the overall regulatory climate following the Trump administration's assumption of office. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its lawsuits against Coinbase and Kraken. During periods of strict regulatory enforcement, applying for traditional financial licenses carried extremely high compliance risks. Now, as regulatory boundaries become clearer, various financial licenses not only serve as endorsements for compliant operations but also become competitive advantages for platforms.

Within a clear rule framework, exchanges can explore new development directions based on their existing strengths. The convergence of these three pressures, coupled with rising demand for stocks and various financial derivatives, forces top exchanges to accelerate their transformation to survive and carve out new development paths.

Strategies of Major Centralized Exchanges

Facing the same industry difficulties, each centralized exchange has chosen distinctly different development routes.

Binance: Building a Comprehensive Financial Super Platform

Binance's development strategy is clear: build a one-stop, comprehensive trading platform that retains all user trading activity within its own ecosystem, preventing user churn.

Binance entered the on-chain space early and achieved significant results. It first built its centralized exchange business, then launched Binance Smart Chain in April 2019 to tap into the on-chain ecosystem. In the first half of 2025, it launched the Binance Alpha product, successfully capturing a considerable on-chain market share.

However, entering 2026, on-chain liquidity began tilting towards stock categories. Hyperliquid took the lead, continuously capturing liquidity with stock and commodity-related products, directly impacting the on-chain user base Binance had cultivated for years. In response, Binance chose not to compete head-on with Hyperliquid in the on-chain space. Instead, it took a different path, launching stock trading services for its over 200 million existing users. Compared to fighting on the opponent's turf, retaining existing users is clearly the safer choice.

The specific operational model is as follows: Trade orders submitted by users on Binance's front end are first received by Nest Trading, a licensed broker in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, which then forwards them to Alpaca Securities to complete the subsequent process. Order execution, clearing, settlement, and asset custody are all handled by Alpaca. Binance does not directly hold the related securities assets, a structural design that allows it to avoid direct securities regulatory oversight.

It's worth noting that Nest Trading has been confirmed as a Binance-related entity, and Binance also holds a minority stake in Alpaca. The two parties have signed a revenue-sharing agreement, with Nest Trading receiving 50% of order flow fees and 65% of securities lending income.

Binance is currently building its own complete supporting infrastructure, fully transforming into a financial super app. Before altcoin liquidity further flows to Hyperliquid and the stock market, the platform is making every effort to consolidate its existing user base.

Bybit: Dual-Track Development Model

Founded in 2018, Bybit started in the derivatives trading sector, achieving rapid expansion through high leverage (up to 100x) and low fees. The platform now employs a dual-track strategy focusing on both centralized and on-chain operations: migrating centralized exchange liquidity onto the blockchain network while simultaneously listing traditional financial asset derivatives on its centralized platform.

The platform's expansion began with on-chain business. In June 2025, Bybit listed tokenized stock products launched by Backed on its spot market, formally taking the first step into tokenized stocks. In November of the same year, Bybit collaborated with the Mantle public chain and Backed to officially launch the xStocks product on the Mantle blockchain, covering mainstream US stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL).

In May 2026, Bybit launched an atomic quote function on Fluxion, a decentralized exchange within the Mantle ecosystem. This function no longer relies on automated market makers to match orders but directly obtains quotes from asset issuers, allowing on-chain trading to meet the execution standards required by traditional financial institutions.

In its centralized business segment, Bybit has also been very active. Facing industry pressures similar to Binance, the platform launched perpetual contracts for traditional financial products in April 2026 and has been adding new underlying assets weekly since then. Currently, mainstream US stocks like Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), and commodities like gold, silver, and crude oil support 24/7 trading settled in USDT. On June 4th, perpetual contracts for Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Hyundai Motor were officially launched, along with trading for SpaceX's pre-IPO shares.

The ultimate goal of both business tracks is to build comprehensive infrastructure, bridge on-chain and off-chain scenarios, and enable refined trading of traditional financial assets. Unlike Binance, which is heavily focused on its centralized platform, Bybit continues to cultivate its on-chain ecosystem, relying on Fluxion and the Mantle public chain.

Coinbase: The Most Trusted Exchange in the U.S. Market

Coinbase listed on Nasdaq in 2021 and was added to the S&P 500 index in May 2025. Backed by Wall Street capital, it is currently the most institutionally recognized centralized crypto exchange globally.

Coinbase also maintains an on-chain business presence. It launched the Ethereum Layer 2 network Base in 2023, which grew rapidly and at one point accounted for nearly half of the total value locked in Layer 2 networks in 2025. However, entering 2026, Base's growth has stagnated and is no longer the company's core development focus.

Coinbase's current focus has shifted entirely towards institutional clients. In August 2025, the company acquired Deribit for $2.9 billion, securing approximately 85% of the global crypto options market. Subsequently, the platform obtained a Futures Commission Merchant license from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, launched cross-margin trading functionality (integrating spot, futures, and perpetual contract positions into a single margin account), and further expanded its institutional client base. In that year, lending balances from hedge funds and asset management institutions on the platform hit a quarterly high.

In December 2025, Coinbase launched commission-free stock and ETF trading services within its own app. Binance uses an indirect operational model by connecting to external brokers. In contrast, Coinbase leverages its years of accumulated compliance licenses to conduct stock trading directly. On June 4th, the platform announced support for trading SpaceX's pre-IPO shares.

While Hyperliquid continuously expands its products and accumulates liquidity in regulatory gray areas, Coinbase's early move into stock trading gives it more leverage to navigate the industry changes.

Kraken: Marching Towards a Federally Chartered Crypto Bank

Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the longest-standing exchanges in the crypto industry. Its core strategy is to continuously acquire various financial licenses, build proprietary infrastructure, and ultimately establish a federally regulated crypto asset custody bank.

Obtaining compliance qualifications is Kraken's top priority. In March 2025, the company acquired the trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, securing a CFTC Futures Commission Merchant license and taking over the platform's 20,000 retail traders. In April 2026, it acquired Bitnomial for $550 million. This platform, after ten years of operation, is the only native crypto platform to hold all three core CFTC licenses: Designated Contract Market, Derivatives Clearing Organization, and Futures Commission Merchant. In March 2026, Kraken obtained a Federal Reserve master account; in May of the same year, it applied for a National Trust Charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

While aggressively pursuing its compliance strategy, Kraken has not neglected its on-chain ecosystem. In December 2024, the platform launched its self-developed Layer 2 network, Ink, and subsequently built the lending protocol Tydro and the decentralized perpetual exchange Nado on top of it. In January 2026, it launched the on-chain wealth management product DeFi Earn, and in May, it introduced the Bitcoin custody service Bitcoin Vault. The design logic for all on-chain products revolves around assets whose value can be clearly articulated to institutional clients; altcoins are also not part of its on-chain business plan.

While other exchanges are launching stock trading to retain users, Kraken has chosen a different path, aspiring to become a trusted, native crypto bank for institutional clients.

Although the specific strategies of each centralized exchange differ, they share one commonality: altcoins no longer hold a significant position in the future plans of any platform.

Where is the Crypto Industry Heading?

For a long time, centralized exchanges have been the liquidity pillars of the crypto ecosystem. Exchanges list tokens, driving trading activity, and the vast majority of crypto projects have survived thanks to this support.

The deep-seated problem in the industry is that almost no crypto project can prove its true value through actual business revenue. The support logic for token prices has never been the project's fundamentals but rather early-stage acquisition methods like exchange listings and liquidity mining. The condition for this operational model to sustain itself is that exchanges and traders maintain enthusiasm for the crypto track.

Now, with retail trading volumes shrinking and enthusiasm waning, exchanges' support for listings and marketing resources will also tighten, making the original ecosystem model obviously unsustainable.

The market trend has already shifted. Capital is beginning to flow towards projects that can create value through real product revenue, rather than tokens that simply rely on exchange support. Hyperliquid's platform token, HYPE, is the most typical example. Even though this very platform diverted on-chain liquidity originally belonging to crypto assets towards stock categories, HYPE remains one of the best-performing crypto assets. This phenomenon also signifies that the once mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship between centralized exchanges and crypto projects is gradually disintegrating.

The strategic choices of the major exchanges further confirm this trend. Retail trading volume and user base are the foundation of an exchange's survival. If they stubbornly stick to the pure crypto trading track, this foundation will only continue to erode. The market has long lost its former enthusiasm for newly listed crypto tokens. Exchanges have no choice but to actively explore new revenue streams while safeguarding their existing platform architecture and user base.

This is the core reason why all major platforms are collectively pivoting towards stock derivatives, wealth management value-added services, and asset custody. During this process of resource reallocation, exchanges have essentially let go, leaving altcoin projects to face market challenges on their own.

In the past, when the market entered a downturn, centralized exchanges would share the pressure and endure the bear market alongside the entire crypto industry. However, exchanges are now exploring paths for growth that are independent of cryptocurrencies. This foreshadows that this current industry downturn will be much more difficult for the crypto space than any previous bear market.