When stocks meet Crypto, how is Gate building a one-stop global stock investment platform?

On June 27, OpenAI officially released its new flagship model, GPT-5.6, aiming to reclaim its throne from Anthropic.

Although this AI leader is not yet publicly listed, Crypto users already have an opportunity to get in early — On July 15, Gate launched the second Pre-IPO project, the token subscription for OpenAI (OPENAI).

According to official information, the implied market value of OpenAI for this subscription is 895 billion USD, with a target total subscription amount of 20 million USD. The total number of stock tokens is 27,700 OPENAI, corresponding to a token price of 722 USD. Users can subscribe using both USDT and GUSD, with a minimum subscription of 100 USD per order and a maximum token allocation of 277 OPENAI per user. The allocation mechanism is based on the "hourly average locked amount" as proof of assets. The earlier a user participates and the longer the lock-up period, the higher their allocation weight. As of press time, the subscription amount has exceeded 226 million USD.

According to Gate's official description, unlike traditional stocks, the stock token OPENAI obtained from this subscription is a Mirror Note for OpenAI prior to its IPO, used to mirror the market value of OpenAI before and after its listing.

After the subscription, OPENAI will be unlocked and distributed in three phases. Additionally, OPENAI holders will have two exit options — before the listing and lock-up period, Gate will offer 7x24 pre-market trading for free buying and selling, with the Pre-IPOs zone pre-market trading opening on July 20; after the lock-up period (6 months post-listing), Gate will provide a dedicated exit page, allowing holders to exchange their tokens for stock tokens or convert them into USDT based on the real-time market price of the stock after the actual listing.

From SpaceX to OpenAI: How Gate Builds its Stock "IPO Subscription" Service?

OpenAI is not Gate's first venture into the IPO scene. Previously, Gate built a comprehensive product system around SpaceX, covering Pre-IPO, IPO Access, and secondary market stock trading, creating an investment path that spans different stages before and after a company's listing. For users, this allows early investment before a company goes public, participation in new share subscriptions during the official IPO, and continued trading through the Gate stock account after the listing.

Specifically, Pre-IPO is more focused on pre-listing investment, allowing users to participate in unlisted companies early through stock tokens. IPO Access, on the other hand, focuses on the company's official IPO phase, providing users with IPO allocation opportunities, which is closer to the "subscription for new shares" model in traditional capital markets.

Taking SpaceX as an example, in April, Gate launched its first Pre-IPO project, raising nearly 395 million USD. In June, it launched the IPO Access service with a minimum subscription threshold as low as 100 USDT. Successful subscribers received allocations of genuine new shares, with a single account eligible for a maximum of 154 shares. During the SpaceX IPO subscription period, market demand far exceeded expectations. Gate successfully completed the allocation for the first phase of the IPO Access project, safeguarding user participation rights and further validating the practical capability of its IPO product design.

Stocks: The New Battleground for CEXs

Over the past year, global capital markets have continued to diverge. The cryptocurrency market has remained bearish, while US stocks have strengthened driven by the AI wave. Structural opportunities have also emerged in markets like Hong Kong and South Korea. Consequently, more and more investors originally focused on Crypto are beginning to try cross-market allocation to stock assets.

However, for Crypto users accustomed to on-chain transactions and CEX operations, traditional brokerages still present issues such as cumbersome account opening procedures, needing multiple accounts for different markets, high currency conversion costs, and limited trading hours, making unified management of digital and stock assets difficult. It is against this backdrop that several major CEXs have successively launched stock-related trading services, aiming to further bridge the gap between Crypto and traditional financial markets.

Although their entry paths differ, their goals are highly aligned — on one hand, by introducing traditional financial assets like stocks to meet users' cross-market and cross-asset class investment needs; on the other hand, by leveraging the native Crypto account system, capital flow efficiency, and 24/7 trading experience to complement and innovate upon traditional brokerage models, making global asset investment more convenient.

Comparing the solutions offered by various CEXs horizontally, Gate's offering stands out impressively, thanks to its coverage spanning US, Hong Kong, and South Korean stocks, a complete product matrix addressing diverse needs, and the capital efficiency of unlocking all scenarios through a single account.

Deconstructing Gate's Product Matrix: How Does It Meet Different Trading Needs?

Focusing on different investment scenarios, Gate has progressively built a comprehensive product matrix covering CFDs, Real Stocks, Stock Perpetual Contracts, and Tokenized Stocks.

1. Real Stocks: Single Account, Access to Global Core Markets

For investors seeking long-term allocation to global core enterprises, prioritizing asset security, and desiring the rights of real stocks, Real Stocks are undoubtedly the optimal choice.

Currently, Gate's Real Stocks cover three major core securities markets: US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and South Korean stocks, supporting over 12,500 stock assets, with the stock account asset scale exceeding 200 million USD. This includes coverage of over 10,000 US stocks and ETFs; over 1,500 highly liquid Hong Kong stock targets; and the top 1,000 listed companies by market cap on the Korea Exchange, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and others.

Compared to traditional cross-border investment processes, Gate's Real Stocks simplifies the trading process. After completing KYC, users only need to transfer USDT to their stock account to directly trade US, Hong Kong, and South Korean stocks through a unified account, without needing to open separate overseas brokerage accounts or manually handle cross-border currency exchange. For trading, Gate offers fractional shares starting from 0.01 shares, 24/7 trading, and allows stock trading to be integrated into the platform's existing VIP fee structure, with trading fees potentially as low as 0.023%.

Beyond the trading experience, Gate also preserves rights associated with real stocks, such as dividends. Gate is also the first platform in the industry to support stock transfers between brokerages. Users can apply to transfer stocks held at external brokerages into Gate, or transfer stocks from their Gate stock account to other brokerages.

2. Tokenized Stocks: Unlocking 24/7 Trading for Stocks

If Real Stocks solve the need for "genuine holding," then Tokenized Stocks further expand the usage scenarios for stock assets — By expressing traditional stock assets on-chain via blockchain technology, tokenized stocks retain the underlying asset value peg while endowing stocks with liquidity and composability closer to Crypto assets.

Currently, Gate has launched several tokenized stock products including xStocks, Ondo, and gStocks. Among these, gStocks adopts a 1:1 fully reserved real stock mechanism, where each token corresponds to a real stock asset, ensuring asset value pegging while providing on-chain asset liquidity.

Compared to traditional stocks, gStocks support a minimum investment of 1 USDT, fractional share purchases, and 24/7 trading, aligning better with Crypto users' trading habits. More importantly, based on a single account system, gStocks can not only be bought and sold but also used as margin for leveraged lending, compatible with yield-bearing products like YuBao, and support various tools like grid trading, trading bots, and API interfaces, meeting the automated trading, liquidity management, and quantitative strategy needs of both individual and institutional users.

In the future, Gate also plans to launch features like two-way conversion between stocks and gStocks, and automatic dividend settlement.

3. CFDs: Offering More Strategic Choices for Short-term Trading

Unlike long-term holders, some investors are more focused on short-term market fluctuations, aiming to amplify their ability to capture opportunities in both rising and falling markets. Some professional traders and institutional users may also have hedging needs to manage portfolio risk more flexibly. For such needs, CFDs (Contracts for Difference) might be a more suitable product, allowing users to participate in price fluctuation trading of the underlying asset without actually holding it.

Currently, Gate has launched 653 stock CFD trading pairs, covering numerous popular stock targets, supporting leverage up to 500x, with a minimum per-lot fee as low as 0.018 USD. Unlike traditional stock trading which requires holding the underlying asset, CFD products allow users to trade by judging the asset's price trend and support both long and short positions, providing more flexible tools for strategies like trend trading, event trading, and risk hedging.

In terms of product experience, Gate's CFDs have also been further optimized for trader needs. Notably, Gate pioneered an industry-first adjustable multi-leverage function, allowing users to independently adjust leverage multiples based on their risk tolerance and trading strategy, rather than being restricted by fixed leverage models. Currently, multiple CFD assets like Gold, Silver, and Crude Oil on Gate support this function, enabling users to manage risk exposure more precisely.

Furthermore, Gate has also launched an industry-first CFD copy trading function, allowing users to reference professional trading strategies and lower the learning curve for strategy development.

4. Perpetual Contracts: Extending the Familiar Trading Experience for Crypto Users

Finally, for users who are long-active in the cryptocurrency market, perpetual contracts are the most familiar and intuitive product form.

Currently, Gate offers 223 stock perpetual contract trading pairs, combining stock assets with the perpetual contract mechanism, enabling users to participate in the global stock market within a familiar trading framework and flexibly utilize strategies like leverage and risk hedging.

Looking at Gate's entire stock product matrix, it is evident that its strategy is not simply porting stock products onto a Crypto platform. Instead, it has built a complete solution around different investment scenarios — long-term investors can allocate to high-quality global assets via Real Stocks, short-term traders can capture market volatility with CFDs and Perpetual Contracts, and Tokenized Stocks further unleash the on-chain liquidity and capital efficiency of stock assets. These four product categories complement each other, collectively covering the complete investment chain from asset allocation and trading strategies to capital management within a single account system.

Financial Markets: Moving Towards a New Normal

Looking back at the history of the cryptocurrency market, the product boundaries of CEXs have been continuously expanding.

Initially, crypto trading platforms primarily focused on spot and derivatives trading around digital assets like BTC and ETH. Subsequently, services like wealth management, lending, on-chain assets, and RWA emerged, gradually transforming platforms from simple digital asset exchanges into comprehensive financial service platforms. Today, more traditional financial assets like stocks, funds, and bonds are entering the investment horizon of Crypto users, with global asset allocation becoming a key direction for the next phase of industry development.

As infrastructure like RWA and tokenized securities matures, the lines between traditional financial assets and on-chain assets are becoming increasingly blurred. In the future, investors may no longer need to manage separate brokerage accounts, exchange accounts, and on-chain wallets. Instead, they could complete the trading, holding, and management of stocks, Crypto, and more real-world assets within a single account system.

This is not a distant vision but an anticipated new normal for financial markets. And Gate is already a pioneer on this path.