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

In January 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto embedded a line of text 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 critique of the bank bailout system following the 2008 financial crisis: Bitcoin aimed to establish a peer-to-peer value transfer system independent of banks and without the need for a trusted third party.

Yet, seventeen years later, one of the mainstream ways to hold Bitcoin is by purchasing shares of an ETF issued by BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, or by holding shares of companies with Bitcoin treasuries. Does this mean the crypto market has deviated from its founding principles? 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 Intent in 2009

This brings us back to Bitcoin's founding初心. The Bitcoin whitepaper outlined a financial order built around three "de-" concepts:

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

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

• Debanking: Anyone can hold and transfer assets, and participate in new coin issuance (via mining), without needing an account, KYC, or accredited investor status.

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

1.2 The Reality: Are These Four Powers 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 asset issuance, settlement, and distribution systems.

Asset management giants like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton have packaged BTC and ETH into products that can be bought 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 purchasable in traditional securities accounts." As of May 2026, ETFs hold approximately 1.5 million Bitcoins, representing 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, risk management modeling, and trading. More and more institutions are gaining crypto exposure through futures, options, ETFs, structured products, and fund shares without directly touching on-chain assets.

RWA and tokenized Treasuries further expand the boundaries of "Wall Street-ization." The RWA Treasury market has grown from approximately $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 almost like a Wall Street roll call: BlackRock's BUIDL, Franklin Templeton's Benji, JPMorgan's Kinexys, and Ondo's tokenized Treasury products are all moving traditional financial assets onto the chain.

Institutions like Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, and BNY Mellon provide custody, trading, and compliance infrastructure. Furthermore, in August 2025, a US executive order allowed alternative assets like cryptocurrencies and private equity to enter 401(k) retirement plans, opening the door to approximately $12.5 trillion in retirement account funds for crypto assets. As more institutions participate, numerous brokerages and wealth management firms are also gradually incorporating some distribution rights.

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 subscriptions and redemptions, exchanges handle listings, and the regulatory framework defines the boundaries. Consequently, crypto assets have entered the language system of traditional finance.

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

But the "centralization" of Wall Street is only one side of the coin. Zooming out reveals the other side: both parties are compensating for each other's shortcomings. This is not a zero-sum game where one side swallows 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. However, it has always lacked four things: compliant issuance channels, institutional-grade custodial trust, deep fiat liquidity, and distribution networks reaching the mainstream population. These four things are precisely what Wall Street has in abundance.

Conversely, Wall Street has licenses, custody, trillions in capital pools, and global distribution channels. Yet, its assets are trapped in an outdated track: markets only open on weekdays, cross-border barriers are high, settlement takes T+2, and products cannot be freely combined. These limitations are precisely what the crypto track was born to solve. Therefore, this 1+1 > 2 is not just a theoretical exercise.

Recently, crypto exchanges have been launching real stock trading, presenting two completely opposite yet converging directions. One starts from crypto exchanges and moves toward traditional finance; the other starts from traditional finance and moves toward 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 was the tokenization of traditional assets. On July 3, 2025, Gate officially launched the xStocks Trading Section, becoming one of the first crypto exchanges to offer tokenized asset trading. In partnership with xStocks and Ondo, it allowed users to trade spot and perpetual contracts for 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 represented by xStocks. The underlying structure involves Swiss compliant institution Backed Finance, under the DLT law framework, holding 1:1 real stocks (bought via brokers like Interactive Brokers and custodied at regulated custodians like InCore Bank) through an SPV structure. Tokens are issued under Solana's SPL standard, incorporating Chainlink price feeds for high-frequency synchronization with off-chain markets.

The second stage was the CFD-ification of traditional assets, providing users with price exposure to gold, forex, indices, commodities, and some stocks via Contracts for Difference (CFDs). In January 2026, Gate expanded its TradFi CFD products, covering gold, forex, indices, commodities, and popular stocks, integrating the trading experience using USDx as an internal accounting unit pegged to USDT. In this stage, the exchange acts as a price exposure provider, and users trade derivatives without directly holding 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 means a native crypto trading platform is no longer satisfied with offering spot, futures, Launchpad, copy trading, wallets, and on-chain tools to native users; it is now beginning to include traditional securities traders trading stocks, ETFs, bonds, forex, and funds in its ecosystem.

The difference from the previous CFD stage is that Gate emphasizes its connection to the real securities market through compliant brokerage 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 qualified users. Alpaca is an SEC-registered clearing broker, and the partnership focuses on trade execution, clearing, and custody infrastructure. In other words, Gate is not issuing stocks itself but acting as a front-end entry point between crypto accounts, stablecoin funds, and the traditional brokerage clearing system.

The fourth stage involved geographical expansion of the stock market. Following the US stock launch, Gate introduced Hong Kong stock trading on June 15, 2026, initially covering over 1,000 stocks listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Users can trade Hong Kong stocks like Tencent, HSBC, Xiaomi, Meituan, BYD, and China Mobile using USDT, sharing the same stock account system as US stocks. On June 22, 2026, Gate further launched South Korean stock trading, supporting stocks listed on the Korea Exchange (KRX), initially covering 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. From a timeline perspective, Gate rapidly deployed a "US Stocks – Hong Kong Stocks – Korean Stocks" matrix within June, forming a multi-market product suite with USDT as the unified capital entry point and global stocks as allocation targets.

These four stages reflect a shift in the growth logic of CEXs. In the past, CEXs mainly relied on spot, futures, Launchpad, wealth management, and Web3 wallets to build user ecosystems. However, as crypto trading penetration increases, fee competition intensifies, and regulatory requirements rise, the growth potential of relying solely on crypto-to-crypto trading is narrowing. Traditional assets like stocks, ETFs, and commodities can expand the tradable asset pool and improve user asset retention. For Gate, real stock trading can not only serve the cross-asset allocation needs of crypto users but also help attract traditional finance users into its account system.

2.2 Path B: From Traditional Finance to the Crypto Realm

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

The most representative traditional broker is Robinhood. Originally a typical retail broker 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 a more than 200% YoY increase in total trading revenue. For the full year 2025, Robinhood's total revenue reached $4.5 billion, with full-year net deposits of $68 billion and 4.2 million Gold subscribers, showing its transformation from a single stock trading app to a comprehensive financial account.

Robinhood's crypto strategy is not limited to listing coins for trading. In June 2025, Robinhood completed its acquisition of Bitstamp, integrating Bitstamp's retail and institutional crypto trading business covering the EU, UK, US, and Asia, and strengthening its global crypto licenses and institutional capabilities. This indicates Robinhood is not simply adding crypto as a trading category to its stock app but is using acquisitions to fill gaps in crypto exchange functionality, licenses, institutional clients, and global operations.

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 revealed plans to build Robinhood Layer 2. This L2 is 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 Arbitrum's technology stack. These Classic Stock Tokens are derivative contracts with Robinhood that reflect the price performance of the underlying stocks and ETPs.

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

2.3 The Common Goal of Both Paths: Competing for the Next-Generation Integrated Financial Account

For the average user, the financial classification behind assets may not be particularly important. Most people do not care whether they are trading stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, event contracts, or tokenized securities. What users truly care about is whether they can complete transactions in a single account, enter and exit positions at low cost, see price changes in real-time, 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 CEX, but rather aiming to prevent the next-generation financial gateway 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 already clear: traditional brokerages want the trading speed, global liquidity, younger user base, and high-frequency trading behavior of the crypto market; crypto platforms want the real assets, compliant status, institutional trust, and broader asset supply of traditional finance.

Both sides are moving closer to each other's most valuable parts. The boundary between Crypto and TradFi is being dismantled at the product level. The next phase of competition will center on 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 level, while RWAs 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 few derivative assets, the chain could not support a sufficiently rich, low-volatility, and institutionally suitable set of real-yield assets.

On-chain Treasuries changed this. When US Treasuries, money market funds, and short-term bond funds are tokenized, they become approximations of "risk-free yield" in the on-chain world. They can serve as collateral, participate in DeFi composability, service institutional treasury management, and become the underlying yield source for 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 at roughly $15 billion, compared to the entire US Treasury market of approximately $30 trillion. The difference is over three orders of magnitude.

This gap indicates two things. First, RWA is not a completed market but one that has just begun institutionalizing. Second, its ceiling is not with crypto-native users but with whether traditional financial assets can enter the on-chain environment in a compliant, auditable, settled, and distributable manner. This is why traditional institutions like JPMorgan, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, BNY, DTCC, and Nasdaq are all appearing in the tokenization narrative simultaneously. In the long run, they are not creating a standalone crypto product but testing the underlying settlement and asset registration methods for the future capital market.

Data proves this convergence is not a narrative泡沫 but a real structural trend. In the first half of 2026, while the overall crypto market fell 28% and DeFi TVL contracted over 25%, the RWA sector bucked the trend, growing over 40% and surpassing $32 billion in total value. Tokenized stocks are the growth engine: the number of holding wallets grew by 188% in six months to approximately 350,000, making it the largest RWA category by wallet count, surpassing tokenized gold. This means a large number of users, originally in the crypto world but wanting US stock exposure, found an entry point without returning to traditional brokerages. Meanwhile, DTCC, and banks in the US and Japan, plan to enter the market in 2026-2027, "infrastructuralizing" tokenized stocks.

4. 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 fragmented across different accounts: stocks in brokerages, funds in asset management accounts, bonds in institutional systems, deposits in banks, crypto on exchanges or in wallets, and on-chain assets in self-custody addresses. Each asset type has its own trading hours, settlement cycles, custody rules, compliance requirements, and user interface. But next-generation platforms