Crypto exchanges are expanding beyond traditional trading platforms to become broader financial superapps, offering services such as payments, tokenised assets, equities and investment products through a single account, according to Binance Research’s latest half-year report.
The report stated that traditional assets have become the clearest incremental growth engine. It also highlighted that crypto exchanges are increasingly competing on the breadth of financial services they offer, rather than relying solely on crypto trading.
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Binance gains market share
In H1 2026, the total spot volume declined from the peaks reached in late 2024 and 2025, with activity falling under US$1T, although this remained above several monthly lows recorded in 2023. Futures volumes followed the same broader retreat, although June provided a temporary improvement in activity. Combined spot and derivatives volume on centralized exchanges rose 13.0% MoM to US$4.99T, the first monthly increase in five months.
Binance increased its share of total volume from 32.8% in Q1 to 35.3% in Q2, a 2.57 percentage-point gain and the largest increase across tracked exchanges in the period. The share gain from the highest starting base indicates that Binance retained trading activity more effectively than the broader market even as conditions weakened.
On July 2, Binance held US$114.7B in reserves (excluding native exchange tokens), equivalent to approximately 5.3 times the next-largest disclosed balance and more than the combined reserves of the next several tracked exchanges
Traditional assets
TradFi perpetuals recorded strong growth through H1 2026, exceeding 5% of tracked exchange derivatives volume by the end of Q2. Momentum continued into July, with volume surpassing US$1.6T.
Following its March launch, Binance’s share of the category rose from 18% to 74% by July, while the two early market leaders fell to single-digit shares, showing how quickly activity consolidated as the market scaled.
Binance pre-IPO perpetuals reached US$2.5B in cumulative volume within 18 days, with three trillion-dollar private companies accounting for most trading.
Stablecoins
Total stablecoin market capitalization opened 2026 at US$306B and closed the first half at US$311B, net growth of US$5B or 1.6%. Binance remained dominant but declined from US$57B to US$54B, with its share of exchange reserves easing from 58% to 55%.
Trading volume settled in stablecoins from TradFi-linked products rose from 1.7% of the industry total in January 2026 to roughly 13.6% in June, an expansion that occurred while crypto-native volumes were contracting, confirming the growth is additive rather than a rotation within the same pool of capital.
Following a strong 2025, crypto card volume continued to compound through the first half of 2026. Crypto card spending grew 35% over the first half of 2026 while total stablecoin-settled trading volume fell 3% over the same period, the clearest evidence in the dataset that stablecoin payment demand is now decoupling from trading activity.
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Traditional venues are moving towards the availability model that crypto exchanges have operated since inception.
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026, made on February 4, brought crypto into the FCA's remit, and on June 30 the FCA published its final rulebook covering trading venues, custody, intermediaries, staking, and stablecoin issuance - the payoff of years of consultation.
Taiwan enacted its first comprehensive crypto law on June 30 - the Virtual Asset Service Act - moving from a light-touch AML registration model toward a full licensing regime. Stablecoin issuers require FSC approval, must hold 100% reserves in trust, and are barred from paying yield.
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