- Published on
Binance
- Authors
- Name
- DeepHorus
Gen Z traders on Binance are increasingly favoring exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with these products accounting for 25% of the cohort’s trading volume in early August, according to Binance Research. The data also showed that Gen Z trades less frequently and uses less leverage than older working-age generations.
The analysis examined activity across direct equities, tokenized stocks, and traditional finance perpetuals, comparing Gen Z accounts with Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. ETFs accounted for 21.9% of Gen Z net equity inflows in July, up from 18.5% in June, while the share going to individual stocks fell to 74.2% from 77%.
Gen Z averaged 13 monthly trades in TradFi perpetuals, compared with 17 for Millennials and 16.5 for Gen X. Among Gen Z direct-equity accounts, 22% had never placed a sell order, versus 19% of Gen X and 9% of Baby Boomers. Millennials had the highest share of buy-only accounts at 30%.
The younger cohort also showed little appetite for leveraged and inverse ETFs; 88.2% of Gen Z TradFi perpetual accounts recorded no activity in those products, compared with 84.5% of Millennials and 85.9% of Gen X.
Binance’s bStocks briefly overtook Kraken’s xStocks as the second-largest tokenized stock issuer this week, less than two months after launching. As of Tuesday, bStocks held $610.6 million in tokenized stock value, versus $601.2 million for xStocks, according to Token Terminal.
The positions reversed by Friday, with xStocks at $610.7 million and bStocks at $579.6 million, representing 22.3% and 21.2% of the roughly $2.7 billion market respectively. Ondo Finance remained the largest issuer at $971.8 million.
Binance cautioned that its direct-equities product only reached meaningful scale in June, leaving a short data window for establishing longer-term trends. The broader tokenized stock market continues to expand, with RWA.xyz tracking $2.43 billion in distributed value as of Friday, up about 5% over the past 30 days.
These trends suggest Gen Z investors are adopting a more conservative, long-term approach through ETFs, a behavior that could shape future product development and market dynamics in both traditional and tokenized finance.
