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Cryptocurrency Centralized Exchange, Becoming a Dinosaur

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Bitcoin is losing to gold, silver, oil, and tech stocks, the altcoin season is almost gone, and the narrative of "crypto entering a bear market" is gaining momentum. However, it is precisely during this so-called bear market that Crypto natives are forced to educate the world, a profound reshaping of the future of trading is taking place.

Author: momo, ChainCatcher

Bitcoin isn't outperforming gold, silver, oil, and tech stocks, the altcoin season has almost disappeared, and voices proclaiming the "crypto winter" have grown louder. However, it is precisely during this so-called crypto winter that Crypto natives have been forced to understand the world, and a profound restructuring of the future of trading is taking place.

1. Crypto Natives Forced to Understand the World

Looking at two sets of data together may provide a different perspective on the narrative of the "crypto winter."

One set is the emerging TradFi trading frenzy in Crypto. In the past year, whether it's gold, US stocks, or commodities such as oil, they have been continuously absorbing global liquidity. Within crypto trading platforms, the trading volume of TradFi assets has also been magnifying in sync. Recently, the RWA trading volume on Hyperliquid has continuously hit new highs; Binance's gold and silver futures trading volume has concurrently reached new highs; and Bitget's CFD section has integrated 79 popular trading categories such as gold, silver, and oil, with the recent daily trading volume breaking through $6 billion, setting a new record. How significant is this trading volume? Recently, Binance's spot daily trading volume has been around $8 billion.

This also means that in a bear market environment, for Crypto traders, "leaving" is no longer the only option as before. Instead, they can stay within the Crypto account system, unrestricted by geography and market hours, directly switch to TradFi assets to seek new profit opportunities or to hedge risks.

Although Crypto natives have always complained about falling into a "crypto winter," at this stage, they have been forced to understand and learn about the world, starting to focus on variables that were previously less emphasized: the Fed's interest rate path, inflation data, the AI industry cycle, and even the supply and demand structure of oil.

This change has even spilled over into professional content production. Whether it is the media or KOLs, the discussed topics have significantly spilled over—macroeconomics, AI, commodities, appearing side by side with Crypto, no longer just in the background.

Some time ago, a KOL survey showed that nowadays, half of the content in many crypto media is no longer "purely crypto" but rather a large amount of AI and traditional asset content, and even a crypto CEX like Bitget has gradually transformed its market daily report into a mixed information flow of macroeconomics, TradFi, AI, and Crypto.

While another set of data shows a more "counterintuitive" user flow change.

In the past, bull markets attracted users due to the wealth effect, while bear markets were often accompanied by user exodus. However, according to @smartestxyz's report, there is an indicator called "Non-Crypto-First Users" — users whose first on-chain transaction is an RWA Perp rather than Crypto. As of March 2026, there are nearly 50,000 such users who encountered Crypto for the first time not because of Bitcoin, but because of stock indices, gold, oil, etc.

This means that a bear market can still onboard new users, and the motivation of these newcomers has changed. They are not attracted by the "get rich quick" crypto narrative but rather pulled in by the convenience of on-chain finance, addressing the pain points of traditional finance such as high barriers to entry and inefficiency. In other words, Crypto is no longer relying solely on narratives and airdrops to onboard users but is starting to acquire customers by "addressing real transactional needs."

The value of Crypto presented by these two sets of data is somewhat contradictory to the "garbage time" argument. Perhaps more accurately, the current state of the crypto market is outwardly quiet but internally undergoing restructuring.

If the past Crypto market was more like a narrative-driven market, then now it is entering a stage driven by real demand. In a sense, this may be its true coming-of-age.

II. "Crypto CEX" May Become Extinct

Yet, the migration of both insiders and outsiders to TradFi may lead to the exit of "Crypto CEX" from the stage of history. This does not mean that Crypto CEXs will disappear immediately, but rather that platforms focusing solely on cryptocurrency asset trading may not have a long-term future.

For Crypto CEXs, this crisis began to emerge during the bull market in 2024. Crypto CEXs did not experience the expected influx of massive mainstream users, and the traffic dividend faded away, becoming an industry consensus. Crypto CEXs, relying solely on subsidies and trading rebates to drive trading volume, are becoming inefficient and unsustainable.

The reason behind this is also simple: apart from crypto assets, the multi-asset trading demand oriented towards TradFi and on-chain assets is no longer a short-term need but a new normal that will smooth out cyclic volatility in the future.

For a long time, the crypto market has been a relatively self-contained system, where narratives, liquidity, and price cycles mainly occurred within the ecosystem. However, in the last 1-2 years, this "self-containment" is being disrupted.

The previously simple cycle shift pattern of a bull market every four years is no longer effective. Just enduring a bear market may not necessarily lead to another widespread bull market, airdrop incentives are also losing effectiveness, and Bitcoin is increasingly embedded in macro cycles, no longer just an "crypto asset" but beginning to be part of global liquidity.

In this case, Crypto investors are naturally no longer satisfied with a single crypto position, but are eager to leverage the liquidity of crypto assets to capture Alpha and cyclical opportunities in global mainstream assets.

The explosive growth of the RWA market also illustrates the point. Recent data from RWA.xyz shows that, apart from stablecoins, the total value of on-chain tokenized real-world assets has exceeded $25 billion, nearly quadrupling from $6.4 billion a year ago. Currently, six categories of assets have an on-chain scale exceeding $1 billion, including U.S. Treasury bonds, commodities, private credit, institutional alternative investment funds, corporate bonds, and non-U.S. government debt.

Three, UEX Takes Over, and a Secret War Has Begun

If the "crypto CEX" form gradually fades from the historical stage, what will the next generation of trading apps be? Mainstream crypto trading platforms and TradFi institutions are embroiled in a covert war around this theme.

1. Restructuring of Crypto CEX Trading Systems

Many have already noticed that mainstream exchanges such as Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Bybit are listing TradFi assets. However, most people perceive this as another round of "hot-topic narrative," similar to Chinese memes or AI.

But one detail is often overlooked: some trading platforms represented by Bitget have stopped relegating TradFi to second or third-tier menus and have directly placed it at a level-one entry alongside Crypto. This is somewhat akin to Alibaba and JD.com placing food delivery services directly in a core position on their main platforms during the food delivery war. This is not just "adding another category," but a shift in platform focus.

In other words, TradFi is different from past memes and AI. It is not merely a simple asset addition but more like a restructuring of trading systems and strategic direction.

Against this backdrop, looking at the Universal Exchange (UEX) concept makes more sense. This concept was first proposed by Bitget, essentially aiming to allow users to complete multi-asset trading on one platform through a unified account and stablecoin settlement, encompassing not only Crypto but also stocks, forex, commodities, and even on-chain assets.

A similar direction has also emerged in Coinbase's articulation, with its CEO mentioning a desire to build a "trade everything" trading platform. However, Coinbase emphasizes "on-chainization," while Bitget emphasizes "integration," meaning different assets and different on-chain and off-chain trading forms coexist within a single system.

Even when the direction is the same, the pace and path are significantly differentiated.

One is a more conservative and stable path, such as Binance and OKX. Their overall idea is: within the existing crypto trading system, gradually expand TradFi capabilities. In addition to integrating some Ondo tokenized assets into the wallet, they are more likely to turn TradFi assets into a form similar to crypto perpetual contracts, settled in USDT, with no expiration date. They emphasize a more unified trading platform experience, with relatively restrained asset coverage in terms of quantity.

In essence, it integrates TradFi into the existing crypto trading paradigm, rather than designing a separate system for it.

The other path is closer to a "structural reorganization." Taking Bitget as an example, its actions lean more towards within the UEX framework,

they have restructured the entire trading system: starting last year by connecting on-chain and CEX account systems; then introducing RWA assets, completing the bridging of on-chain and traditional assets, and at the beginning of this year, completing the complement of TradFi asset token perpetual contracts and CFD differential contracts, among other multi-asset trading tools.

There is a point here that many people may be unfamiliar with—CFD (Contract for Difference). This is also a different TradFi asset introduction strategy compared to the more conservative approaches of Binance and OKX.

CFD is essentially a mature traditional financial trading framework: users do not hold the underlying asset itself, but instead speculate on price fluctuations, with profits and losses determined by the price difference. This system is mainly used in the forex, precious metals, stock indices, and commodities markets, with key characteristics of clear rules, a defined cost structure, and a complete margin and risk management mechanism.

Fundamentally, this type of approach does not transform TradFi into Crypto but rather maintains multiple paradigms.

Bitget's path is also more proactive in terms of asset coverage, for example, the platform currently has over 250 types of stock assets, covering the basics extensively. Bitget has also disclosed that as of January, the proportion of TradFi in total trading volume has exceeded 10%, and this ratio is expected to continue to expand in the future. Crypto CEX, such as niche crypto trading platforms, may accelerate their exit from the stage.

2. On-chain Intensive Layout of Traditional TradFi Trading Platforms

Traditional TradFi trading platforms are also heading in the same direction. Although the sentiment in the crypto market is low, there has never been a time when TradFi institutions, agencies, and businesses were as enthusiastic about the crypto market as they are now.

Looking at the past 3 months of 2026, the traditional TradFi institutions' contrarian bets on crypto have been astonishing.

ICE made a strategic investment in OKX with a $25 billion valuation, a significant move;

The NYSE has developed tokenization technology and plans to launch a blockchain-based tokenized stock and ETF 24/7 trading platform;

Nasdaq received SEC approval for a pilot program on tokenized securities trading, allowing stocks to be traded on-chain and share order books with existing systems;

Robinhood launched over 2,000 US stock tokens in Europe and plans to introduce 24/7 trading and DeFi capabilities in the future.

The common theme of these actions is that traditional trading platforms are moving their core assets such as stocks, ETFs, etc., onto the blockchain, integrating many crypto assets and tools, aiming to leverage the biggest advantages of crypto: 24/7 trading, borderless transactions, and programmability.

From this perspective, centralized crypto exchanges (CEX) and traditional trading platforms are actually converging towards a consensus: UEX is the future form of trading platforms.

Although many people have grown tired of institutional moves, this round is different in that infrastructure and compliance have matured simultaneously.

Amid this wave of developments, 50,000 people have chosen on-chain trading, indicating that the infrastructure is now ready for user acquisition. On the regulatory front, the US SEC's guidance released on January 28th categorizing tokenized securities into direct issuance and third-party models has reduced compliance uncertainties. Additionally, congress is advancing the stablecoin "CLARITY Act." In February of this year, China's eight regulatory bodies introduced new policies on the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), opening up a compliance channel for Hong Kong.

Conclusion

As TradFi continues to merge, the boundary between crypto exchanges and traditional trading platforms is rapidly fading. But who will ultimately define the next-generation trading platform: traditional or crypto exchanges?

Currently, each has its advantages. Traditional trading platforms hold the asset source, compliance system, and pricing power, while crypto exchanges possess global distribution, 24/7 trading capabilities, and more flexible account and product structures.

It's not a simple competition between the two but a convergence towards the same goal of becoming a "unified multi-asset trading gateway."

However, this evolution of trading platforms around UEX is currently only in the initial phase, with most platforms merely integrating CEXs and DEXs, as well as Crypto and TradFi assets into a single platform. Many underlying issues remain, such as how to unify the pricing, risk management, and usage of different assets under a single account.

Therefore, the real watershed may not be at the product level, but perhaps at more fundamental issues such as the account system and fund efficiency. Whoever can first achieve the more core capabilities such as cross-asset margining and risk modeling may be closer to the embryonic form of the next-generation trading platform.