New commentary finds that Gen Z accounts for 44% of Binance Direct Stocks and bStocks users, with more than 90% of TradFi users in every generation based in emerging markets
MUMBAI, India, Aug. 7, 2026 -- Binance Research, the market research arm of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has recently published a new weekly market commentary titled 'Onboarding the Next Generation'. The report examines how Gen Z is becoming the dominant cohort on Binance's TradFi products, and what their behavior reveals about the next wave of global equity access from emerging markets.
The report finds that 30% of Gen Z investors began investing during university or early adulthood, double the 15% rate for Millennials and well above 9% for Gen X. This earlier entry is paired with stronger preparation, as 77% of Gen Z investors report having received formal financial education, the highest of any generation, compared with 69% of Millennials and 58% of Gen X.
Binance Research identifies Gen Z as the largest single cohort across Binance's TradFi suite, accounting for 44% of Direct Stocks and bStocks users and roughly 45% of TradFi-Perps users. Among users who have adopted all three products, 48% are Gen Z. Gen Z's share of newly onboarded TradFi users has risen steadily from 41% in January to 47% in July, suggesting momentum rather than saturation.
The commentary further highlights that more than 90% of TradFi users in every generation are based in emerging markets, with Gen Z at 95%. Within that base, 13% of Binance Direct Stocks users are Gen Z investors from emerging markets holding less than US$2,000 in equity assets, a segment the report identifies as 'Next Gen Users'. For many of these users, Binance is not one brokerage option among several but their first access to US equities, illustrating the financial-inclusion thesis in practice.
Moreover, the research suggests that Gen Z's behavior contradicts the assumption of speculative trading. Leveraged ETFs account for just 5.9% of Gen Z trading volume, the lowest share of any generation, and the cohort trades less frequently at 2.6 as compared to other cohorts at 3.0 trades per day. First trades cluster in established names such as NVIDIA at 20% and Micron at 8%, with a blue-chip long tail including Tesla, Apple, and the Nasdaq-100 ETF. Despite holding the lowest investment capital per user, Gen Z has contributed approximately US$80B of TradFi volume year-to-date, compounding at 24% month-over-month.
In the report, Binance Research concludes: "Across every metric examined, Gen Z, the youngest generation of investors, and users based in emerging markets, are onboarding to Binance as the first point of access to global markets without a domestic brokerage relationship. It is the central feature of the trend, and a strong indicator of where the user base is heading."
The full report, 'Onboarding the Next Generation', is now available on Binance Research.
About Binance
Binance is a leading global blockchain ecosystem behind the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and registered users. Binance is trusted by more than 320 million people in 100+ countries for its industry-leading security, transparency, trading engine speed, protections for investors, and unmatched portfolio of digital asset products and offerings from trading and finance to education, research, social good, payments, institutional services, and Web3 features. Binance is devoted to building an inclusive crypto ecosystem to increase the freedom of money and financial access for people around the world with crypto as the fundamental means.
For more information, visit https://www.binance.com
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