Generation Z has emerged as the largest single age group using Binance’s stablecoin-settled traditional finance products, accounting for 44% of users across key stock offerings as younger investors, particularly those in emerging markets, increasingly use crypto infrastructure to access traditional assets.

The findings come from Binance Research’s “Onboarding the Next Generation” report published July 23, which analyzed activity across the exchange’s Direct Stocks, bStocks and traditional finance perpetual products.

According to Binance’s internal data, Gen Z users make up 44% of users in both Direct Stocks and bStocks, about 45% of users trading TradFi perpetual contracts, and 48% of users active across all three products.

The figures provide a platform-level snapshot of how younger crypto users are beginning to cross into traditional markets through stablecoin-based infrastructure. However, the data come from Binance’s own user analytics and have not been independently audited, meaning they should not be treated as representative of Gen Z investors more broadly.

Gen Z share continues to grow

Binance reported that the proportion of newly onboarded TradFi users belonging to Gen Z increased from 41% in January to 47% by July 2026.

The cohort generated approximately $80 billion in TradFi trading volume during the year through the period covered by the report, with monthly volume growing at a compound rate of around 24%, according to Binance.

Geography is another defining feature.

More than 90% of Binance TradFi users across generations are located in emerging markets, while that figure rises to approximately 95% among Gen Z users.

Binance also identified a subgroup it calls “Next Gen Users”: Gen Z investors from emerging markets holding less than $2,000 in equity assets through Direct Stocks. They account for about 13% of Direct Stocks users and, according to the company, include users gaining access to U.S. equities for the first time.

That concentration could point to demand for alternative routes into international markets where conventional brokerage access may be more difficult or expensive. It could also partly reflect Binance’s existing geographic user base, rather than a broader shift among investors worldwide.

Stocks through stablecoins instead of traditional brokerage rails

Binance has increasingly blurred the line between cryptocurrency exchange and conventional investment platform.

Its expanded Direct Stocks offering provides eligible users access to more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds, while bStocks and TradFi perpetual contracts provide other forms of exposure to traditional financial assets.

Unlike a conventional brokerage account funded through bank transfers, Binance’s infrastructure can use stablecoins such as USDT as the settlement layer.

That allows eligible users already holding digital assets to move between crypto and traditional-market exposure without first moving their funds back through conventional banking infrastructure.

The approach also supports features associated with crypto markets, including fractional access and extended availability, although the precise rights, market hours and underlying structure differ by product.

Binance reported approximately $1.1 trillion in year-to-date trading volume across its TradFi perpetual contracts in 2026.

Data challenge some Gen Z investing stereotypes

Binance’s findings also provide a more complicated picture of younger investors than one centered entirely on speculative trading.

According to the report, 77% of Gen Z users in the analyzed cohort reported receiving formal financial education, while 30% said they began investing during university or early adulthood.

Their activity also showed comparatively limited use of leveraged exchange-traded funds. Such products represented 5.9% of Gen Z trading volume, the lowest share among the generations examined by Binance.

Technology remained the dominant investment theme.

Around 60% of Gen Z portfolios analyzed by Binance were concentrated in information technology, with semiconductors representing roughly 26%. NVIDIA and Micron were also frequently among their first stock trades, according to the report.

Those figures do not necessarily mean younger Binance users are broadly conservative investors. They instead suggest that the behavior of the cohort varies depending on the products being used and that younger investors’ participation in crypto infrastructure does not automatically translate into greater use of leverage across every asset class.

Stablecoins increasingly bridge crypto and traditional finance

The findings arrive as Binance pushes beyond its original identity as a cryptocurrency trading venue.

The company has been expanding payments and traditional financial products as part of a broader effort to develop what its executives have described as a financial “super app.”

Stablecoin settlement is becoming an important part of that strategy because it provides a common financial rail connecting cryptocurrency, traditional assets and payments without requiring users to leave the platform for every transaction.

For younger users in emerging economies, Binance’s data suggest that infrastructure is increasingly being used not only to trade cryptocurrencies but also to gain exposure to conventional investments.

The regulatory environment surrounding these products, however, remains fragmented. Availability differs by jurisdiction, and tokenized, stablecoin-settled and derivative products can be subject to different securities and financial-services rules depending on their structure and the market in which they are offered.

Binance’s figures also describe activity only within its own ecosystem. They cannot establish that Gen Z investors generally prefer stablecoin-based stock trading to traditional brokerage accounts.

What they do show is that among Binance users already crossing the divide between crypto and traditional markets, Gen Z has become the largest single cohort — and overwhelmingly, those users are coming from emerging markets.

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