A recent report from Binance Research highlights surprising investment trends among Gen Z users on the exchange's direct equities, tokenized stocks, and TradFi perpetuals. Despite coming of age alongside speculative crypto assets and complex yield-bearing protocols, the youngest working-age cohort demonstrated the lowest turnover rates across these products.
According to the data covering July and early August, ETFs played a significantly larger role in Gen Z portfolios compared to older generations. ETFs accounted for 25% of Gen Z's direct-equity trading volume in early August, up from 14.6% in June. Unleveraged ETFs made up 21.9% of their net equity inflows in July, while single-stock allocations decreased. Furthermore, Gen Z was the only cohort in the dataset to see its ETF holder base grow during July, rising 2.9% while older generations saw declines.
Holding Behavior and Accumulation
The data also points to strong accumulation habits among younger users. Approximately 76% of Gen Z tokenized stock accounts and 77% of direct equity accounts were net accumulators, outperforming older generations in net buying behavior. Among accounts that had only bought and never sold, large average direct-equity purchases included funds like the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) and Broadcom, alongside smaller average purchases in retail-focused names like Tesla and Nvidia.
At the same time, Gen Z users engaged less frequently with perpetual contracts and leveraged products than older cohorts. The average Gen Z account made 13 TradFi-perpetual trades per month, compared to 19 for Baby Boomers, and recorded lower participation in high-frequency trading categories.
Accessibility via Crypto Exchanges
A significant portion of users accessing these traditional financial products through crypto infrastructure are based in emerging markets, where obtaining exposure to US securities through a conventional domestic broker can be challenging. For these users, crypto exchanges often provide familiar interfaces, fractional shares, and out-of-hours market access, serving effectively as their primary brokerage.
