DefiLlama research shows centralized exchanges expanding beyond trading into payments, lending, custody, and institutional services.
Macro & Markets ·
A DefiLlama research report examines how centralized exchanges have transformed from simple trading venues into multi-function financial platforms offering payments, lending, yield products, custody, and institutional services. The shift reflects broader convergence between crypto and traditional finance as digital assets move onchain. Major platforms have pursued distinct expansion strategies: Kraken acquired a tokenized-equity layer, Coinbase branded itself as the "Everything Exchange," and Binance added stock and ETF access, stock-linked perpetuals, and institutional collateral integrations.
The infrastructure expansion rests on liquidity dominance. CEXs still capture roughly 85 percent of global spot volume and 90 percent of perpetual volume despite growth in decentralized exchanges and regulated crypto products. Binance maintains the highest liquidity depth—$536 million in average liquidity within 1 percent of the BTC perpetual mid-price in 2025, more than double OKX and over five times Bitget. Academic research found Binance led price discovery for ETH across five major market events in 2025, allowing efficient execution for large institutional positions.
Early data suggests infrastructure reach now extends to tokenized real-world assets, though the market remains early stage. In Q1 2026, tokenized gold generated $90.7 billion in spot volume primarily through centralized order books, while the majority of xStocks' $25 billion cumulative volume traded similarly. RWA perpetual volume hit $524.8 billion in the quarter, with CEXs handling roughly 80 percent and Binance accounting for 55.7 percent of CEX activity. Whether this concentration sustains as these markets scale remains open.