Key facts
- Gen Z traders on Binance are increasing their allocation to ETFs, which accounted for 25% of their trading volume in early August.
- ETFs made up 21.9% of Gen Z's net equity inflows in July, an increase from 18.5% in June.
- Gen Z trades less frequently than Millennials and Gen X, averaging 13 monthly trades in TradFi perpetuals.
- A significant portion of Gen Z direct-equity accounts (22%) have never placed a sell order.
- Binance's bStocks briefly became the second-largest tokenized stock issuer before being surpassed by Kraken's xStocks.
Binance Research data reveals that Generation Z traders are increasingly shifting their equity activity towards exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In early August, ETFs constituted 25% of Gen Z's trading volume, a notable increase from previous months. Specifically, ETFs accounted for 21.9% of their net equity inflows in July, up from 18.5% in June, while the proportion allocated to individual stocks decreased to 74.2% from 77%.
The analysis, which covered direct equities, tokenized stocks, and traditional finance perpetuals, also found that Gen Z trades less frequently than other working-age generations. Gen Z averaged 13 monthly trades in TradFi perpetuals, compared to 17 for Millennials and 16.5 for Gen X. Furthermore, 22% of Gen Z direct-equity accounts had never executed a sell order, a higher percentage than Gen X (19%) and Baby Boomers (9%). Millennials showed the highest proportion of buy-only accounts at 30%.
Gen Z also demonstrated a limited interest in leveraged and inverse ETFs, with 88.2% of their TradFi perpetual accounts showing no activity in these products. Top assets by cumulative purchases among Gen Z buy-only accounts included Broadcom, Tesla, and the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF.
In related news, Binance's bStocks briefly surpassed Kraken's xStocks as the second-largest tokenized stock issuer, holding $610.6 million in value as of Tuesday. However, by Friday, xStocks had regained the lead with $610.7 million, while bStocks held $579.6 million. The overall tokenized stock market has expanded, with RWA.xyz tracking $2.43 billion in distributed value, a roughly 5% increase over the past 30 days.