Binance’s new stock trading product hit a major milestone in its first month: users acquired more than $1 billion of U.S. equities in the 30 days after the service launched on June 1.
What happened
- Direct Stocks — Binance’s in-app brokerage for eligible non-U.S. customers — recorded over $1 billion in U.S. equities purchases and nearly $3 billion in trading volume during the initial 30-day window (22 trading days).
- On average, users bought more than $150 million of U.S. equities per day in that period.
- About 73% of Direct Stocks users came from emerging markets, where traditional barriers like brokerage requirements, bank wires, minimum balances and limited foreign-market access have long constrained retail participation.
How it works
- The product offers access to more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs, with fractional purchases starting at $5. Users can buy with stablecoins and select crypto balances, keeping equities and crypto side-by-side in the same interface.
- Binance says this removes friction found in traditional broker onboarding — no separate bank transfers or new account flows for users already on the exchange.
- Binance does not custody the securities. Nest Trading serves as the introducing broker while Alpaca handles execution, clearing, settlement, custody, dividends and corporate actions; Binance disclosed a stake in Alpaca as it expanded the service.
User uptake and behavior
- Conversion metrics were strong: roughly one in seven visitors to the stock trading page registered an account, and nearly 90% of those new sign-ups placed a trade.
- Technology stocks were dominant in user portfolios, representing about 71% of holdings; semiconductor names made up roughly 48%.
Strategic context and outlook
- Binance framed the figures as evidence of latent demand from regions that have been under-served by legacy brokerages. “A billion dollars in 30 days is a sign of the demand that’s been waiting decades for a door to walk through,” said Shunyet Jan, Binance’s Head of Spot and Derivatives Business. “We built the product for users who never had a way in.”
- Binance Research has previously argued that crypto exchanges, stablecoins and mobile access could onboard hundreds of millions of new equity investors—projecting as many as 300 million new investors and $2 trillion of capital flowing into global stock markets by 2031—though those are longer-term industry forecasts, not a promise for this product.
Competitive moves and product evolution
- Binance’s rollout follows other exchange moves into equities: Binance also launched bStocks (convertible tokenized U.S. stock assets) and rivals like Bitget have unveiled Stock+, which lets eligible users buy real U.S. shares using crypto converted into USDC through regulated brokers.
- Binance projects, illustratively, that Direct Stocks could surpass $10 billion by the end of 2026 if current growth continues — a forward-looking estimate, not a guarantee.
Bottom line
Binance’s Direct Stocks quickly attracted meaningful demand by combining crypto rails, stablecoins and a familiar app interface to lower barriers to U.S. equity access—especially in emerging markets. The model leans on regulated brokerage partners for custody and settlement while positioning exchanges as a new on-ramp for global retail investors.
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