Gen Z Trades Less, Favors ETFs on Binance Amid Shift to Tokenized Stocks

Gen Z traders on Binance are increasingly favoring exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with ETFs accounting for 25% of their trading volume in early August. This shift is part of a broader trend, as ETFs made up 21.9% of Gen Z net equity inflows in July, up from 18.5% the previous month.

Contrary to expectations, Gen Z traders are also trading less frequently than other working-age generations across all three products: direct equities, tokenized stocks, and traditional finance perpetuals. According to Binance Research, Gen Z averaged only 13 monthly trades in TradFi perpetuals, compared with 17 for Millennials and 16.5 for Gen X.

In another notable finding, nearly a quarter (22%) of Gen Z direct-equity accounts had never placed a sell order, while among those who did buy-only, top assets included Broadcom, Tesla, and the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF. Binance cautioned that its direct-equities product only reached meaningful scale in June, leaving a relatively short data window for establishing longer-term trends.