Gen Z investors on Binance are increasingly favoring exchange-traded funds over individual stocks while trading less frequently and using less leverage than older generations, according to Binance Research.
ETFs represented 25% of Gen Z’s equity trading volume in early August, highlighting a growing preference for diversified investment products among younger traders.
Gen Z shifts more equity activity toward ETFs
Binance’s analysis found that ETFs accounted for 21.9% of Gen Z’s net equity inflows in July, up from 18.5% in June.
At the same time, the share allocated to individual stocks declined from 77% to 74.2%.
The research compared Gen Z with Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers across direct equities, tokenized stocks and traditional finance perpetuals. It examined trading frequency, capital flows and the use of leverage.
Gen Z was the least active trading cohort among working-age generations across the three categories.
Gen Z traders averaged 13 monthly trades in TradFi perpetuals, compared with 17 for Millennials and 16.5 for Gen X.
The data also showed that younger investors were more likely to hold positions rather than actively sell them.
Among Gen Z direct-equity accounts, 22% had never placed a sell order. That compared with 19% for Gen X and just 9% for Baby Boomers.
Millennials recorded the highest percentage of buy-only accounts at 30%.
Among Gen Z investors who only bought stocks, the most purchased assets by cumulative volume included Broadcom, Tesla and the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF, according to Binance.
Younger traders show limited appetite for leverage
The Binance data also points to more conservative behavior among Gen Z when it comes to leveraged products.
Approximately 88.2% of Gen Z TradFi perpetual accounts recorded no activity in leveraged or inverse ETFs.
That compares with 84.5% among Millennials and 85.9% among Gen X.
The figures suggest that younger traders may be using crypto and traditional financial products differently from older cohorts, with greater emphasis on long-term exposure and diversified products rather than frequent leveraged trading.
However, Binance cautioned against drawing definitive long-term conclusions.
Its direct-equities product only reached meaningful scale in June, meaning the available dataset covers a relatively short period.
Binance bStocks briefly moves ahead of xStocks
The shift toward traditional financial products is occurring alongside rapid growth in tokenized equities.
Binance’s bStocks briefly became the second-largest tokenized stock issuer, overtaking Kraken’s xStocks less than two months after launch.
Token Terminal data showed bStocks holding approximately $610.6 million in tokenized stock value on Tuesday, narrowly ahead of xStocks at $601.2 million.
The ranking had reversed by Friday.
xStocks held approximately $610.7 million, while bStocks stood at $579.6 million, representing 22.3% and 21.2% of the roughly $2.7 billion tokenized-stock market, respectively.
Ondo Finance remained the largest issuer, with approximately $971.8 million in tokenized stock value.
Tokenized equities continue to expand
The broader tokenized stock market has continued to grow.
RWA.xyz data showed approximately $2.43 billion in distributed tokenized-stock value as of Friday, representing roughly 5% growth over the previous 30 days.
The combination of growing ETF adoption among Gen Z and expanding tokenized-equity markets points to a broader shift in how younger investors are accessing traditional financial assets.
Rather than trading more aggressively, Gen Z investors appear to be increasingly using diversified products and maintaining positions for longer periods.
The trend remains preliminary, however, and longer datasets will be needed to determine whether these behaviors represent a lasting generational investment pattern or simply reflect current market conditions and the early adoption phase of Binance’s equity products.
