In the first seven months of 2026, trading volume for perpetual contracts on exchange-traded funds (ETF TradFi-Perps) exceeded $116 billion, with Binance's market share reaching 74% in July. This is reported by Binance Research.

These contracts provide exposure to a basket of stocks without the need to purchase the actual fund and are not limited by the operating hours of traditional exchanges.

At the beginning of 2026, the weekly turnover in this segment was nearly zero, but by July, it surged to $30 billion. The monthly figure hit $100 billion, translating to an annualized rate of approximately $700 billion. Over the past seven months, the average monthly growth rate was 170%.

“The cumulative historical trading volume for TradFi-Perp in 2026 (from January to July) exceeded $1.6 trillion. ETFs accounted for 7.25% of this volume (or $116 billion). Binance's share in ETF TradFi-Perp trading grew from 18% at launch to the current 74%, securing the exchange's dominant position,” the report states.

Source: Binance Research.

Binance began listing perpetual contracts on ETFs in March 2026. Within its own line of TradFi contracts, ETFs account for 30% of trading.

Source: Binance Research.

Semiconductors and Korea Outperform S&P 500

The top performer by trading volume was SOXL, a fund with a triple daily leverage on the semiconductor index. It was followed by the Korean funds KORU and EWY, with QQQ and SPY trailing behind.

Here are the top 10 perpetual contracts on ETFs by trading volume on Binance:

TickerFund NameTrading VolumeSOXLDirexion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X$41.97 billionKORUDirexion Daily South Korea Bull 3X$16.15 billionEWYiShares MSCI South Korea ETF$8.43 billionQQQInvesco QQQ Trust$5.94 billionSPYSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust$1.71 billionTQQQProShares UltraPro QQQ$202.9 millionEWJiShares MSCI Japan Index Fund$104.8 millionSOXSDirexion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X ETF$86.8 millionSQQQProShares UltraPro Short QQQ$65.6 millionUVXYProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF$46.6 million

The report identifies two reasons for this shift. First, there is demand for leverage: SOXL and KORU offer triple daily exposure, and Binance users hold about 73% of their stock portfolios in the tech sector, where trading volumes are 23 times higher than in other categories.

The second reason is access and time zones. KORU and EWY reflect Korean stocks but trade during U.S. market hours, which overlap minimally with the Asian session. Futures on the KOSPI 200 trade on the Korea Exchange and are not accessible without a local broker. The perpetual contract bridges this gap with round-the-clock pricing.

In July, the trading volume for the KORU perpetual contract was 148% of the trading volume of the fund itself: $16.16 billion compared to $10.89 billion.

“The primary pricing for leveraged exposure to the Korean market is shifting from traditional venues to Binance,” the report notes.

Segment Represents Less Than 1% of ETF Market

Trading in funds during the first half of the year surpassed $40 trillion in notional volume, a 50% increase compared to the same period last year, with March reaching a record $7.8 trillion.

In this context, the $100 billion trading volume for perpetual contracts represents less than 1% of the March ETF results. If this segment captures 10% of that volume, trading would rise to approximately $780 billion per month, and at 20%, it would reach $1.56 trillion.

As a reminder, in June, Binance captured 80% ($53.8 billion) of the total trading volume for perpetual futures on TradFi stocks.