When Stocks Meet Crypto: How Gate is Building a One-Stop Global Stock Investment Platform?

On June 27, OpenAI officially released its next-generation flagship model, GPT-5.6, seemingly aiming to reclaim the throne from Anthropic.

Although this leading AI company has yet to go public, Crypto users already have a chance to get in early. On July 15, Gate launched the second phase of its Pre-IPO project, allowing subscription for OpenAI (OPENAI) stock tokens.

According to official information, this OpenAI subscription implies a market capitalization of $895 billion, with a target total subscription amount of $20 million. The total number of stock tokens is 27,700 OPENAI, corresponding to a unit price of $722 per token. Users can subscribe using both USDT and GUSD, with a minimum single subscription of $100 and a maximum cap of 277 OPENAI per person. The allocation mechanism is based on "average hourly locked amount" as proof of assets; the earlier users participate and the longer they lock their assets, the higher their allocation weight. As of the time of writing, the subscription amount has exceeded $226 million.

According to Gate's official description, unlike traditional stocks, the stock tokens (OPENAI) obtained through this subscription are Mirror Notes issued prior to OpenAI's IPO, designed to mirror OpenAI's market value both before and after its listing.

After the subscription period, OPENAI will be unlocked and distributed in three phases. Meanwhile, OPENAI holders will have two exit options. Before the listing and lock-up period, Gate will offer 7x24 hour pre-market trading for free buying and selling, with the Pre-IPO zone opening for pre-market trading on July 20. After the lock-up period (6 months post-listing), Gate will provide a dedicated exit page, allowing holders to exchange their tokens for stock tokens or convert them into USDT based on the real-time market price of the stock post-listing.

From SpaceX to OpenAI: How Gate is Building Stock "IPO Subscription" Services

OpenAI is not Gate's first foray into the IPO space. Previously, Gate had built a comprehensive product system around SpaceX, covering Pre-IPO, IPO Access, and secondary market stock trading, creating a complete investment pathway spanning different stages before and after a company's listing. For users, this means they can invest early before a company goes public, participate in new stock subscriptions during the official IPO, and continue trading via a Gate stock account after listing.

Specifically, the Pre-IPO product leans more towards pre-listing investments, allowing users to participate in unlisted companies early through stock tokens. IPO Access, on the other hand, focuses on the official IPO stage, providing users with IPO allocation opportunities, closely resembling the "IPO subscription" model found in traditional capital markets.

Taking SpaceX as an example, in April this year, Gate launched its first Pre-IPO project, raising nearly $395 million. In June, it introduced IPO Access services, with a minimum subscription threshold as low as 100 USDT. Successful subscribers received genuine new stock allocations, with single accounts receiving up to 154 shares. During the SpaceX IPO subscription period, market demand far exceeded expectations. Gate successfully completed the allocation for the first IPO Access project, safeguarding user participation rights and further validating its ability to execute its IPO product design.

Stocks: The New Battleground for CEXs

Over the past year, global capital markets have continued to diverge. The cryptocurrency market has remained bearish, while U.S. stocks have strengthened driven by the AI wave. Structural opportunities have also emerged in markets like Hong Kong and South Korea. Consequently, more and more investors originally focused on Crypto are beginning to explore cross-market stock asset allocation.

However, for Crypto users accustomed to on-chain trading and CEX operations, traditional brokerages still present hurdles such as cumbersome account opening processes, the need for multiple accounts across different markets, high currency conversion costs, and limited trading hours. This makes unified management of digital assets and stocks difficult. It is against this backdrop that several major CEXs have successively launched stock-related trading services, aiming to further bridge the gap between Crypto and traditional financial markets.

While their entry strategies differ, their goals are highly aligned. On one hand, by introducing traditional financial assets like stocks, they aim to meet users' cross-market and cross-asset investment needs. On the other hand, leveraging Crypto-native account systems, efficient capital flow, and 24/7 trading experiences, they seek to supplement and innovate upon traditional brokerage models, making global asset investment more accessible.

Comparing the solutions offered by various CEXs, Gate's offering stands out impressively, thanks to its broad asset coverage spanning U.S., Hong Kong, and South Korean stocks, its complete product matrix catering to different needs, and the capital efficiency enabled by a single account unlocking all scenarios.

Deconstructing Gate's Product Matrix: Meeting Diverse Trading Needs

Catering to different investment scenarios, Gate has progressively built a comprehensive product matrix covering CFDs, direct stocks, stock perpetual contracts, and tokenized stocks.

1. Direct Stocks: A Single Account to Access Global Core Markets

For investors seeking long-term allocation to global core companies, prioritizing asset security, and wishing to enjoy the rights of real stocks, direct stocks are undoubtedly the optimal choice.

Currently, Gate's Direct Stocks cover three major core securities markets: U.S. stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and South Korean stocks, supporting over 12,500 stock assets, with stock account assets exceeding $200 million. This includes coverage of over 10,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs, over 1,500 high-liquidity Hong Kong stock targets, and the top 1,000 listed companies by market cap on the Korea Exchange, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and others.

Compared to traditional cross-border investment processes, Gate's Direct Stocks significantly streamline the trading process. After completing KYC, users simply transfer USDT to their stock account to directly trade U.S., Hong Kong, and South Korean stocks through a unified account, without needing to open separate overseas brokerage accounts or manually handle cross-border currency exchange. In terms of trading, Gate offers fractional share trading starting from as low as 0.01 shares, a 7x24 hour trading experience, and allows stock trading to be integrated into the platform's existing VIP fee structure, with trading fees potentially as low as 0.023%.

Beyond the trading experience, Gate strives to preserve the rights associated with real stocks, such as dividends. Gate is also the industry's first platform to support stock transfers between brokerages. Users can apply to transfer stocks held at external brokerages into Gate, or transfer stocks from their Gate account out to other brokerages.

2. Tokenized Stocks: Unlocking 24/7 Trading for Stocks

If direct stocks solve the problem of "real ownership," tokenized stocks expand the use cases for stock assets. By expressing traditional stock assets on-chain via blockchain technology, tokenized stocks retain the value anchoring of the underlying assets while granting stocks liquidity and composability more akin to Crypto assets.

Currently, Gate has listed various tokenized stock products, including xStocks, Ondo, and gStocks. Among these, gStocks employs a 1:1 fully reserved real stock mechanism, where each token corresponds to an underlying real stock asset. This ensures value anchoring while also providing the liquidity of on-chain assets.

Compared to traditional stocks, gStocks supports a minimum investment of 1 USDT, fractional share purchases, and 24/7 trading, aligning better with Crypto users' trading habits. More importantly, leveraging a single account system, gStocks can not only be bought and sold but also used as margin for leverage and lending, compatible with yield-bearing products like Gate Wealth, and supports tools like grid trading, trading bots, and API interfaces, meeting the needs of individual and institutional users for automated trading, liquidity management, and quantitative strategies.

In the future, Gate also plans to launch features like two-way conversion between stocks and gStocks, and automatic dividend settlement.

3. CFDs: Offering More Strategic Options for Short-Term Traders

Unlike long-term holders, some investors focus more on short-term market fluctuations, seeking to amplify their ability to capture opportunities in both rising and falling markets. Additionally, some professional traders and institutional users may have hedging needs to manage portfolio risk more flexibly. For such requirements, CFDs (Contracts for Difference) might be a more suitable product, allowing users to participate in price fluctuation trading without actually holding the underlying stock asset.

Currently, Gate has listed 653 stock CFD trading pairs, covering numerous popular stock targets, supporting up to 500x leverage, with a per-contract fee as low as $0.018. Unlike traditional stock trading which requires holding the underlying asset, CFD products allow users to trade by predicting asset price movements and support both long and short positions, offering more flexible tools for trend trading, event-driven trading, and risk hedging strategies.

In terms of product experience, Gate's CFDs have also been optimized for traders' needs. Notably, Gate pioneered an adjustable multi-leverage feature, allowing users to independently adjust their leverage multiple based on personal risk tolerance and trading strategies, rather than being constrained by fixed leverage modes. Currently, this feature is supported for several CFD assets including Gold, Silver, and Crude Oil, enabling users to manage their risk exposure more precisely.

Furthermore, Gate has introduced an industry-first CFD copy trading feature, allowing users to follow professional trading strategies and lowering the barrier to learning new strategies.

4. Perpetual Contracts: Extending the Familiar Trading Experience for Crypto Users

Finally, for users long active in the cryptocurrency market, perpetual contracts represent the most familiar and intuitive product form.

Currently, Gate offers 223 stock perpetual contract trading pairs, combining stock assets with the perpetual contract mechanism. This allows users to participate in global stock markets within a familiar trading framework, flexibly employing strategies like leverage and risk hedging.

Looking at Gate's stock product matrix, it's clear that its strategy isn't simply about porting stock products onto a Crypto platform. Instead, it involves building a complete solution around different investment scenarios. Long-term investors can allocate to high-quality global assets via direct stocks, short-term traders can capture market fluctuations using CFDs and perpetual contracts, and tokenized stocks further unlock the on-chain liquidity and capital efficiency of stock assets. These four product categories complement each other, covering the complete investment cycle from asset allocation and trading strategies to capital management, all within a single account system.

Financial Markets: Moving Towards a New Normal

Looking back at the history of the cryptocurrency market, the product boundaries of CEXs have been continuously expanding.

In the early days, crypto exchanges primarily offered spot and derivatives trading around digital assets like BTC and ETH. Subsequently, businesses like wealth management, lending, on-chain assets, and RWA emerged, gradually transforming platforms from simple digital asset trading venues into comprehensive financial service platforms. Today, more traditional financial assets like stocks, funds, and bonds are entering the investment purview of Crypto users, making global asset allocation a key direction for the next phase of industry development.

As infrastructure like RWA and tokenized securities matures, the line between traditional financial assets and on-chain assets is becoming increasingly blurred. In the future, investors may no longer need to manage separate brokerage accounts, exchange accounts, and on-chain wallets. Instead, they could trade, hold, and manage stocks, Crypto, and a wider range of real-world assets within a single account system.

This is not a distant vision but an anticipated new normal for financial markets. And Gate is already a pioneer on this path.