Gate Research Institute: Macro multi-asset one-stop coverage, Gate TradFi connects precious metals, forex, indices, and stock CFDs

Summary

• Users’ trading demands are shifting from single-asset crypto trading to macro multi-asset allocation. TradFi offers CEX longer trading cycles, higher capital retention, and stronger hedging capabilities.
• Gate TradFi leverages the MT5 trading system to support traditional asset CFDs, covering precious metals, stock CFDs, indices, forex, and commodities. Trading involves price movements rather than holding the underlying assets, with no expiration and no delivery required.
• Gate TradFi uses USDx as the accounting and display unit, supported 1:1 by USDT, allowing users to participate in TradFi trading within a familiar trading ecosystem without manual conversions.

I. Background: TradFi is the Next Growth Curve for CEX

In the past two years, users’ trading demands have shifted from single-asset crypto trading to macro multi-asset strategies. The reason is that not all high-confidence opportunities occur in the crypto market. Fluctuations in forex, stock indices, gold, crude oil, and tech stocks often provide more direct trading signals and hedging tools during global risk appetite shifts.

For CEX, introducing multi-asset TradFi trading means more than adding a few categories; it’s about:

• Extending user trading lifecycle: When crypto markets enter low volatility or a prolonged upward trend ends, macro assets can still provide ongoing themes (such as dollar cycles, safe-haven demand, sector rotation), preventing platform activity from plummeting.
• Improving capital efficiency and user stickiness: Seamless switching across multiple markets within the same account significantly reduces cross-platform account setup, deposit, and learning costs, keeping funds engaged longer.
• Truly unlocking hedging capabilities: Users can naturally upgrade position management from pure directional bets to macro perspective portfolio allocation, significantly enhancing trading maturity.

Against this backdrop, Gate launches the multi-asset trading portal Gate TradFi, emphasizing core advantages such as a unified account, one-stop coverage, and a consolidated view of assets, reports, and risk controls, aligning with user and platform needs.

II. Product Overview: What Does Gate TradFi Trade?

2.1 TradFi Contracts = CFDs of Traditional Assets

Gate TradFi covers gold, forex, indices, commodities, and popular US stocks; TradFi contracts are derivatives of these assets, trading price movements rather than the underlying assets themselves; they have no expiration date and do not require physical delivery.

2.2 USDx Accounting, Backed 1:1 by USDT

Within Gate TradFi, asset balances are displayed in an internal valuation unit USDx, pegged 1:1 to assets valued in USDT. USDx is neither fiat currency nor cryptocurrency, only used for accounting and display; meanwhile, the underlying assets are still fully supported by USDT, with no manual conversions or additional exchange or custody fees.

This design is practical: crypto users can continue to participate in TradFi using the familiar USDT system; for platforms, embedding TradFi settlement units and risk calculation logic as an internal module under compliance and risk control frameworks effectively reduces product friction.

2.3 Integrating MT5: Embedding a Professional Trading System into Gate

Gate TradFi uses MT5 as the underlying trading system, bridging the one-stop experience in the Gate App with the standardized workflows of professional traders: MT5 provides trading services, and account data and trade records are synchronized between Gate App and MT5 client. Users can switch assets and scenarios within Gate or place orders, monitor, and review trades in the familiar MT5 interface.

2.4 TradFi Asset Pool

Gate TradFi’s CFD offerings cover five major categories: precious metals, stock CFDs, indices, forex, and commodities.

• Precious Metals: trading based on price fluctuations of gold XAU, silver XAG, and platinum XPT
• Stock CFDs: over 70 popular stocks
• Indices: trading and hedging of 15+ mainstream indices
• Forex: trading of price movements in 45+ major currency pairs
• Commodities: price trading and macro hedging of crude oil and other major commodities

III. Trading Mechanism: Differences from Perpetual Contracts

Gate TradFi differs from typical perpetual contracts in trading hours, leverage, margin and hedging, as well as trade execution and profit/loss calculation:

3.1 Fees and Costs

In simple terms, the cost of Gate TradFi = spread + commission/fee + overnight fee.

• Spread: the difference between bid and ask prices, covering platform and liquidity costs, also affecting net asset value calculations for hedged positions of the same size.
• Commission/Fee: varies by product category; Gate TradFi has different commission structures for precious metals, US stock CFDs, indices, forex, and commodities, presented per lot or per lot per side for easy cost attribution. VIP tiers 5 and above enjoy more favorable TradFi rates, beneficial for high-frequency or large-cap strategies.
• Overnight Fee: typically incurred when holding positions overnight after market close; on Wednesdays, triple overnight fees are charged to cover weekend holding costs, consistent with mainstream CFD market rules.

Gate has disclosed the most overlooked yet impactful long-term cost items in TradFi (spread, overnight fee, commission) through rule-based texts, reducing information asymmetry during strategy backtesting and live deployment.

3.2 Risk Control and Liquidation

Gate TradFi’s liquidation process is clearly described: when margin ratio drops to the threshold (50% or below), liquidation is triggered. The system executes liquidation gradually, prioritizing positions with the largest losses, and cancels related pending orders to free margin during the process.

IV. Strategy Scenarios: Common Uses of TradFi Among Crypto Traders

The following are practical “crypto user perspective” strategy migrations:

• Hedging risk preference shifts: when markets shift from Risk-on to Risk-off, gold, indices, and dollar-related assets better express macro sentiment; TradFi allows hedging without leaving Gate to other platforms.
• Multi-asset rotation within the same account: during high crypto volatility, trade crypto assets; during macro event weeks (interest rate decisions, inflation, non-farm payrolls), trade forex/indices; turn opportunities into internal asset rotation within Gate rather than platform switching.
• Transparent costs and replicable strategies: Gate TradFi’s spread, commission, and overnight fee are clear, enabling users to evaluate position duration and capital efficiency more like quantitative trading, rather than just guessing if the direction is correct.

V. Comparison with Common Industry TradFi Approaches

The industry’s “Crypto and TradFi integration” generally follows two paths:

• Tokenized stocks/equity tokens: using on-chain tokens to mirror stock prices, emphasizing fragmentation, composability, and more flexible trading; but these products often differ legally and in rights attributes from “real stocks,” with regulators and exchanges repeatedly warning against equating them with actual shareholder rights, risking misunderstandings.
• Stock/Forex/Precious Metals CFDs: essentially derivatives trading price differences, without holding or delivering the underlying assets, emphasizing capital efficiency and trading tools.

Gate TradFi leans toward the second, professional trading paradigm: CFDs based on precious metals, forex, indices, commodities, and US stocks, with USDx as margin display pegged 1:1 to USDT, supported via MT5. It also provides reusable risk control and cost disclosure rules, such as 50% stop-out for liquidation, clear calculation methods for commissions and overnight fees, and VIP rate tiers.

Overall, Gate TradFi adopts a more orthodox MT5 + CFD route, offering not only price trading of TradFi assets but also integrating MT5 with account systems, making multi-asset trading a sustainable, reusable professional capability. In contrast, some TradFi products merely embed a few TradFi assets into perpetual contract frameworks, providing price exposure while still relying on funding rates, mark prices, and 24/7 crypto derivative logic. The key difference is whether the TradFi trading system and rules are truly implemented; from this perspective, Gate’s advantage lies in systemic implementation—offering not just price exposure but also trading rules, cost standards, and a sustainable operational space after account integration.

VI. Conclusion

Ultimately, the value of TradFi for CEX lies in bringing users from single-asset crypto trading into longer-term macro asset trading. Even when crypto markets weaken and themes become scarce, tradable volatility and manageable risk exposure remain.

Gate TradFi has established a set of long-term, foundational infrastructure within user accounts: multi-asset entry points under the same account, USDx accounting within the USDT system, professional trading workflows via MT5, and clear disclosure of costs and risk controls. It eliminates the need for users to leave Gate for other platforms for macro trading, and transforms strategy migration from trial-and-error to rule-based reuse. Therefore, Gate TradFi is more like a macro trading infrastructure embedded within Gate’s account system—serving current trading opportunities and extending future user lifecycle.

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Disclaimer
Investing in cryptocurrency markets involves high risks. Users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages resulting from such investment decisions.