Key Takeaways:
Bitget launched the industry's first TradFi quanto perpetual futures, enabling USDT settlement of non-USD stocks without currency conversion.
"The quanto contracts remove the last barrier for global traders: currency conversion," Gracy Chen, chief executive officer at Bitget, said. "Anyone holding USDT can now trade Hong Kong and other non-USD stocks as easily as they trade Bitcoin."
The first contract, MINIMAXHKDUSDT, tracks Hong Kong-listed AI company MiniMax with up to 20x leverage and 24/7 trading. The quanto structure prices the underlying stock in its local currency — HKD for Hong Kong equities — but settles margin, funding fees and realized profit and loss entirely in USDT, treating the local-currency price as numerically equivalent to USDT at a 1:1 ratio.
The launch comes as TradFi perpetuals become one of the fastest-growing segments across crypto exchanges. Monthly volume expanded to $268 billion in June from $52 billion in January, according to TokenInsight's Q2 2026 Crypto Exchange Report, with Bitget generating about $69 billion in TradFi perpetual volume during the quarter and capturing 11.01% market share, ranking second globally.
The product eliminates a key friction point for global traders. A user holding USDT who wants exposure to Hong Kong stocks normally must convert to HKD first, taking on exchange rate risk on both the position and the conversion. Bitget's quanto structure removes that step entirely — a trader opening a long position of 10 MINIMAXHKDUSDT contracts at 30 HKD and closing at 50 HKD earns 200 USDT, with no forex transaction at any point.
The quanto launch follows a series of TradFi product expansions from Bitget over the past year. The exchange introduced tokenized stock perpetual contracts with USDT settlement and up to 100x leverage, added CFD trading in late 2025 covering global equities, commodities and forex, launched IPO Prime in April 2026 for pre-IPO exposure through a partnership with Republic, and became the only major crypto exchange offering US stock options in July 2026.
Bitget's broader derivatives position also strengthened during the quarter. The exchange's futures open interest market share increased to 8.58% in Q2 from 7.81% in Q1, according to TokenInsight, marking one of the strongest gains among major exchanges tracked by the report.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
