Source: Cointelegraph
Original text: (16% ambition: From copycat coin spot to perpetual contracts, the dominance of Gate.io's differentiated strategy)
According to the latest data from CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency derivatives market landscape significantly changed in the first quarter of 2025. Binance holds the top position with a 32.4% share, followed by Bitget and Bybit in second and third place, while Gate.io has risen to fourth with a 16% market share, becoming the platform with the strongest growth momentum among the top five. This ranking change reflects two major trends:
The head effect loosens: Although Binance still dominates the market, its share has significantly decreased from 60% in 2023, gradually breaking the monopoly in the derivatives market.
Intensifying competition in the mid-tier: Gate.io and exchanges like MEXC are encroaching on the shares of traditional giants through differentiated strategies. For instance, Gate.io's perpetual contract open interest increased from 11% in October 2024 to 16% in 2025, demonstrating sustained user stickiness and product appeal.
Gate.io's growth logic: from 'copycat coin supermarket' to dark horse in derivatives
Gate.io's surge in market share is not coincidental; it is the result of the synergistic effect of multiple strategies:
Product line expansion and leverage advantages
In May 2025, Gate.io launched perpetual contracts such as ALPINE and ASR, supporting up to 50x leverage and covering more emerging asset classes. This strategy accurately captured the market demand for niche cryptocurrency derivatives, forming a synergistic effect with Gate.io's long-term accumulation as a 'copycat coin supermarket'.
The link effect between spot and derivatives
Data shows that Gate.io's spot trading volume reached $113.7 billion in April 2025, a month-on-month increase of 14.4%, and its market share rose to 9%. The increase in spot liquidity has provided users and funds for the derivatives market, forming a positive cycle in the trading ecosystem.
Safety and compliance endorsement
As a well-established exchange for over 10 years, Gate.io has built trust through mechanisms like cold storage and the SAFU fund, becoming the only CEX to achieve double-digit growth in Q1 2025. This stability is especially crucial amid increasing volatility in the derivatives market.
Analysis of Competitive Landscape: Defense and Offense of the Top Three
Binance: Concerns under scale advantages
Although Binance still leads with over 30% market share, its dominance in derivatives is being diluted. In Q1 2025, its perpetual contract trading volume decreased by over 40% month-on-month, reflecting a trend of users migrating to diversified platforms.
Bybit and Bitget: Moats in niche markets
Bybit: Maintains professional user stickiness with high leverage (such as 100x) and low-latency trading engines, but the hacking incident in February led to a 52.4% drop in trading volume, exposing weaknesses in risk control.
Bitget: Attracts novice users with copy trading as its core competitiveness, but its derivatives liquidity still relies on mainstream cryptocurrencies, forming a contrast with Gate.io's coverage of copycat coins.
The pattern is undecided, the innovator wins
Gate.io's comeback proves the openness of the derivatives market: leading platforms rely on scale, while mid-tier players can break through with vertical strategies. In the future, as AI trading tools become widespread and multi-chain ecosystems expand, the competition for market share will depend more on technical response speed and ecological integration capabilities. For Gate.io, whether it can maintain its fourth position and further advance depends on its ability to continue innovating within a compliance framework. This competition is far from over.
Related Reading: Saying goodbye to the era of blind faith: How Gate.io leads the safety revolution with excess reserves?
