Gate Crosses 62 Million Users, and the Exchange Business Is Quietly Becoming a Brokerage Business

Sixty-Two Million

Gate's September 2026 transparency report puts its global registered user base above 62 million. That's the headline, and it's a big one, because that kind of account count used to be the exclusive property of traditional brokerages.

Let me break this down. A crypto exchange wasn't supposed to stack up that many accounts without a crisis shoving volume through its doors. Gate got there in a quiet month. The report also lays out continued expansion in multi-asset trading, wealth management, and Web3 products, with stocks, ETFs, forex, precious metals, and commodities now sitting inside the same account.

Funded account figures? Not in the release. Neither are trading volumes or revenue. Keep that gap in mind while you read the rest of it.

Why It Matters

Here's what matters: the product line. Stocks, ETFs, forex, precious metals, commodities. That's not a crypto exchange anymore. That's a broker with a crypto desk attached.

The convergence trade has been building for two years. Robinhood pushed into digital assets. Interactive Brokers added them. Now the crypto natives are returning the favor, and they're moving faster than most people priced in. Gate's roadmap reads less like a derivative side bet and more like a direct challenge to the retail brokerage model.

Wealth management is the quiet part of the announcement, and maybe the more important one. Recurring revenue from managed products is stickier than trading fees, which dry up the moment volatility does. If Gate can convert traders into wealth clients, the revenue base gets a lot less cyclical.

Who benefits? Retail users who want one login for everything and don't care whether the wrapper says crypto or equity. Who loses? Niche brokers that can't match 24/7 access or the yield products, and custodians watching assets leave the building.

Frankly, 62 million is a vanity metric until we know how many are funded and how often they trade. Registered users cost almost nothing to acquire. The numbers tell the story only when they're paired with volume and take rate. So here's the question I'd put on the table: how much of that 62 million is actually generating revenue?

From a risk perspective, the multi-asset pivot drags in a new set of obligations. Equities mean market data licensing, clearing relationships, and compliance jurisdiction by jurisdiction. That's a heavier operating load than spot crypto, and a thinner-margin one. Spreads on equities are tight. ETF trades have been a race to zero for a decade. Notably, the crypto exchanges entering this space are walking into someone else's price war.

What to Watch

Two numbers matter more than registrations in the next report. Funded accounts and monthly actives, first. Revenue mix, second, because a heavier tilt toward equities could dilute margin even while the user base climbs.

My read is that crypto-only exchanges are on borrowed time. The winners will look like full stack brokerages with digital assets at the core. The losers will be platforms that never got past spot trading and never built a second revenue line.

Conviction here shouldn't come from 62 million. It should come from deposit flows and trading volume in the October and November disclosures. That's the part that tells you whether the expansion is real or just stated.