As the crypto market enters the second half of 2025, centralized exchanges are experiencing an unprecedented wave of reshaping. Binance, OKX and Gate, the three Chinese giants, are taking different paths and trying to redefine the boundaries of "exchanges". This is not only a race between platforms, but also a systematic evolution of technology, ecology, user experience and compliance.
As the clock turns to the second half of 2025, the air in the crypto market is filled with a completely different atmosphere than before. This is no longer the hustle and bustle driven by pure speculative frenzy like in 2021, but a more stable and structural prelude to a bull market. Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a new high of $100,000, and Ethereum (ETH) is aiming at $3,000. Behind this is the orderly entry of institutional funds, the compliance of spot ETFs, and the increasingly clear global regulatory framework. A consensus is forming: the next round of market growth will be led by platforms that truly have technical depth, application value, and ecological integration capabilities.
In this profound industry change, centralized exchanges are standing at the crossroads of history. The role of "deal matchmaker" in the past is outdated. Today's competition has been upgraded from transaction depth and coin listing speed to a "three-dimensional war" about ecology, security, compliance and innovation. In particular, the once clear-cut walls between CeFi and DeFi are being broken, and a new "new pattern on the chain" is about to emerge. Users are no longer satisfied with a single spot transaction. They are eager to seamlessly touch the blue ocean of unlimited opportunities in the chain world under the convenience and security of centralized platforms.
If the focus in 2021 is "who can list coins faster and have more traffic", then the question in 2025 is: Which platforms can truly reconstruct the user's asset path? Which CEX has the ability to establish a complete closed loop from spot and derivatives to on-chain discovery and intelligent configuration? In this context, Binance, OKX and Gate have become the three most representative platforms in the Chinese context. What these three platforms have in common is that they are not just satisfied with the single positioning of "deal matchmaker", but try to become a more comprehensive user asset hub on different paths. The difference is that their evolutionary directions and strategic rhythms are different.
The paths and future directions of the three Chinese exchange giants
Binance is still the largest centralized platform in the world in terms of transaction volume. Its volume and product system constitute its extremely strong network effect. From perpetual contracts to Launchpad, to financial management, lending and its own public chain ecosystem, Binance's expansion logic has always been centered around the life cycle of user assets. However, as the global regulatory environment becomes increasingly complex, Binance's ecological expansion has entered a relatively cautious rhythm. The platform is gradually introducing Web3 wallets and on-chain asset management functions in order to find a balance between conservatism and innovation.
OKX is a typical representative of the on-chain ecological integration path. In the past two years, it has continued to promote the construction of products such as OKX Wallet, multi-chain support, public chain OKBChain, DEX aggregator, and NFT market. It can be seen that OKX is trying to build a complete on-chain financial platform with its own wallet as the hub, transitioning from CeFi users to explorers and long-term participants of on-chain assets. This integration capability enables OKX to have a strong ecological linkage, but it also puts higher requirements on its on-chain activity and user retention.
In contrast, Gate's path is more special. Founded in 2013, this exchange is one of the few "veterans" in the industry that has developed steadily and continued to grow in multiple cycles. Today, most old platforms have been gradually marginalized due to growth bottlenecks, but Gate has shown a significant upward trend in multiple key dimensions, becoming a representative example of "old platform new breakthroughs."
Especially in the derivatives market, according to the monthly exchange report for May 2025 just released by Coindesk, Gate is one of the strongest perpetual contract platforms this year, and its open interest ranking has risen to fourth in the world, and its market share has increased from 11% at the end of last year to 16%. This achievement is not due to the strength of a single product, but the comprehensive result of the integration of its "strategy tools + user education + trading experience". The platform introduces AI strategy trading, copy trading functions, and intelligent risk control systems, making derivative products that originally only serve professional traders open to a wider user group, so that there is no longer a high threshold between strategy trading and ordinary users.
In terms of on-chain participation, Gate has also taken a different route from other platforms. Its embedded platform "Gate Alpha" is not an independent DApp browser, but an on-chain asset discovery platform that is deeply integrated into the exchange system. Through the AI engine to monitor on-chain heat, capital flow, address behavior and other data in real time, Gate Alpha can identify early assets with growth potential and quickly complete internal review and launch processes. More importantly, users can use centralized accounts to directly complete the purchase and sale of on-chain assets without jumping wallets or paying Gas, greatly reducing the threshold for participation. Data shows that as of May 2025, Gate Alpha's transaction volume has exceeded US$3 billion, of which more than 60% of tokens have doubled in price within a week after going online.
It is worth mentioning that Gate is also promoting unified upgrades at the product architecture level. The new version of Gate Wallet released in 2025 is no longer a single wallet application, but an "investment control center" that integrates transaction entry, strategy management, NFT market, asset security management and hardware wallet. AI is widely embedded in it, supporting users to perform predictive configuration, on-chain strategy execution and even one-click asset migration. The hardware card product Gate Wallet Touch was also launched simultaneously to further consolidate its infrastructure capabilities in user asset security.
This integration path of "centralized experience + on-chain functions" reflects, to some extent, the evolutionary logic of Gate as an established platform: it does not blindly pursue pure freedom like DeFi, but constantly brings users into a larger space on the chain in a controllable experience. Perhaps it is this realistic product view that has enabled it to show unique growth momentum in today's cycle that emphasizes implementation and efficiency.
Conclusion: On the eve of change, choose to walk with visionaries
Looking back at the market evolution in the first half of 2025, it is not difficult to find that the competition of CEX has entered the "second half". The core of this competition is no longer who can attract the most traffic, but who can create the most comprehensive, safest and most efficient value ecosystem for users.
Binance, OKX and Gate represent three different paths - from global integration, to on-chain layout, to strategic integration - but what they have in common is that they are all redefining the role that a centralized platform should play in their own way. For ordinary users, this means that platform selection is no longer just about the level of handling fees and the pace of listing coins, but about thinking: which platform can really accompany you through the entire process from off-chain transactions to on-chain creation?
In this new cycle, perhaps what is really worth paying attention to is not just the hottest projects or the highest increases, but the basic platforms that are still evolving and can still respond to new user needs.
Gate is perhaps the one that deserves the most attention.
Related recommendations: Gate released its June reserve report: total reserves reached $10.453 billion, with excess reserves of $1.96 billion
Original source: Cointelegraph
