- Safe-haven demand drove a sharp rise in trading volumes for gold, silver, and oil.
- MEXC ranked second in gold futures and significantly narrowed the gap with the market leader.
- Volumes jumped substantially in February and March, accompanied by strong user growth.
MEXC, a leading platform offering 0-fee digital asset trading, has released its Q1 2026 TradFi Futures report. Mounting geopolitical tensions and safe-haven demand steered traders toward precious metals and energy derivatives throughout the quarter.
MEXC TradFi met that demand with record volumes, a rapidly expanded roster of instruments, and deep order books that ranked first in the industry for liquidity at key levels.
By the end of Q1, MEXC TradFi was ranked second among major crypto platforms for gold futures and third for both silver and crude oil contracts.
Throughout the quarter, MEXC narrowed the gap with the market leader, while silver posted the fastest month-over-month growth in March compared with peer platforms.
These strong positions were driven by order book depth. MEXC ranked first among seven major platforms for gold depth across the top five price levels, delivering lower slippage and reduced execution cost on large trades even during highly volatile sessions.
Trading volume surged in Q1: February rose 138% versus January, and March added another 45% growth. Monthly active traders climbed 58% cumulatively across the period.
The platform also increased its TradFi instrument set by 62% quarter-over-quarter, now covering precious metals, energy, U.S. stocks, global indices, forex, and ETFs.
XAUT and SILVER ranked first and second among all TradFi Futures products and together represented more than 90% of the top-10 volume.
PAXG placed fifth, underscoring strong user demand for on-chain precious metal exposure.
Escalating conflict in the Middle East from late February into March triggered sharp volatility across oil and gold markets, with single-day volume peaking on March 3.
Those macro conditions affirmed MEXC’s decision to launch USOIL (WTI) and UKOIL (Brent) perpetual futures on January 30, ahead of the market inflection. Both products rose quickly to third and fourth place within two months and together captured a 15.3% share of Q1 TradFi Futures volume.
“Gold and oil volatility created an opportunity for traders positioned to act,” said Vugar Usi Zade, CEO of MEXC.
“We positioned ourselves ahead of the curve with the right instruments, deep liquidity to execute large orders, and a zero-fee model that enables decisive action. Through the first half of 2026, we will continue expanding access, broadening our asset universe, and turning market shifts into opportunities for our users.”
The full report includes detailed breakdowns of volume composition, market share, and liquidity benchmarks and is available from MEXC.
About MEXC
MEXC is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges, serving more than 40 million users across 170+ markets.
Built on a user-first philosophy, MEXC provides industry-leading 0-fee trading and access to over 3,000 digital assets.
As a gateway to a broad range of tokenized assets, MEXC offers a single platform where users can trade cryptocurrencies alongside tokenized stocks, ETFs, commodities, and precious metals.
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