Earnings Season Surge: Interpreting the Explosive Growth of Tokenized U.S. Stock Demand

Introduction: Three Forces Driving the Global Trading Phenomenon

Internal data from Bitget shows a significant surge in tokenized US stock trading activity during the recent earnings season (mid-October to the end of November). This period saw an unprecedented increase in market participation, with demand skyrocketing by a record 450%. The growth momentum was evident in both the spot and futures markets, with month-over-month trading volumes increasing by 452% and 4,468%, respectively.

This "earnings season frenzy" is not a singular event but is driven by three powerful and interconnected forces that define a new era of global stock trading. These forces are the characteristics of the trading instruments, the global accessibility provided by a 24-hour market, and the unique behavioral patterns exhibited by participants. This report will analyze these three forces one by one, providing a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of this increasingly mature global market phenomenon.

Part One: The Story of Futures and Spot Markets

Analyzing popular trading instruments is crucial for understanding the motivations of market participants. Data from the earnings season reveals a clear strategic differentiation between the futures and spot markets, reflecting the differing trading objectives of traders and investors.

"The futures market exhibits an aggressive trading style characterized by high-leverage earnings speculation and concentration in tech giants, while the spot market adopts a more balanced strategy, achieving a defensive and offensive positioning through diversified allocations."

Futures Market: High-Leverage Bets on Tech Giants

The stock futures market has become a stage for aggressive speculative trading, with trading activity highly concentrated in a few mega-cap tech companies. Traders use these instruments to make directional bets on earnings-driven volatility. In fact, among the top ten stock futures by trading volume, seven are mega-cap tech companies, indicating a strong market willingness to build positions.

The top five US stock futures by trading volume are as follows:

• Tesla (TSLA): $2.54 billion
• Meta (META): $2.05 billion
• MicroStrategy (MSTR): $1.43 billion
• Apple (AAPL): $1.03 billion
• Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ): $460 million

The strong positions in key tech stocks can be seen from their explosive month-over-month trading volume growth. Meta's contract volume surged by 40,774%, Microsoft increased by 24,339%, and MicroStrategy saw an increase of 11,684%. This highly concentrated trading points to a clear strategic intent: traders are actively positioning themselves to profit from the price volatility during the earnings season, AI strategic movements, and the unique volatility of highly liquid tech stocks.

Notably, the appearance of the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) among the top five traded instruments reveals a deeper strategic dimension. The active trading of QQQ highlights its value as an efficient hedging tool—helping investors heavily invested in tech stocks manage systemic risk or gain sector-wide exposure while avoiding individual stock risks. Meanwhile, the sustained high trading volume of MicroStrategy reflects the market's enthusiasm for cryptocurrency concept stocks, which have become an important indirect exposure in this sector.

Spot Market: A Balanced Strategy of Star Tech Stocks and Defensive Assets

In stark contrast to the speculative frenzy of the futures market, spot investors have adopted a more balanced and diversified allocation strategy. While focusing on leading market stocks, they mitigate risks through index ETFs and allocate defensive assets to cope with the uncertainties of the earnings season. This offensive and defensive layout highlights that investors prioritize risk management while pursuing growth.

The strategy in the spot market is built on three pillars:

• Allocation to Tech Leaders: Nvidia (NVDA) became the leader in the spot market with approximately $30 million in trading volume and a month-over-month increase of 1,888%, highlighting the market's continued focus on core tech assets with long-term growth potential. Star tech companies like Tesla, Amazon, and Apple also rank among the top in trading volume.

• Index Diversification: The trading volume of tokenized ETFs has significantly increased, with the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) seeing a month-over-month growth of 3,492% and the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) growing by 3,247%, indicating that investors are implementing risk diversification and macro allocation through index tools.

• Surge in Demand for Defensive Assets: The Long-Term Treasury ETF (TLT) experienced an astonishing month-over-month trading volume increase of 69,573%, reflecting a sophisticated defensive allocation strategy. This layout has a dual protection mechanism: it can serve as a hedging tool when earnings fall short of expectations (safe-haven flows typically boost Treasury prices) and also bet on the possibility of the Federal Reserve cutting rates during economic downturns (declining yields will boost long-duration bond prices).

This "offensive and defensive" balanced strategy in the spot market showcases a more cautious long-term allocation strategy.

Part Two: Access: How 5x24 Trading Unlocks Global User Participation Potential

The 5x24 trading model has evolved from an innovative feature into the infrastructure for global market participation. This is not just an extension of trading hours but a structural transformation that eliminates timezone barriers, creating unprecedented opportunities for diverse global investors. This model enables market participants to flexibly grasp pre-market information, adjust strategies post-market, or implement precise allocations during local trading hours.

Analysis of Peak Trading Hours and Winning Strategies for Investors

An analysis of the 5x24 hour trading volume reveals how global investors, especially those from Asia, have turned this continuous access mechanism into a strategic advantage. We can identify three key trading windows, each serving a unique function:

• Core US Stock Trading Hours (UTC 16:00-20:00): This period overlaps with traditional US stock trading hours and is the most concentrated trading phase, especially during the closing period. However, for Asian investors, there are significant participation barriers during this time, highlighting the unique value of earlier trading windows.

• Asian Afternoon/US Pre-Market Hours (UTC 08:00-10:00): This is the most active window outside regular trading hours. It holds critical value for Asian investors, as it coincides with the local afternoon, allowing them to respond promptly to overnight news and earnings, gaining crucial pre-market positioning advantages without needing to trade overnight.

• US Post-Market Hours (UTC 20:00-23:00): Although trading volume during this phase is at a daily low, it provides important emergency adjustment capabilities. Investors can react immediately to unexpected post-market announcements from companies, adjusting positions in a timely manner to avoid uncontrollable overnight risks.

This democratization of market participation ensures that engagement is no longer limited by geography, leading us to an in-depth analysis of global participants reshaping the market landscape.

Part Three: Participants: A Diverse Global User Base and Distinct Trading Behaviors

An analysis of user geographic distribution and trading frequency shows that this is a market characterized by global diversity and behavioral stratification. The recent surge in trading activity has been led by mature investors from East Asia, presenting two distinctly different trading profiles: high-frequency "whales" and relatively passive "retail" investors.

Geographic Distribution: East Asia Leads, Exploring Potential Markets

The user composition clearly demonstrates the global nature of the demand for tokenized US stocks, with distinct regional characteristics and growth potential:

• • East Asia: 39.66%
• • Latin America: 8.29%
• • South Asia: 7.76%
• • Southeast Asia: 5.91%
• • Europe: A key market with significant growth potential

A deeper analysis of the characteristics of each regional market reveals:

• • East Asia Market: As the largest and most mature user group, investors show strong interest in US tech giants and global asset allocation, despite significant timezone and language barriers.
• • European Market: With smaller timezone differences and a mature global asset allocation culture, it naturally possesses enormous expansion potential, making it a highly valuable growth area.
• • Emerging Markets (Latin America and Asia): These markets are on a rapid development track, driven by the dual forces of internet penetration and financial technology applications, continuously stimulating user demand for participation in the world's largest stock market.

Trading Behavior Analysis: Differences Between Whales and Retail Investors

Users are categorized based on trading value, defining the top 30% by trading volume as "whales" and the remaining 70% as "retail investors." An analysis of these groups reveals fundamental behavioral differences between the most active and least active participants in the market.

The significant differences in trading frequency highlight the fundamental distinctions between these two types of market participants in terms of information acquisition, analytical tools, and risk tolerance. These differences reflect essential distinctions in market participation structures rather than mere individual preferences.

Conclusion: The Global Market Enters a New Stage of Maturity and Inclusivity

This report, through in-depth analysis of assets, access, and participants, draws strong conclusions about the increasing maturity of the global market for tokenized stocks. The evolution of the market is reflected in three core themes:

1. Strategy Diversification: The market is not a singular structure; it supports both aggressive event-driven speculation in the futures market and balanced, long-term portfolio allocations in the spot market, reflecting a mature and efficient user base.

2. Inclusive Participation: 5x24 trading has transformed from a marginal feature into a fundamental element of a truly global market. The elimination of timezone barriers allows investors from around the world to participate fairly, significantly lowering market access thresholds.

3. Behavioral Stratification: The clear stratification between high-frequency "whales" and cautious "retail" investors showcases an orderly market ecosystem. The structured participation approach indicates that the market can accommodate investors with different strategies and risk preferences coexisting.

"The convergence of these three trends marks tokenized stocks as a mainstream component of the global modern investment landscape."

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