Gate Research Institute: Transparent fee structures have advantages, and the scale effect of Gate ETF continues to be evident

• Over the past two years, exchanges have significantly reduced and phased out ETF categories; in a context where fewer exchanges can provide stable trading, Gate’s continuous supply of ETF products has become a scarce competitive advantage.

• Gate is not only offering ETFs but has also developed a mature product line that features scaled supply, transparency, explainability, and low costs with a unified standard.

• In 2025, Gate will support trading of 244 ETF leveraged tokens throughout the year, with approximately 200,000 users and an average daily trading volume reaching several hundred million dollars.

I. Market Overview

In the context of crypto trading, ETFs refer to leveraged tokens (ETF Leveraged Tokens) issued by exchanges, which package perpetual contract positions into tokens that can be directly bought and sold on the spot market. This allows users to gain long or short exposure at a target multiple by simply “buying or selling a coin.” However, the supply of ETF leveraged tokens has sharply contracted in recent years. For example, B** phased out leveraged token trading, subscription, redemption from February to April 2024 and eventually stopped supporting them; B** also announced the delisting of some leveraged tokens in 2024, halting spot trading, subscriptions, and redemptions, and continued to phase out BTC and ETH leveraged pairs in 2025; K** announced the phased delisting of multiple leveraged token groups by the end of 2025, and conducted phased withdrawals of services related to BTC leveraged token trading, subscription, and redemption.

The delisting of ETF leveraged tokens by exchanges does not mean that users no longer need leverage; rather, leveraged tokens are complex structured products. Without sufficient mechanism disclosures, risk control systems, and user education, they are easily misused as fixed-multiple tools for long-term holding, which can lead to path dependence and volatility losses during sideways markets, resulting in concentrated complaints and product disputes. Against the backdrop of industry regulation and declining risk appetite, many platforms choose to eliminate such complex products, leading to fewer mainstream exchanges capable of stable ETF leveraged token trading.

Conversely, this also means that for platforms like Gate that persist and continue to iterate on this category, product supply itself becomes a scarce competitive advantage; and as the number of similar platforms decreases, user alternatives diminish, making liquidity and trading users more likely to concentrate on Gate, supporting more short-term leverage demand.

II. Product Forms

The core design of Gate ETF leveraged tokens is to map the underlying perpetual contract leveraged positions into a tokenized product that can be directly bought and sold on the spot market based on net asset value. For users, trading experience resembles spot trading more—no margin required, and no need to manage margin or liquidation lines like with contracts. Additionally, costs are bundled at the “product level,” with Gate explicitly disclosing that leveraged tokens charge a 0.1% daily management fee, covering hedge-related contract trading costs, funding rates, and slippage.

Leveraged tokens are not meant to replace contracts but to transform leverage from a professional tool into a tactical instrument, especially suitable for two typical needs:

• Trending markets: When the market exhibits strong unidirectional movement, leveraged tokens amplify exposure and maintain the target leverage through rebalancing mechanisms.

• Users who do not want to manage liquidation lines: Users do not need to monitor margin, top up positions, or face forced liquidation risks like with contracts. Of course, they are not risk-free; the risk shifts from forced liquidation to net value paths and rebalancing costs.

Overall, ETF leveraged tokens are suitable for short-term, strong trending scenarios rather than long-term holding.

III. Mechanism Breakdown

The two most important variables for leveraged tokens are rebalancing and net value paths. Gate provides clear rule parameters in its mechanism disclosures, which is an important signal of the maturity of Gate’s leveraged token products.

3.1 Rebalancing Timing and Trigger Rules

Gate’s 3x/5x leveraged tokens undergo scheduled daily rebalancing at 0:00 (UTC +8).

Furthermore, Gate clarifies a “no rebalancing” floating range for leverage, which directly determines how frequently the product adjusts positions and incurs friction costs in sideways markets:

• 3x Long: If leverage is between 2.25x and 4.125x, typically no rebalancing occurs; if it exceeds this range or certain conditions are met, it adjusts back to 3x.

• 3x Short: Range is 1.5x–5.25x.

• 5x: When leverage is within 3.5x–7x, no rebalancing occurs.

• Additionally, Gate may perform share consolidation or splitting when the ETF price is too low to affect trading precision, which changes position quantities and unit NAV but does not alter total position value.

These parameters are quite technical but are precisely what professional users care about: narrower ranges and more frequent triggers lead to higher sideways friction losses; more reasonable ranges and transparent disclosures enable users to treat the product as a predictable, calculable tool.

3.2 Management Fees and Trading Costs

Gate consolidates costs into a unified 0.1%/day management fee, which is among the lowest rates among mainstream exchanges. This fee covers all costs, including funding rates, trading fees, and potential slippage incurred during contract hedging.

For users, Gate’s clear and low-cost fee structure significantly improves cost visibility. It consolidates trading costs—traditionally dispersed across funding rates, slippage, and rebalancing friction—into net value changes, reducing attribution biases caused by hidden costs.

IV. Gate ETF Advantages

When the industry reduces complex product categories, Gate continues to develop ETF leveraged tokens into a scaled, systematic, and explainable product line, using more transparent mechanisms to reduce misuse costs, turning scarce supply into liquidity and user stickiness.

4.1 Scale and Supply

For Gate, ETF leveraged tokens are not just a feature but a core segment.

According to Gate’s 2025 annual report:

• Gate supports trading of 244 leveraged ETF tokens and continues to add more assets, making it one of the exchanges with the most leveraged token offerings.

• In 2025, Gate ETF had approximately 200,000 trading users throughout the year, with daily trading volumes reaching several hundred million dollars.

• Gate ETF products are continuously iterated, with modules such as multi-dimensional data dashboards, rebalancing records, and beginner education to help users get started quickly, continuously optimizing decision-making efficiency and overall trading experience.

While B** stopped trading leveraged tokens, and B** and K** continued to delist similar products, Gate has expanded in variety and trading activity, forming a clear structural advantage. Future plans include launching combination ETFs and low-leverage inverse ETFs, further using technology to reduce costs and develop more robust leverage expressions.

4.2 Clear Mechanism Disclosure and Explainability

Whether leveraged tokens can be sustained long-term depends not only on the number of underlying assets but also on whether the product can be explained. Gate’s detailed disclosures on rebalancing timing, trigger ranges, and management fee coverage are crucial. Gate maintains transparent rules, turning high-dispute products into calculable tools—this explainability is the most scarce capability during market downturns.

4.3 Compressing Complexity onto the Platform, Leaving Trading Certainty to Users

Gate consolidates costs into a 0.1%/day management fee, explicitly covering hedging-related expenses. This approach means Gate, as a platform, bears the complexity of trading and hedging execution, providing users with lower operational barriers and more consistent cost expectations. During a period when the industry generally aims to reduce product complexity, this strategy of leaving complexity to the platform and certainty to the user is a key value driver for sustained market share growth.

V. Summary

The reason leveraged tokens have shifted from broad supply to contraction in the industry is not because users no longer need leverage, but because platforms find it difficult to simultaneously meet three criteria: explainable rules, unified cost structures, and sustainable risk management and after-sales. Gate’s advantage lies precisely in systematizing these three aspects during market downturns: using clear rebalancing thresholds and NAV anchoring disclosures to reduce misuse; employing a unified 0.1%/day management fee that covers costs, leaving complexity to the platform and certainty to users; and further expanding product variety and mature delisting and buyback processes. This makes Gate ETF not just a feature but a long-term operational leverage product system.

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Disclaimer

Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves high risks. Users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages resulting from such investment decisions.