No Shareholder Seat Needed: LBank’s $3 Billion TradFi Push Brings Stock Bets to Crypto’s Group Chat

Crypto exchanges are expanding into stock-linked trading as the industry heads into 2027, with LBank offering more than 250 trading pairs across stocks and commodities and peak daily volume for its traditional-finance products exceeding $3 billion.

Tokenized stocks’ on-chain value stood at roughly $3.17 billion, up 395% over a year, a measure of outstanding value separate from trading volume. In a BeInCrypto interview shared by LBank on October 21, 2026, Kaia Wong, LBank’s VP of Marketing & Partnerships, said stories about AI and economic policy were drawing customers toward “opportunities outside of crypto” and prompting them to seek those trades through platforms they already know.

LBank’s Nvidia offering illustrates that model by providing exposure to the chipmaker’s share price without direct ownership of the shares. “They own a stock-linked instrument,” Wong said. Similar arrangements are appearing across several exchanges, where a familiar ticker can represent a different investment from the shares held by a conventional stock investor.

To build an audience, LBank has partnered with cultural brands including Nobody Sausage and Pudgy Penguins. Wong said: “We try to give trading a voice and a face”. The exchange’s August Pudgy Penguins partnership included a 500,000 USDT campaign combining the branding push with incentives to start trading.

Wong said rewards can encourage an initial trade but “they don’t help with creating long-lasting volume”. She argued that customers return when an exchange offers markets they care about and a dependable trading experience, with stock exposure giving people interested in AI companies another reason to open the same app. She also said: “retention is actually the key to our performance”. Wong described the wider evolution of crypto as extending beyond trading into accessibility, community and real-world impact.