Market Research

The dominance of perpetual futures

Perpetual futures have become the lifeblood of crypto trading, far surpassing spot volumes. In 2024 the crypto derivatives market hit all-time highs – the top 10 centralized exchanges recorded $58.5 trillion in perp trading volume (double the previous year).

Even decentralized perp exchanges saw meteoric growth, reaching $1.5 trillion in volume in 2024 (a 138% YoY increase from $648B in 2023). This boom reflects traders’ demand for high-leverage, continuous contracts, and a shift towards on-chain derivatives. Yet the sector is still evolving; Binance’s market share in perps fell from 43% to 34% in 2024 amid rising competition. New players like Hyperliquid overtook incumbents (e.g. dYdX’s DEX market share plummeted from 73% to 7% over 2023–2024) as users chase innovative models and better incentives.

How does Xi address it?

By turning trader skill into its own perpetual asset, Xi can tap directly into the trillions already rotating through perps while offering traders and investors a differentiated product that no incumbent provides.

The rise of social trading

Alongside pure trading growth, 2024 saw DeFi and social investing trends converge. Platforms that blend social features with trading have gained traction. In parallel, centralized exchanges offering copy trading (like Bitget) experienced explosive growth, with Bitget reporting a user base of 100 million by end-2024 and daily volumes near $20B. Traditional social trading platforms (eToro, ZuluTrade, etc.) also continued expanding; the global social trading market grew from ~$300M in 2021 to an estimated $8–9B in 2024, on track for $12.9B by 2028. Notably, total copy-trading volume worldwide was about $1.4 trillion in 2021, projected to soar to $64.8T by 2028 (66.9% CAGR) – indicating enormous future demand. These trends underscore a rising desire among retail traders to follow experts and share in real performance, whether via centralized copy features or tokenized representations of people.

How does Xi address it?

Xi doesn’t just mirror trades. Investors get liquid, 24-hour exposure to trader alpha with the ability to long or short any Trading Agent—something neither eToro-style mirroring nor social-token platforms currently offer.

AI in trading

In 2024 the market for AI-driven trading platforms reached US $11.23 billion and is projected to compound at roughly 20 % a year through 2030. Large-language models and plug-and-play algo engines can already scour order books, read sentiment and even draft trading logic, yet most retail traders still struggle to tap that power.

How does Xi address it?

Xi closes the gap. A built-in contextual assistant gives every user support, while Agentic AI spins up autonomous personas that execute trades, post real-time P&L, and interact with followers on social media. Advanced intelligence and seamless engagement—no extra tooling required.