Binance Research Says Gen Z Favors ETFs, Trades Less Frequently Than Older Investors

As of early August, ETFs accounted for 25% of Gen Z's total stock trading volume, the report said. Net inflows into ETFs rose to 21.9% in July from 18.5% in June, while the share of individual stocks fell to 74.2% from 77% over the same period.

Gen Z was also less active than other generations. The group averaged 13 traditional-finance perpetual futures trades per month, below 17 for millennials and 16.5 for Gen X.

The share of accounts that had never placed a sell order also varied by generation. Among Gen Z direct-equity accounts, 22% had no history of selling, compared with 19% for Gen X and 9% for baby boomers. Millennials had the highest share of buy-only accounts at 30%. The top assets by cumulative purchases in Gen Z buy-only accounts were Broadcom, Tesla and the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF.

Gen Z also showed less interest in leveraged and inverse ETFs. Among Gen Z traditional-finance perpetual futures accounts, 88.2% had no history of trading those products, compared with 84.5% for millennials and 85.9% for Gen X.

Binance said its direct-equity service only began to reach scale in June, making the data window too short to draw conclusions about long-term trends.