Improve capital efficiency: Why are professional traders migrating their strategies to the Gate Contract Trading System?

By 2026, liquidity in the crypto derivatives market is no longer just a matter of “order book depth.” For professional traders, the criteria for choosing a contract platform has evolved from “can I execute trades” to “can I execute complex strategies with minimal slippage.”

As mainstream platforms become deeply competitive on BTC and ETH, and as precious metals and US stock contracts emerge as new battlegrounds, Gate is demonstrating a more resilient liquidity model through its 447+ perpetual trading pairs, $2.42 trillion in quarterly trading volume, and rapid implementation of an all-asset strategy.

Depth Beyond Thickness: The “Available Liquidity” Behind 447+ Trading Pairs

Professional traders understand: for major coins, the bid-ask spreads on top-tier platforms are often similar; the real moat lies in the ability to support long-tail assets and emerging assets.

As of February 2026, Gate’s perpetual contract market supports over 447 trading pairs, firmly establishing itself as a leader in long-tail asset trading. For emerging public chains, meme tokens, and small-cap projects with strong community attributes, Gate is often the first mainstream platform to launch perpetual contracts. More importantly, Gate’s order book depth is sufficient to handle opening and closing positions worth millions of dollars.

This combination of “broad coverage + available depth” is highly attractive to event-driven traders. When new alpha opportunities arise, traders need to quickly build positions within the first 30 minutes of news breaking. At Gate, they don’t have to worry about liquidity—this is the first professional barrier of Gate’s contract system.

Evolution of Risk Control: From “Mark Price” to “Segmented Position Management”

In the highly volatile crypto markets, survival is more important than quick profits. Gate’s unique advantage in product architecture lies in deeply integrating risk control tools into the trading process.

Mark Price: A Safety Net Against Market Manipulation

Traditional liquidation mechanisms rely on the latest market transaction prices, which are highly susceptible to “spoofing” and manipulation. Gate introduces an intelligent risk control system based on the mark price. The mark price is a fair value indicator calculated from a composite index price, funding rates, and market basis, filtered through multiple layers.

Gate has even implemented an instantaneous volatility protection mechanism: when the latest mark price deviates significantly from the average over the past few minutes, the mark price update is paused until the price returns to a reasonable level. This means that if Bitcoin’s quote suddenly crashes on a small exchange, traders on Gate remain unaware—because their positions are maintained by multiple market data sources.

Segmented Positions: Redefining Risk Isolation

In 2026, Gate’s segmented position feature is one of the most acclaimed innovations among professional traders.

Previously, traders faced a painful choice between “full margin” (high capital efficiency but all-or-nothing risk) and “isolated margin” (risk isolated but capital fragmented). Gate’s segmented position mode breaks this deadlock. It allows users to freely combine multiple risk- and leverage-independent position units within the same market and asset.

• Scenario: Suppose you are bullish on ETH long-term with 5x leverage, but expect a short-term rebound and want to trade with 50x leverage.
• Traditional pain points: Using full margin, high leverage lowers the liquidation price of your long-term position; using isolated margin, your margin is completely separated.
• Gate’s solution: Short-term positions are set as “isolated high leverage,” locking liquidation risk within independent margins; long-term positions are “full margin low leverage,” sharing a common margin pool for buffer.

This “full margin efficiency + segmented risk isolation” makes sophisticated hedging strategies truly feasible.

Cross-Asset Strategies: Trading Gold and US Stocks within Crypto Accounts

From 2025 to 2026, the most significant structural change in the crypto market is the on-chain migration of traditional assets. Gate has already taken a leading position in this “all-asset race.”

Unlike competitors that use separate CFD modules, Gate is one of the few platforms to achieve full-category coverage within its perpetual contract order book model. Currently, Gate has integrated stocks, metals, indices, forex, and commodities into a unified perpetual contract order book:

• Metals contracts: Copper (XCUUSDT), platinum (XPTUSDT), aluminum (XALUSDT), etc., breaking traditional market time barriers and supporting 24/7 trading. For example, XAUUSDT’s 24-hour volume remains stable between $300 million and $500 million.
• Indices and stocks: Covering NAS100, SPX500, HK50, as well as core stocks like NVDA and TSLA.

For macro traders, this means they can simultaneously hold contracts for Bitcoin, gold, oil, and euros within a single account, all based on a unified margin system, greatly expanding strategic flexibility.

Predictably Low Costs: VIP System and Positive Cash Flow

For high-frequency and institutional users, fees are a function of profit, not cost.

Gate’s standard fee rates are Maker 0.02% / Taker 0.05%, on par with top-tier industry standards. The real differentiation lies in the VIP system’s accessibility and the contract point airdrop system.

By holding platform tokens GT or increasing monthly trading volume, users can enjoy significant fee discounts. Calculations show that an active trader with $2 million in monthly contract volume, after reaching VIP 5, can save hundreds of dollars per month in regular fees.

Additionally, Gate’s pioneering contract point airdrop system is reshaping the “trade-to-mine” logic. As of January 2026, the system has run 67 periods, with 264,000 participants and a total airdrop value equivalent to about $3.7 million USDT. Beyond trading costs, this creates a positive cash flow channel for active users.

Summary

By 2026, evaluating an exchange’s contract liquidity is no longer just about the top three order book levels for BTC.

True depth is reflected in slippage control on the first day new tokens are listed; in the predictability of ADL rankings during extreme market conditions; and in seamless strategy transitions from gold to altcoins, from long to short.

With 447 trading pairs, $2.42 trillion in quarterly trading volume, a finely tuned segmented position architecture, and a comprehensive all-asset system bridging CeFi and TradFi, Gate proves why professional traders prefer it—because here, depth is no longer static “thickness,” but a dynamic measure of inclusiveness.