Gen Z Traders Shift Toward ETFs, Trade Less Than Older Generations: Data

Gen Z traders are putting a growing share of their equity activity into exchange traded funds, with ETFs now making up 25% of the group’s trading volume in early August. Research shows ETF allocation among Gen Z net equity inflows rose from 18.5% in June to 21.9% in July, while individual stock purchases declined over the same period.

Lower Trading Frequency Across the Board

The data shows Gen Z trades less often than older generations across direct equities, tokenized stocks, and traditional finance perpetual products. On average, Gen Z placed 13 monthly trades in perpetual products, compared to 17 for Millennials and 16.5 for Gen X. A notable share of Gen Z accounts, 22%, had never placed a single sell order, higher than older working-age groups, with top holdings including Broadcom, Tesla, and a popular dividend-focused ETF.

Minimal Interest in Leveraged Products

Gen Z also showed limited appetite for leveraged and inverse ETFs, with the vast majority of accounts showing no activity in those higher-risk products, a slightly more cautious stance than Millennials and Gen X.

Tokenized Stock Market Continues Growing

Separately, competition among tokenized stock issuers remains tight, with two major platforms briefly swapping positions as the second-largest issuer this week. The broader tokenized stock market has grown to roughly $2.4 billion in distributed value, up about 5% over the past month.