Retail Trading Roared Back in June, but Crypto Missed the Rally

Retail order flow across the largest US listed brokers accelerated into the end of the second quarter. The rebound landed unevenly, and it bypassed the asset class that drove previous cycles: cryptocurrency.

Robinhood, in preliminary month-to-date figures for June 1 to June 25, reported event contract volume tracking about 136% above analyst consensus and roughly 60% higher than May. Options ran about 110% above consensus. Equity notional volume reached about $343 billion, already above the broker's full-May total of $315.3 billion.

Crypto was the exception. Robinhood crypto notional volume rose about 38% from May, to roughly $14 billion, yet came in about 51% below what analysts had modeled. The figure carries two readings a reader should keep separate: crypto activity increased month-over-month, but it undershot expectations while every other segment beat them.

Options Volume Set Records Across Venues

The shift toward options showed up at the exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term level. Cboe Global Markets reported June total options average daily volume of 23.0 million contracts, a monthly record, with multi-listed options up 40.5% year-over-year. SPX options set a single-day record of 7.8 million contracts on June 5.

Interactive Brokers reported 5.269 million Daily Average Revenue Trades, up 53% year-over-year. Client margin loan balances reached $108.5 billion, up 67%, the fastest-growing line in its June disclosure and a marker of leverage Leverage In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders Read this Term building alongside volume.

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The acceleration did not extend to institutional fixed income. MarketAxess reported second-quarter total trading volume down 11% year-over-year, with rates volume down 17%. The June pickup was concentrated in retail and speculative activity rather than a broad increase across order flow.

The retail base has continued to build. FM Intelligence tracked a record 7.42 million active FX/CFD accounts in the first quarter, and the divergence in per-client economics across listed brokers remains a live question as H1 2026 results from Plus500 and XTB approach later in July.

FM Intelligence breaks down the divergence broker by broker, with charts on where June's incremental activity actually went and three scenarios for event contract growth ahead of Robinhood's full second-quarter results on July 29.

Read the full analysis on FM Intelligence DataLab: Retail's June Rebound Skipped Crypto