Tokenized real-world assets continued gaining ground across decentralized finance in 2026, even as broader DeFi activity weakened.
According to a CoinShares report produced with Token Terminal, deposits tied to tokenized real-world assets rose from $2.3 billion in Q2 2025 to $7.4 billion in Q2 2026.
That represents more than a threefold increase over one year.
During the same period, total DeFi deposits fell by roughly 15%, highlighting a growing difference between traditional crypto-native activity and tokenized real-world assets.
The report also showed strong growth in RWA trading across spot and perpetual markets, while Ethereum remained the dominant blockchain for tokenized asset deposits.
RWA Deposits Rise as Broader DeFi Activity Declines
CoinShares’ Hybrid Finance report found that tokenized funds, stocks and commodities continued attracting users across lending protocols, decentralized exchanges and perpetual futures markets.
Between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026, RWA deposits increased from $2.3 billion to $7.4 billion.
Over the same period, overall DeFi deposits declined by around 15%.
CoinShares attributed some of the broader decline to investor withdrawals and falling crypto asset prices.
The contrast suggests that tokenized real-world assets were gaining adoption even during a weaker period for crypto-native DeFi products.
CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti described the trend as evidence that finance is being “rewired,” with tokenized assets increasingly connecting traditional financial products to DeFi infrastructure.
That interpretation reflects CoinShares’ view of the market, while the underlying usage data was supplied by Token Terminal.
Tokenized Treasuries Are Driving RWA Collateral
Tokenized Treasury and multi-strategy products accounted for a significant portion of RWA collateral deposited across DeFi platforms.
The report highlighted products including JTRSY, BlackRock’s BUIDL and sUSDS as major contributors.
Private-credit products such as JAAA, syrupUSDT, syrupUSDC and PRIME also contributed to the increase.
Delta-neutral product sUSDe represented another important source of deposits.
Much of this yield-bearing collateral was concentrated on major lending platforms including Aave, Morpho and Kamino.
One attraction of these assets is that some allow users to continue earning yield while using the tokens as collateral for loans.
This can reduce the opportunity cost normally associated with locking assets inside lending protocols.
Ethereum Holds Nearly 70% of RWA Deposits
Ethereum remained the dominant blockchain for RWA deposits during the period covered by the CoinShares report.
Nearly 70% of measured RWA deposits were hosted on Ethereum.
Its existing DeFi infrastructure, deep lending liquidity and established borrower demand helped support that position.
Plasma ranked second in the report, benefiting from Aave’s expansion beyond Ethereum.
Kamino also helped Solana maintain a share of the RWA lending market.
Ethereum’s dominance shows that institutional and tokenized financial products continue to rely heavily on networks with mature lending and liquidity infrastructure.
RWA Trading Grows While Overall DEX Volume Falls
The difference between RWA activity and the wider crypto market was also visible in spot trading.
Aggregate decentralized exchange volume fell by approximately 70% year over year.
RWA spot trading volume, however, increased by around 220% during the same Q2-to-Q2 period.
The RWA market was still much smaller than the broader crypto trading market, but its growth rate showed increasing demand for tokenized financial products.
Tokenized gold and investment funds generated much of the activity.
CoinShares identified XAUT and PAXG as major contributors, while trading in sUSDe increased after liquidity shifted from Uniswap v3 to Uniswap v4.
Tokenized equities were also beginning to represent a larger share of RWA trading by the end of the measurement period.
Tokenized Stocks Continue Growing After Q2
More recent Token Terminal data suggests that tokenized equity activity continued expanding after the period covered by CoinShares.
On September 8, Token Terminal measured the tokenized stock market at approximately $3.19 billion in market capitalization.
Around 6.3% of that value had been deposited in DeFi protocols.
Tokenized stocks also generated approximately $9.7 billion in decentralized exchange volume over the preceding 30 days.
Activity was particularly strong on Base.
Tokenized stock DEX volume on the network later reached $730.9 million over 30 days, while daily trading activity touched $100 million.
By September, total tokenized stock market capitalization had reached around $3.5 billion, extending the growth trend beyond CoinShares’ June snapshot.
RWA Perpetual Futures Show Strong Growth
Perpetual futures were another major growth area highlighted in the report.
Trading volume on TradeXYZ, an RWA-focused platform operating through Hyperliquid, increased approximately twentyfold from its launch.
This growth came even as crypto-native perpetual trading weakened after October 2025.
Commodities, stock indexes and technology shares represented some of the most actively traded RWA derivatives.
Oil and precious metals generated significant turnover.
Contracts linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 gave traders exposure to major U.S. equity indexes, while semiconductor stocks became another popular segment.
SK Hynix became one of TradeXYZ’s larger markets after being listed.
Open Interest Expands Across Tokenized Markets
The growth in trading volume was accompanied by higher open interest.
CoinShares found that equity indexes and semiconductor stocks represented a larger share of outstanding positions than commodities, despite commodities producing significant trading turnover.
More recent September data showed continued expansion across RWA perpetual markets.
CryptoRank reported on September 22 that total perpetual DEX open interest had reached approximately $19 billion.
RWA contracts accounted for around 24% of that total, compared with roughly 6% at the beginning of 2026.
The number of RWA markets available across perpetual decentralized exchanges had also surpassed 1,000.
RWA Perpetual DEX Volume Reaches $365B
RWA perpetual trading continued accelerating during the third quarter.
By September 24, RWA perpetual DEX trading volume for Q3 had reached approximately $365 billion.
That represented a 32% increase quarter over quarter.
Public equities generated around $175 billion of that trading volume, accounting for close to 48% of the total.
The figures suggest that tokenized stocks are becoming increasingly important not only in spot markets but also in decentralized derivatives trading.
Tokenized Assets Are Becoming a Larger Part of DeFi
The CoinShares data shows a clear divergence between tokenized real-world assets and traditional crypto-native activity.
While total DeFi deposits and overall DEX trading declined, RWA deposits, spot trading and derivatives activity all recorded significant growth.
Ethereum continues to dominate tokenized asset deposits, while lending protocols such as Aave, Morpho and Kamino are becoming important infrastructure for RWA-backed borrowing.
At the same time, platforms offering tokenized equities, commodities and perpetual futures are expanding the range of financial instruments available onchain.
The figures suggest that real-world asset tokenization is developing from a relatively small corner of DeFi into a broader market spanning lending, spot trading and decentralized derivatives.
