The value of tokenized real world assets (RWAs) deployed across decentralized lending protocols and exchanges rose from $2.3 billion to $7.4 billion over the past year. Over the same period, total deposits across the DeFi sector declined by about 15%.
CoinShares and Token Terminal released a report examining the practical use of tokenized funds, equities, and commodities. The authors analyzed data from Q2 2025 through Q2 2026. The report highlighted a clear divergence between RWA activity and the broader market. The use of tokenized real world assets continued to expand even as activity involving traditional DeFi crypto assets declined.
One of the report’s key metrics was the amount of RWAs used as liquidity and collateral. That figure more than tripled over the past year, while total DeFi deposits fell by about 15%. According to the authors, this indicated that the market was shifting beyond the issuance of tokenized instruments toward their direct use in financial transactions.
The main drivers of growth included tokenized Treasury funds and multi strategy funds, including JTRSY, BUIDL, and sUSDS. Private credit products such as JAAA, syrupUSDT, syrupUSDC, and PRIME also made a significant contribution, along with Ethena’s market neutral strategy sUSDe. According to the report, investors preferred using collateral that continued generating yield after being deposited.
Ethereum accounted for nearly 70% of all RWA deposits on lending platforms. Plasma ranked second by market size, supported by Aave’s expansion beyond Ethereum. On Solana, growth was driven primarily by the Kamino lending platform.
The trend was even more pronounced in the spot market. From Q2 2025 through Q2 2026:
- Total spot trading volume on decentralized exchanges declined by about 70%.
- RWA spot trading volume increased by about 220%.
- Most activity centered on tokenized gold and tokenized funds, while the share of tokenized equities began to increase.
- Ethereum and Solana remained the largest blockchain networks for RWA spot trading.
Among the most actively traded instruments, the authors highlighted tokenized gold products XAUT and PAXG. Their trading volumes were supported by changes in gold prices. Ethena’s sUSDe also made a substantial contribution after liquidity migrated from Uniswap v3 to Uniswap v4.
The market for perpetual futures linked to real world assets expanded even faster. After launch, trading volume on the RWA focused platform tradeXYZ, which operates on Hyperliquid, increased about 20 fold. According to the report, combined quarterly trading volume for these instruments reached about $200 billion in Q2 2026. Their share approached one third of the total on-chain perpetual futures market.
The most in demand products in this segment included:
- Oil
- Precious metals
- Equity indexes
- Shares of technology and semiconductor companies
A significant share of trading came from perpetual futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 indexes. The authors attributed demand for these products to the ability to access traditional markets outside regular trading hours.
Growth was also reflected in open interest for RWA perpetual futures, which exceeded $1.2 billion by the end of Q2 2026. Tokenized real world assets accounted for more than one quarter of total open interest across the cryptocurrency derivatives market despite an overall decline in activity within the segment. The authors noted that rising open interest pointed to longer term capital allocation, rather than simply higher short term trading volumes.
The researchers also identified differences between retail and institutional demand. Annual yields across the RWA strategies examined ranged from about 3.2% to 5.5%. Tokenized Treasury funds were at the lower end of the range, while private credit, blockchain lending, and funding rate strategies offered higher yields with different risk profiles.
The difference in investor profiles was especially visible at the wallet level. The average balance held by investors in BlackRock’s institutional BUIDL fund stood at about $25.1 million. Comparable figures were about $73,200 for USDY, $42,600 for XAUT, $1,450 for USDC, and just $519 for the tokenized stock NVDAx. According to the report, this pointed to a much stronger retail investor presence in tokenized equities.
The report identified tokenized equities as the fastest growing RWA category by number of holders. Even so, the market remained relatively small. It currently stands at about $2.2 billion, compared with a potential global market exceeding $100 trillion. The authors compared the current stage of development to the position of dollar stablecoins in 2019, when adoption remained limited relative to the size of the addressable market.
The analysts expect the next stage of market development to be driven less by the volume of tokenized assets issued and more by the range of practical use cases. Among the key trends, the researchers cited liquidity concentrating on the largest platforms, gradual growth in RWA generated income, further segmentation between institutional and retail products, and broader product offerings beyond tokenized Treasury securities.
In July 2026, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a report stating that the tokenization of financial assets could fundamentally reshape the architecture of the global financial system. One month earlier, Citi analysts projected that the tokenized asset market could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030.
