RWA deposits triple to $7.4B; DeFi activity falls 15%

RWA deposits across decentralized lending and trading platforms reached $7.4 billion during the second quarter of 2026, more than tripling from $2.3 billion one year earlier, according to an Aug. 6 CoinShares report produced with Token Terminal.

Total DeFi deposits declined approximately 15% between the second quarters of 2025 and 2026. Spot trading in tokenized real world assets rose about 220%, while aggregate decentralized exchange volume fell roughly 70%.

CoinShares said the divergence supports its view that tokenization is becoming "structural, not cyclical." The figures show stronger use of tokenized assets during a weaker period for crypto markets. They do not establish that demand has become independent of market cycles.

The report covers distributed tokenized funds and stocks that can move into external wallets. It excludes primarily represented assets on networks such as Canton and Provenance, meaning the results do not measure every institutional tokenization project.

The onchain value of tokenized funds and stocks had already exceeded $40 billion before the latest report. The $7.4 billion deposited into lending platforms and decentralized exchanges provides a separate measure of assets being used after issuance.

Investors can deposit tokenized funds as collateral and borrow stablecoins without selling the underlying position. Yield bearing collateral can continue producing income while supporting a loan, reducing the opportunity cost associated with locking capital.

Tokenized Treasury and multistrategy funds supplied much of the growth. CoinShares named JTRSY, BlackRock's BUIDL and Sky's sUSDS among the largest contributors. Private credit products included JAAA, PRIME, syrupUSDC and syrupUSDT.

Delta neutral products such as Ethena's sUSDe also contributed. These instruments carry different risks from Treasury funds because returns may depend on derivatives funding, collateral management and counterparties rather than government securities alone.

As previously reported, tokenized Treasury products are increasingly serving as active DeFi collateral. The shift gives tokenized assets utility beyond holding and transferring an onchain representation.

Market capitalization only measures outstanding value. Deposits show how much capital has moved into financial applications, although one asset may appear across several protocols or interact with multiple contracts.

Almost 70% of RWA deposits covered by the report were allocated to Ethereum based lending venues. Established platforms including Aave and Morpho benefited from deeper stablecoin liquidity and larger borrower networks.

Plasma ranked as the second largest ecosystem, helped by Aave's expansion beyond Ethereum. Solana followed, with much of its collateral activity concentrated on Kamino.

The concentration illustrates a network effect, according to the report. Borrowers prefer markets offering abundant liquidity and competitive rates. Lenders prefer venues where borrowing demand already exists. New networks must attract both groups while establishing reliable infrastructure.

Ethereum's lead does not mean competing networks cannot gain share. Lower costs and faster execution may appeal to retail users and high frequency traders. Moving collateral to a new network also introduces bridging and liquidity considerations.

In related coverage, Aave expanded tokenized asset lending beyond Ethereum through its Avalanche deployment. The expansion shows established protocols can export liquidity and risk infrastructure rather than requiring new ecosystems to build lending markets from the beginning.

The U.S. angle remains central, CoinShares said, because many leading products hold U.S. Treasury securities, private credit or equities. Their tokens may settle on public blockchains. Investor rights still depend on issuers, custodians, transfer restrictions and applicable securities laws.

Tokenized asset spot trading rose approximately 220% year over year, despite a roughly 70% contraction in total decentralized exchange activity. The RWA market started from a much smaller base, making percentage growth easier than in established crypto markets.

Tokenized gold products XAUT and PAXG generated a large share of spot activity. Traders used them to adjust exposure during changes in the gold price. Ethena's sUSDe also contributed after liquidity migrated from Uniswap v3 to Uniswap v4.

Ethereum and Solana accounted for most RWA spot volume. Arbitrum, Base and BNB Chain had not developed comparable activity during the measured period, according to CoinShares.

Tokenized equities were the fastest growing category by holder count. As previously reported, Solana captured most early xStocks trading activity following the platform's 2025 launch.

CoinShares estimated that approximately $2.2 billion in equities had been tokenized. The $2.2 billion remains a small amount compared with a global stock market valued above $100 trillion.

The report compared the stage of tokenized equities with stablecoins in 2019. The comparison is an analogy rather than a forecast. Stablecoin adoption does not guarantee that tokenized stocks will follow the same growth path, particularly because equities involve shareholder rights, corporate actions and market access restrictions.

RWA activity also expanded on decentralized perpetual futures platforms. TradeXYZ, an RWA focused venue built on Hyperliquid, recorded approximately twentyfold volume growth after launching.

Trading centered on oil, precious metals, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 and major technology and semiconductor stocks. These markets offer continuous price exposure outside the operating hours of traditional exchanges.

Perpetual futures do not generally provide ownership of the referenced stock or commodity. Traders post collateral, often stablecoins, and receive leveraged exposure to price movements through derivatives contracts.

Open interest increased alongside trading volume. The increase provides evidence that capital remained in outstanding positions rather than only generating short bursts of turnover. Open interest also introduces liquidation and leverage risks.

Hyperliquid led the applications studied by CoinShares in absolute revenue. It captures value at both the trading application and settlement layers because its exchange operates on its own infrastructure.

Despite RWA growth, application revenues across lending and trading venues declined year over year. Crypto native activity still generates most revenue. The expanding RWA segment was not yet large enough to offset the wider slowdown.

CoinShares expects utility, consolidation, monetization, specialization and product development to shape the next 18 months. Those outcomes remain the company's outlook rather than confirmed developments.

CoinShares said near term growth will depend on whether tokenized assets can sustain borrowing demand and secondary market liquidity without relying heavily on incentives. Revenue growth will also matter because rising deposits do not automatically create profitable applications.

The market is splitting between institutional and retail products, according to the report. BlackRock's BUIDL had average wallet balances measured in millions of dollars, while tokenized equities attracted smaller average holdings and faster user growth.

Yields across the products studied ranged from approximately 3.2% to 5.5%. Treasury products occupied the lower end, while private credit and lending vaults offered higher returns alongside additional risks.

As crypto.news reported, Standard Chartered projected $4 trillion in tokenized assets by 2028. That figure is an external forecast, not a CoinShares estimate or guaranteed market outcome.

The firmer evidence is historical: RWA deposits and spot activity expanded during the measured year, as did derivatives usage.