Tokenized Assets Gain Ground as RWA Use Outruns the DeFi Cycle
A year of on-chain data shows tokenized real-world assets expanding in lending and trading even as the broader DeFi market contracted.
Tokenized real-world assets are beginning to behave like financial infrastructure rather than a catalogue of pilot projects. A new CoinShares and Token Terminal study puts the on-chain market value of tokenized assets above $40 billion and finds that usage grew across lending, spot markets and derivatives during the year to the second quarter of 2026.
Deposits of tokenized assets across lending protocols and decentralized exchanges rose from $2.3 billion to $7.4 billion year on year. Over the same period, total DeFi deposits fell by roughly 15%. Spot trading in the RWA segment increased by about 220%, while aggregate decentralized-exchange activity declined by approximately 70%.
The distribution remains concentrated. Ethereum accounts for about 70% of RWA deposits, and only around $2.2 billion of global equities have been tokenized. The report also places typical on-chain yields in a 3.2% to 5.5% range. Its methodology counts transferable assets issued on public blockchains and excludes non-transferable representations on networks such as Canton and Provenance, an important boundary when comparing market-size estimates.
Why it matters
The strongest signal is not issuance but use. Growth in deposits and turnover during a weaker DeFi cycle suggests that treasuries, funds and other conventional instruments are becoming a durable source of on-chain activity. Concentration on one network and the tiny share of equities already tokenized also show how early the market remains.
Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal