Between April and June 2026, the volume of real-world assets (RWAs) on lending platforms and decentralized exchanges surged to $7.4 billion, a significant increase from $2.3 billion in the previous year. This finding is detailed in a joint report by CoinShares and Token Terminal.

Over the past 365 days, real-world assets (RWAs) have moved beyond tokenisation into increasingly active onchain markets.

Together with @tokenterminal, we look at the growth of Hybrid Finance across deposits, trading and derivatives, and what could define its next phase.… pic.twitter.com/D8kEvM1A6j

— CoinShares (@CoinSharesCo) August 6, 2026

During the same timeframe, the total volume of deposits in DeFi fell by approximately 15%. Jean-Marie Mognetti, CEO of CoinShares, noted that this discrepancy highlights a demand driven by the financial utility of assets, rather than merely market cycles.

The calculations are based on data from Token Terminal, primarily covering the period from the second quarter of 2025 to the second quarter of 2026. The latest figures in the graphs are updated as of July 20.

Income-Generating Assets Become Key Collateral

By the end of the second quarter, RWAs accounted for roughly 6% of all deposits in DeFi, up from about 1.7% the previous year.

The increase was largely attributed to tokenized treasury and investment funds such as JTRSY and BUIDL, the yield-bearing token sUSDS, private lending products like JAAA, syrupUSDT, syrupUSDC, and PRIME, along with the delta-neutral strategy sUSDe.

Report authors explained that the appeal lies in the ability to earn income from the asset even after it has been pledged as collateral, which reduces the opportunity cost compared to non-yielding collateral.

Nearly 70% of RWA deposits are concentrated on lending platforms within Ethereum, with Plasma taking second place due to the deployment of Aave, while the rise in Solana was linked to the Kamino protocol.

Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal.

The report's methodology employs an extensive sample, including tokenized funds, equities, and commodities, as well as yield-bearing stablecoins and strategies tied to the cryptocurrency market.

This indicates that the growth to $7.4 billion cannot be solely attributed to the transfer of traditional financial instruments onto the blockchain; some of this figure is supported by products developed within the crypto sector.

Spot Trading of RWAs Jumps 220%

The volume of RWA spot trading on decentralized exchanges rose by approximately 220% year-over-year, while the overall turnover of spot DEXs during the same period declined by around 70%.

This growth emerged from a small base. According to the report, in Q2 2026, the trading volume for RWAs was about $6.3 billion, which represents less than 2% of the total spot DEX turnover.

Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal.

The primary trading activities were centered around tokenized gold (XAUT and PAXG) and the yield-bearing token sUSDe. Although the share of tokenized equities began to rise, it remained lower than that of funds and commodity assets.

Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal.

Most spot transactions are concentrated in Ethereum and Solana, while Arbitrum, BNB Chain, and Base have yet to achieve comparable trading volumes.

Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal.

Activity surged more rapidly in the perpetual futures market. The report indicates that in Q2, the turnover of such contracts for traditional assets exceeded $200 billion, nearing 32% of the total volume.

The trading volume on the RWA platform tradeXYZ within the Hyperliquid ecosystem increased nearly twentyfold since its launch. The most sought-after underlying assets included oil, precious metals, stock indices, and shares of technology and semiconductor companies.

Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal.

Growth Has Yet to Alter DeFi Economics

Revenue from lending and trading DeFi applications declined from Q2 2025 to the same period in 2026. The rise in RWA transactions has not yet compensated for the drop in cryptocurrency trading and lending activities.

Hyperliquid remained the highest-grossing application among those analyzed, with authors linking its success to high trading activity and revenue generated from both the exchange and its proprietary settlement infrastructure.

The yield from the examined products ranged approximately from 3.2% to 5.5%. The lower end was represented by tokenized treasury funds, while private lending, on-chain loans, and financing rate strategies offered higher returns.

Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal.

Authors assessed the audience type based on average wallet balance. For holders of the institutional fund BUIDL, the balance is measured in tens of millions of dollars, while owners of tokenized stocks like xStocks hold significantly smaller amounts.

Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal.

A single wallet does not necessarily correspond to one investor, as an address may belong to an exchange, custodian, smart contract, or an individual with multiple wallets, so this metric should only be used as an approximate guide.

According to CoinShares, the market capitalization of tokenized stocks reached approximately $2.2 billion, while the global equity market exceeds $100 trillion. Analysts likened the current stage of this segment to stablecoins in 2019.

Source: CoinShares and Token Terminal.

Notably, in July, RWAs accounted for over half of the weekly trading volume on Hyperliquid for the first time, with a turnover of $25.1 billion in just seven days.

Earlier, Bernstein analysts concluded that the total value of tokenized assets had increased by 40% since the beginning of the year, reaching $51 billion.