RWA Deposits Triple to 7.4 Billion USD as DeFi Contracts: CoinShares Maps the Rewiring of Finance
Tokenized real-world asset deposits more than tripled from 2.3 billion USD to 7.4 billion USD between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026, even as total DeFi deposits fell roughly 15% over the same period. The figures come from CoinShares’ Hybrid Finance report, produced with Token Terminal and published Aug. 6, and they describe a market that is quietly reallocating collateral away from crypto-native assets and toward tokenized funds, stocks and commodities.
The divergence extends across nearly every metric the report measured. RWA spot trading volume rose approximately 220% year over year while aggregate decentralized exchange volume, still dominated by crypto-native assets, dropped around 70%. CoinShares attributed part of the DeFi contraction to withdrawals and lower crypto asset prices rather than a collapse in underlying usage.
Ethereum Hosts Nearly 70% of RWA Collateral
Ethereum accounted for almost 70% of measured RWA deposits, supported by established lending liquidity and persistent borrower demand. Plasma ranked second, helped by Aave’s expansion beyond Ethereum, while Kamino anchored Solana’s share of the market. Yield-bearing collateral remained concentrated on Aave, Morpho and Kamino, where investors can keep earning income on deposited assets while using them for borrowing, lowering the opportunity cost of posting collateral.
Tokenized Treasury and multi-strategy products supplied much of the growth. The report named JTRSY, BlackRock’s BUIDL and sUSDS among the largest contributors, followed by private-credit products including JAAA, syrupUSDT, syrupUSDC and PRIME. The delta-neutral product sUSDe added another source of deposits. On spot markets, tokenized gold dominated activity, with XAUT and PAXG identified as major contributors, while sUSDe volume increased after liquidity migrated from Uniswap v3 to Uniswap v4.
Perpetual Futures Are the Fastest-Growing Corner
The strongest growth reading in the study came from perpetual futures. Volume on TradeXYZ, an RWA-focused venue operating through Hyperliquid, increased approximately twentyfold from launch even as crypto-native perpetual activity weakened after October 2025. Commodities, equity indexes and technology stocks accounted for much of the derivatives volume, with oil and precious metals generating heavy turnover and S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 contracts giving traders index exposure. SK Hynix became one of TradeXYZ’s larger markets after listing. Open interest grew alongside turnover, with equity indexes and semiconductor stocks holding a larger share of outstanding positions than commodities despite the high commodity turnover.
Fresher data suggests the trend accelerated beyond the report’s cutoff. On Sept. 8, Token Terminal measured tokenized stocks at a 3.19 billion USD market capitalization, with 6.3% deposited in DeFi and 9.70 billion USD traded on decentralized exchanges during the preceding 30 days. Base tokenized stock DEX volume later reached 730.9 million USD over 30 days, touching 100 million USD in a single day. CryptoRank reported on Sept. 22 that perpetual DEX open interest had reached 19 billion USD, with RWA contracts accounting for roughly 24% of the total, up from around 6% at the start of 2026, and the number of RWA markets across perpetual DEXs surpassing 1,000. Two days later, RWA perpetual DEX volume for the third quarter was measured at 365 billion USD, up 32% quarter over quarter, with public equities contributing approximately 175 billion USD, close to 48% of the total.
Tokenized Stocks Draw Faster Retail Participation
The report also sketched the differences between investor groups. Institutional products such as BlackRock’s BUIDL carried average wallet balances in the tens of millions of dollars, while xStocks balances were much smaller and more consistent with retail participation, though the report cautioned that one wallet does not necessarily represent one investor. Tokenized equities recorded the fastest holder growth among the categories studied, a function of smaller investment sizes. The report valued tokenized stocks at roughly 2.2 billion USD during its measurement window; by Sept. 22, CryptoRank measured that market capitalization at 3.5 billion USD, led by BNB Chain with approximately 1 billion USD, followed by Ethereum and Solana, which together with BNB Chain represent around 70% of the measured tokenized-equity market.
Yields across selected RWA strategies ranged between approximately 3.2% and 5.5%. Tokenized Treasury funds sat near the lower end, while private credit, lending markets, vaults and delta-neutral funding strategies offered higher yields with different risk profiles.
Revenue Tells a More Sober Story
Not every indicator points upward. Application revenue across lending and trading venues declined year over year, because crypto-native borrowing and trading still generated most venue revenue and RWA growth was too small during the period to offset weaker activity elsewhere. Hyperliquid generated the most application revenue among the venues studied, aided by its derivatives activity and by operating both the exchange and its settlement infrastructure. Morpho, described as the second-largest lending platform in the comparison, lacks a protocol-level take rate, limiting direct revenue capture.
CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti summarized the firm’s thesis as finance being not disrupted but rewired, with tokenized assets linking into DeFi lending, trading venues and high-performance blockchains. The Q2 data supports that framing: crypto-native activity is shrinking by most volume measures, while tokenized versions of stocks, funds and commodities are absorbing a growing share of the onchain financial stack. As of Sept. 24, Bitcoin trades near 84,014 USD, Ethereum near 2,666 USD and Solana near 115 USD, down 1.9%, 1.7% and 1.5% respectively over 24 hours.
Tokenized gold doing the heaviest spot volume with XAUT and PAXG tracks with everything else this year. People want the hedge onchain without opening a futures account.
Agreed, though deposits tripling to 7.4B via JAAA and the syrup tokens is the real institutional story. Wallets in the tens of millions vs tiny xStocks balances tells you exactly who is sized in.
Mognetti calling it rewired rather than disrupted is the right framing, BUIDL into DeFi lending is not a revolution it is plumbing. Protocol level take rates are still thin though, someone will eventually capture that spread.
plumbing that triples in a year is what the take rate thesis needs. someone captures that spread eventually, question is whether it lands on aave and morpho or a layer nobody watches yet
half those treasury flows arrive through JAAA and the syrup tokens which already live on Aave and Morpho. the spread does not need a new layer, the venues were picked a year ago
7.4B in RWA deposits while total DeFi shrinks 15%… the collateral is quietly migrating from crypto-native to tokenized funds and nobody holding altcoins wants to hear it
tiny xstock balances next to treasury sized flows is the detail. institutions want yield they can defend in a board meeting, simple as that
altcoin holders do need to hear it. their collateral got repriced against tokenized treasuries and nobody asked them
Ethereum at nearly 70% of RWA collateral and people still call it dead money. The lending liquidity has to live somewhere and Aave plus Morpho are where it lives.
plasma in second place barely registers next to 70% on ethereum. the lending liquidity keeps compounding there, stopped betting against ETH for tokenization a while ago
the DEX volume dropping 70% while RWA spot is up 220% is the cleanest tell. traders left, treasuries moved in
2.3 to 7.4 billion in a year while total defi deposits shrank. forward this to everyone still calling tokenized treasuries a powerpoint deck