Tokenized RWAs Surge as DeFi Activity Slows, Deposits Reach $7.4B

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) are surging on-chain even as broader DeFi activity cools, according to a new joint report from CoinShares and Token Terminal. Key takeaways - Deposits of tokenized RWAs into decentralized lending platforms and exchanges more than tripled over the past year, rising from $2.3 billion to $7.4 billion. Over the same period, total deposits across DeFi fell by about 15%. (Report: The Growth of Hybrid Finance, covering Q2 2025–Q2 2026; data supplied by Token Terminal.) - Spot trading on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) broadly declined by ~70%, while spot volumes in tokenized RWAs jumped roughly 220%. - On perpetual futures venues, both trading volume and open interest in RWAs continued to climb despite a wider slowdown that began in October 2025. RWA positions now represent more than one-quarter of on-chain perpetuals open interest. What’s moving on-chain - The largest share of RWA deposits are tokenized Treasuries and multi-strategy funds (examples cited: JTRSY, BUIDL, sUSDS). Next come private-credit products (JAAA, syrupUSDC, PRIME) and delta-neutral strategies such as sUSDe. - Tokenized gold leads spot trading volume. Perpetuals activity is concentrated in oil and precious metals, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, and tech and semiconductor stocks. Where the activity lives - Nearly 70% of RWA deposits sit on lending venues built on Ethereum. “Plasma” (a layer or chain referenced in the report) is the second-largest sector, helped by Aave’s expansion beyond Ethereum. Solana’s RWA growth has been driven largely by native lending platform Kamino. - Deposit activity remains concentrated on Aave, Morpho and Kamino. Revenue and adoption - Despite rising deposits and trading in RWAs, application revenues across lending and trading platforms fell year-over-year — evidence, the report says, of an early stage of adoption. - Hyperliquid is a notable exception: it produced substantially more application revenue than any other trading or lending venue and has overtaken Solana and Ethereum as the top revenue-generating chain. Decrypt previously reported that RWAs outpaced crypto on Hyperliquid for the first time in a single week, with chipmaker SK Hynix the most-traded stock that week. Context and industry response - This split between tokenized RWAs and traditional DeFi isn’t new. In February, tokenized RWAs grew 8.7% in a month to $24.8 billion while DeFi’s total value locked (TVL) fell 25% to $94.8 billion — a rotation industry insiders like 1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz attributed to compressed DeFi yields versus roughly 4% available on tokenized Treasuries. - Institutional interest is evident: BlackRock’s BUIDL fund appears among the named products in the report. BlackRock also launched two additional tokenized money-market funds and then rolled out tokenized share classes for European money-market funds that together hold $311 billion. Scale and scope - Tokenization remains modest relative to global markets: roughly $2.2 billion of a global equity market worth more than $100 trillion has been tokenized — a penetration the report likens to stablecoins around 2019. - The analysis covers distributed assets only — assets that can be moved to wallets outside the issuing platform — excluding some networks such as Canton and Provenance. Why it matters The report frames a growing “Hybrid Finance” landscape where traditional financial products are being bridged on-chain and are finding real use — particularly in fixed income, commodities and equity derivatives — even while crypto-native activity softens. That divergence could reshape where liquidity and revenue accrue as institutional-grade tokenized products scale.