Tokenized equities were the biggest driver of onchain trading growth in the third quarter of 2026, according to ARK Invest’s DeFi quarterly report released Wednesday.
The value of tokenized stocks rose 86% to approximately $3.2 billion in the quarter, while tokenized active strategies climbed 166% to $4 billion as major crypto platforms such as Robinhood, Coinbase, and Payward expanded into tokenized equities, the report said.
The growth was also supported by the SEC clearing tokenized equity trading on permissioned DeFi venues.
Meanwhile, tokenized US Treasuries held at roughly $15 billion, and tokenized credit grew 25% to $8 billion, helped by products including a Securitize and Neuberger Berman tokenized high-yield fund.
The total real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market rose 19% quarter-over-quarter to $39 billion, up from $17 billion a year earlier, according to the report.
Ethereum still led but competitors started to gain round
Ethereum hosted about $16.7 billion in tokenized RWAs and remained the leading network for institutional issuance, although its share of public blockchain RWA value declined to roughly 44% from 50% at the end of the second quarter, the report stated.
BNB Chain, Solana and Stellar roughly tripled their RWA totals year-to-date as growth spread across competing networks.
BNB Chain gained from tokenized money market funds such as iBENJI and USYC, while Solana’s expansion was driven mainly by tokenized equities and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund.
Tokenized stocks drove DEX trading growth
Tokenized stocks became a larger part of decentralized trading, with spot decentralized exchange (DEX) volume jumping about ninefold to $50 billion, or approximately 9% of total spot DEX volume versus 1% in the prior quarter.
Total spot DEX volume rose 13% to $571 billion, marking its first quarterly increase in four quarters. Stablecoin transaction volume grew 16% to $781 billion and monthly active addresses rose 39% to 73 million, while total stablecoin supply declined 3% to $309 billion.
