Value locked in tokenized stocks expands from $995M to $1.6B in May

On-chain activity shifted in the past month, as liquidity flowed into tokenized stocks. The total value locked in stock trading rose by around 60%, breaking above $1.6B. 

Traders rushed to tokenized stocks, while the crypto market stagnated. At the same time, stocks offered more active gains, driven by demand for AI components. Tokenized stocks are seen as one of the promising products that may replace standard tokens. 

In May 2025, tokenized stocks only amounted to around $30M and were mostly an experimental asset class. A year later, tokenized stocks have entered everyday trading, and some are used for DeFi lending.

Tokenized stocks were among the niche classes, but the past two months shifted the trend. Stock tokenization follows the general trend of moving assets on-chain, but the expansion in the past two months is more active compared to other on-chain asset classes. 

Growth in tokenized stocks even displaced commodities, which were one of the hottest asset classes in previous months. On-chain analysts predict up to $10B in tokenized stocks by the end of 2026. 

In 2026 to date, demand for real-world assets also boosted perpetual futures trading. Over the past few months, over $821.8B of real-world assets were traded on decentralized markets, tapping the increased demand for stocks.

In May, commodities shrank their total value from $7.8B down to $7B, based on data from RWA.xyz. 

Tokenized stocks still suffer from lack of predictable liquidity

On-chain markets are trying to solve a long-running issue of limited liquidity for tokenized stocks. Issuing tokenized assets is already well-established, but not all tokenized assets meet the same liquidity. According to TokenTerminal data, the RWA market has already expanded beyond $42B in value locked for all platforms and asset classes. 

Ethereum is still the leading chain in a raw number of assets, including stablecoins. However, not all of those assets have suitable trading platforms, or are unknown to traders. Based on trading activity, BNB Chain is actually the most liquid venue for tokenized asset trading, based on recent Dune Analytics dashboards.

One of the factors behind on-chain stock trading is still Hyperliquid’s HIP-3, for its ability to offer custom markets and perpetual futures contracts. Overall, on-chain stock activity seeks the ability to trade directional price moves, rather than secure stock ownership. 

Tokenized stocks are still limited by regulatory uncertainty and unclear ownership structure. Recently, trust in on-chain stocks was undermined by Anthropic’s decision to limit pre-IPO sales and exclude some buyers. 

Crypto-native platforms lead in tokenized stocks

In the past year, a handful of crypto native platforms emerged as top venues for tokenized stocks. Robinhood’s Arbitrum bet had limited success, while Ondo, Solana, and Ethereum carried the most successful tokenized stock brands. 

A small addition to the growth in recent months came from PreStocks and Ondo on Solana. Solana XStocks turned into the most reliable source of liquid tokenized shares, tapping the most active companies in the past year.

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