The tokenized stocks market has accelerated sharply. In May, the total funds in this segment grew from about $995 million to more than $1.6 billion, according to RWA.xyz data.
Capital began actively flowing into on-chain versions of stocks amid weak performance in the crypto market. While bitcoin and altcoins traded sideways, investors shifted to tokenized shares of tech companies and instruments related to artificial intelligence.
The Market Has Grown Nearly 50-Fold in a Year
As recently as spring 2025, tokenized stocks remained a niche experiment with a capitalization of about $30 million. Now the sector has become a full-fledged market with daily trading, lending, and use in DeFi protocols.
The total value of tokenized stocks increased by 60% over the past month, surpassing $1.6 billion.
The growth was one of the fastest among all segments of tokenized assets. By comparison, the commodities market, which was the main driver at the start of the year, actually shrank. The volume of tokenized commodities in May fell from about $7.8 billion to $7 billion.
Against this backdrop, analysts are increasingly calling tokenized stocks the next major direction for the real-world assets industry.
Liquidity Flows Into Stocks
Tokenized stocks are traded on several leading platforms, showing accelerated growth in May.
The main growth factor is demand for more familiar and understandable assets. Investors gain access to stocks via blockchain without traditional brokers, trading time restrictions, or complex banking infrastructure.
Tokenized shares of companies related to AI and the tech sector are growing especially fast. Many traders see these instruments as a more stable alternative to regular crypto tokens.
At the same time, there has been a sharp increase in interest in trading derivatives based on real-world assets. In recent months, trading volume for such assets on decentralized markets has exceeded $821 billion.
Most of this activity was in perpetual futures and speculative trading on price movements, rather than long-term stock ownership.
Hyperliquid and Perpetual Contracts Fuel Demand
One of the main drivers has been the Hyperliquid ecosystem and its HIP-3 market. The platform allows for the rapid launch of new markets and perpetual futures on real-world assets.
In effect, traders have begun using tokenized stocks as a new class of highly liquid instruments within the crypto industry. This is especially noticeable amid growing interest in on-chain trading of indexes, tech companies, and pre-IPO assets.
For many users, the key is not stock ownership itself, but the ability to quickly open positions on price increases or decreases.
Ethereum Remains the Largest Network, but Liquidity Is Shifting
Ethereum still leads in the total number of tokenized assets and infrastructure size. However, the liquidity situation is gradually changing.
According to Dune Analytics, BNB Chain has become one of the most active platforms for trading tokenized assets in recent months. The reason is lower transaction costs and high retail trader activity.
Solana has also sharply strengthened its position, especially after the rise in popularity of XStocks and the Ondo platform. The Solana ecosystem is now considered one of the most liquid for trading tokenized stocks of tech companies.
Ondo and Solana Emerge as Main Beneficiaries of Growth
Several leaders are gradually emerging in the market. Ondo Finance, Solana XStocks, and projects within BNB Chain received the main inflow of liquidity in May.
Some early initiatives, including Robinhood’s bet on Arbitrum, failed to achieve comparable volumes. Users are moving to where there is already liquidity, active trading, and access to popular stocks.
Solutions that allow tokenized stocks to be used within DeFi—as collateral, a source of liquidity, or a leveraged trading instrument—are growing especially quickly.
The Market Still Faces Challenges
Despite rapid growth, the sector remains far from mature. The main problem is unstable liquidity and an unclear legal structure for asset ownership.
Not all tokenized stocks provide the same rights to holders. In addition, regulation remains fragmented. Requirements for such assets vary greatly from country to country.
Additional questions arose around the Anthropic situation, when the company restricted access to some pre-IPO sales and excluded certain buyers. This reignited debate about how reliable the tokenized securities market really is.
Why the Market Keeps Growing
Despite the risks, interest in tokenized stocks continues to grow. The reason is simple: investors want 24/7 access to traditional assets within the crypto ecosystem.
Tokenization allows the liquidity of blockchain, DeFi, and familiar stock instruments to be combined. For the crypto market, this looks like the next stage after the boom in stablecoins and tokenized bonds.
If current growth rates continue, the tokenized stocks market could approach $10 billion by the end of 2026.
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