The tokenized stock market is still small compared to traditional exchanges, but it is no longer a niche experiment within crypto. The total value of such assets has approached $1.08 billion, and the monthly transfer volume has reached $2.1 billion.
The main player here now is Ondo. The platform accounts for 405 tokenized stocks with a total value of about $870 million. This is about 43.61% of the market. Now, Ondo is trying to take the next step and bring this segment into derivatives.
In June, the company launched a public beta version of Ondo Perps. Access was granted to select users outside the U.S.. Through the platform, you can trade perpetual futures on tokenized versions of U.S. stocks, ETF, commodities, and indices.
Leverage goes up to 20x, and trading is available around the clock. Among the underlying assets are Nvidia, Tesla, gold, oil, silver, US 100 and US 500.
Simply put, traders can open longs and shorts on traditional markets without waiting for exchanges to open. At the same time, not only stablecoins but also tokenized securities can be used as collateral.
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This is what makes the launch interesting. Ondo wants tokenized stocks to be not just a way to track stock prices, but a part of the working infrastructure for on-chain trading.
Ondo Already Has a Foundation for the Launch
Ondo Perps does not appear out of nowhere. It is based on Ondo Global Markets — a platform with tokenized stocks and ETF for users outside the U.S..
In May, Ondo announced that Global Markets surpassed $1 billion TVL in less than eight months. At that time, the platform had more than 260 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETF on the Solana, Ethereum and BNB Chain networks. The total trading volume had already exceeded $18 billion.
Later, the reach became even wider. In June, Blockchain.com added 173 tokenized stocks and ETF through Ondo. After that, the number of such assets on the Ondo platform exceeded 430 on the Ethereum, Solana and BNB Chain networks.
But there is an important nuance here. Tokenized stocks provide economic exposure to traditional securities, but do not make the user the owner of the actual stock, ETF or ADR. Ondo’s documentation explicitly states that token holders do not receive rights to the underlying asset.
Therefore, such instruments cannot be considered a full replacement for regular stocks. They have legal restrictions, country filters, and specific product risks. But the market has already grown enough that derivative platforms are being built on its basis.
Ondo Perps is precisely testing whether this segment is ready for the next stage.
Ondo leads the tokenized stock market. Source: RWA.XYZ.
Why Collateral Is So Important
On most crypto platforms, stablecoins or cryptocurrencies are used as collateral for trading perpetual futures. For BTC, Ethereum and other native crypto assets, this is normal. But with tokenized stocks, ETF, indices, and commodities, the scheme becomes less convenient.
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For example, a user holds tokenized Tesla or Nvidia, but for a leveraged trade, he still needs to separately deposit stablecoins. Market makers have a similar problem. They can quote on-chain derivatives, but hedge through regular brokers outside the blockchain. As a result, collateral, price, and risk management exist in different systems.
Ondo Perps is trying to bring these parts of the market closer together. The platform allows tokenized securities to be used as collateral for trades.
If a trader already has tokenized stocks, he can use them as margin. For market makers, this is also more convenient: the collateral is linked to the same market in which they provide liquidity. In theory, this reduces the amount of capital that has to be kept idle on different platforms.
For Ondo this is also an argument in favor of liquidity. The company is not launching derivatives in a vacuum, but connecting them to an existing ecosystem of tokenized stocks, where there are users, integrations, and market access.
Growth of tokenized ETF market capitalization by issuer since the beginning of the year. Source: Token Terminal.
The Main Test Will Not Begin on Launch Day
Perpetual contracts on real assets sound attractive, but the difficulty is not in the launch itself. Problems begin when the market gets nervous.
Traders want to trade 24/7, but the main liquidity for stocks and ETF is still on traditional exchanges, with brokers, and in clearing systems. Therefore, there is a gap between the crypto trading format and the regular stock infrastructure.
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During periods of high volatility, this is especially important. Stocks can react sharply to earnings, macro data, or corporate news when traditional venues are closed. With leverage up to 20x even a small delay in collateral valuation, contract price, or hedging can quickly end in liquidation.
Therefore, Ondo Perps will not be evaluated by the number of available markets. Much more important is how the platform behaves under stress. Tight spreads, normal depth, proper liquidations, and accurate collateral valuation are more important here than a long list of assets.
The potential of the idea is clear. Crypto traders have long been accustomed to perpetual futures, and tokenized stocks give them access to the U.S. market without leaving the blockchain environment. Ondo is trying to bring all this together in one trading loop.
But risks are also growing. If tokenized stocks become collateral for leveraged trades, the quality of that collateral becomes critically important. Problems with valuation, liquidity, or redemption can spread through derivatives faster than on the spot market.
Therefore, the launch of Ondo Perps is important not only for Ondo itself. It shows that the RWA market is moving to a new question. It is no longer enough to simply tokenize stocks. Now it is necessary to prove that such tokens can withstand a full-fledged trading infrastructure.
