Trading volume for tokenized stocks on decentralized exchanges reached $48.7 billion over the past year, marking an increase of 10,163.7% from the previous 12-month period, according to on-chain data. Uniswap led the sector in trading volume, handling $17.1 billion across various v3 and v4 pools.
Despite the high trading volume, analysts note that activity figures do not equate to total market capitalization, guaranteed ownership, or deep secondary market liquidity. According to RWA.xyz, the distributed value of tokenized stocks stood at $3.20 billion as of October 3. Meanwhile, Binance Research estimated the broader on-chain equities market at $4.43 billion as of September 15, representing a 390.4% increase for the year but amounting to just 0.0029% of the $151.9 trillion estimated market value for listed equities.
Holder metrics have also expanded, with Token Terminal reporting 4.3 million tokenized stock owners last September—roughly 43 times higher than the previous year—though these figures reflect blockchain addresses rather than verified individual persons.
Trading activity remains heavily concentrated. Pantera Capital’s September State of Tokenization report noted that tokenized equity spot turnover reached approximately 204.6% in June, though the firm cautioned that high category-wide turnover can be driven by a small number of heavily traded tokens while many others experience minimal activity. Token Terminal data indicates that ETF-linked products accounted for 44.0% of trading by reference stock, followed by NVDA at 10.0% and SPCX at 7.3%. On an individual asset level, QQQb accounted for 28.9% of DEX volume, ahead of SPYx at 5.3% and NVDA at 4.9%.
Derivatives activity also showed substantial volume, with equity perpetuals on Hyperliquid and Lighter reaching approximately $67.8 billion in June, compared to $4.2 million in spot tokenized-equity trades during the same month.
Market participants attribute the growth of tokenized stocks to features such as fractional ownership, near-instant settlement, potential 24/7 trading, and DeFi utility. In response to demand, platforms such as Kraken, Bybit, OKX, and Binance have expanded their product offerings.
Regulatory developments have also progressed. On September 17, the SEC issued a temporary Innovation Exemption allowing qualifying Tokenized Securities Venues to trade tokenized NMS stocks via permissioned automated market makers without registering as traditional exchanges, subject to specific limits and a five-year expiration.
Long-term projections vary across the financial sector. Citi has projected a $5.5 trillion tokenized-asset market by 2030 in its base case, estimating that migrating 10% of U.S. retail investors on-chain could generate about $2.6 trillion in tokenized-equity demand. Conversely, an IMF analysis has cautioned that tokenization can introduce risks regarding the legal link between a token and its underlying asset.
