Real-World Asset Deposits Triple to $7.4B as DeFi Markets Contract

The shift signals a transition from simple token issuance to active financial utility on the blockchain. Nearly 70% of these deposits are concentrated on Ethereum-based lending venues, where established liquidity remains a major hurdle for competing networks. The growth is largely fueled by tokenized U.S. Treasury products and multi-strategy funds, with BlackRock’s BUIDL, JTRSY, and Sky’s sUSDS emerging as primary contributors. Private credit products and delta-neutral strategies, such as Ethena’s sUSDe, have further diversified the ecosystem.

Secondary market activity is also intensifying, with spot trading volumes for tokenized assets climbing 220% year-over-year, even as aggregate volume across decentralized exchanges plummeted by 70%. This divergence suggests that investors are increasingly trading tokenized gold and equities directly on-chain rather than redeeming them through original issuers. Parallel growth in perpetual futures, particularly on the Hyperliquid-based TradeXYZ, highlights a rising appetite for leveraged exposure to commodities and traditional stocks like the S&P 500.

Despite this expansion, CoinShares notes that RWA activity is not yet robust enough to offset the revenue downturn across the wider DeFi space. Yields for these products currently range between 3.2% and 5.5%, determined by varying collateral profiles and counterparty risks. While institutional players like those holding BUIDL maintain massive average balances, the sector remains in its early stages of development, functioning more as specialized financial infrastructure than a replacement for crypto-native markets.