Deposits of tokenized real-world assets on blockchains more than tripled year over year to $7.4 billion in Q2 2026, according to CoinShares, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum remain stuck in a prolonged slump. Firms including BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, and Robinhood are expanding into the sector as it continues to grow while conventional tokens fizzle out.
Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) more than tripled in value over the past year even as Bitcoin and Ethereum kept struggling. Deposits of RWAs on blockchains climbed to $7.4 billion in Q2 2026, CoinShares reported, a threefold jump from a year earlier.
Bitcoin and Ethereum stay stuck in a crypto winter
Inflation and fears of interest rate hikes have pushed investors toward more conservative assets over the past year, dragging down most major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin set a record high of over $126,000 last October and now trades at around $64,000. Ethereum reached an all-time high of nearly $5,000 last August and has since dropped below $1,900.
That crypto winter will likely persist until those macro headwinds ease. However, tokenized RWAs have kept expanding even as conventional tokens fizzle out.
Tokenization brings traditional assets on-chain
Tokenization turns stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, and even fine art into digital tokens on a blockchain, cutting out middlemen and speeding up transfers. Tokenized stocks and bonds trade around the clock at lower fees than traditional brokerages, while tokenized commodities such as gold and silver offer instant liquidity without physical storage. Stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies also trade faster and more cheaply while earning higher yields than their conventional counterparts.
BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, and Robinhood are all upgrading their financial infrastructure to support tokenized assets. According to CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti, the divergence between cryptocurrencies and tokenized RWAs is "being driven by financial utility, not by market cycles."
Safe-haven demand, not speculation, fuels the growth
Tokenized Treasuries, stablecoins, and gold drove most of the RWA market's growth over the past year, CoinShares found. Those are safe-haven assets rather than speculative ones, so the shift probably won't generate meaningful tailwinds for Bitcoin and Ether unless the broader crypto market warms up again.
Robinhood's tokenized stock trades have accelerated since the brokerage launched its own blockchain, Robinhood Chain, at the start of July. By the end of July, its top tokenized stocks — GameStop, Nvidia, and SpaceX — had a combined trading volume of $47 million, a tiny amount next to the hundreds of billions of dollars traded daily on U.S. stock markets. Still, it indicates retail investors are becoming increasingly aware of tokenized stocks.
Source: The Motley Fool
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