Tokenized real-world assets tripled to $7.4B in DeFi while the rest of DeFi shrank, CoinShares says

Deposits of tokenized real-world assets into lending platforms and decentralized exchanges rose from $2.3 billion in Q2 2025 to $7.4 billion in Q2 2026 — more than a tripling — while total DeFi deposits fell roughly 15% over the same window, according to a report from asset manager CoinShares and analytics firm Token Terminal, reported by The Block on Aug. 6.

The composition matters more than the headline number. Per the report, the growth came almost entirely from conventional financial products rather than crypto-native ones. On the collateral side, tokenized Treasury and multi-strategy funds led — Janus Henderson's JTRSY, BlackRock's BUIDL and sUSDS — followed by private credit products and delta-neutral strategies.

Trading told a similar story in reverse. Overall DEX spot volumes fell roughly 70% year over year, but volumes in tokenized real-world assets rose about 220%, with gold tokens including Tether Gold (XAUT) and Paxos Gold (PAXG) making up a significant share, the report found. In perpetual futures, RWA volumes and open interest kept climbing against a broader slowdown that began in October 2025, concentrated in oil, precious metals, the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and semiconductor stocks.

Ethereum hosts nearly 70% of RWA deposits, with Plasma and Solana gaining share, per the report.

Key facts

• RWA deposits into lending platforms and DEXs: $2.3B (Q2 2025) → $7.4B (Q2 2026) — CoinShares/Token Terminal, via The Block
• Total DeFi deposits: down ~15% year over year — same report
• DEX spot volumes: down ~70%; RWA trading volumes: up ~220% — same report
• Leading RWA collateral: JTRSY, BUIDL, sUSDS, then private credit and delta-neutral strategies — same report
• Ethereum share of RWA deposits: ~70% — same report
• Perp-market slowdown start date: October 2025 — same report

The real-world read

CoinShares is not a neutral observer. It is an asset manager selling exposure products, and it says the data "confirms" its own "Hybrid Finance" thesis — a framing it coined. Findings that validate the publisher's house thesis deserve the same discount as any other in-house research.

CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti's line — "Look at what is actually being used on-chain: Treasuries, gold, the S&P 500, semiconductor stocks. Not one of them is a crypto asset" — sits awkwardly against the report's own list. sUSDS is Sky's savings token, a crypto-native yield instrument, and "delta-neutral strategies" describes the crypto basis trade. Both appear among the top categories driving the number.

Also unstated: the dollar size of total DeFi deposits, which means the $7.4 billion can't be sized as a share of the whole. The 220% trading jump is a percentage off an unnamed base. Methodology, platform coverage and the size of Plasma's and Solana's "gaining" share weren't detailed in the coverage available.

One disclosure worth carrying over: The Block notes Foresight Ventures is its majority investor and that Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight.

Opinion, and whose

• CoinShares (Mognetti): investors are moving traditional assets onto faster-settling infrastructure — "convergence, not disruption." That is the firm's interpretation, not a measured fact.
• CoinShares/Token Terminal: the data confirms the Hybrid Finance thesis. Also interpretation.

Sources

• The Block (Daniel Kuhn), Aug. 6, 2026 — all figures and the Mognetti quote; secondary reporting on a CoinShares/Token Terminal report. The Block discloses Foresight Ventures as majority investor.
• CoinShares / Token Terminal report — the primary data, cited via The Block; CoinShares is a commercial asset manager and the report advances its own thesis. Not independently verified here.

Not investment advice.