Tokenized Stocks Pull $247.8 Million Into DeFi
Growth is centered mainly on Robinhood Chain, Solana, and BNB Chain, with liquidity pools and lending as the main uses. Nasdaq and the NYSE are also experimenting with tokenized trading.
Key Takeaways
- Tokenized stocks grew in DeFi by 1,961% over one year to $247.8 million in locked value.
- TVL is heavily concentrated on Robinhood Chain, Solana, and BNB Chain, which together account for 89.5%.
- Most activity is in liquidity pools and lending markets, while tokenized stocks are also being used more often as a quote asset.
Tokenized stocks have made a sharp move higher in decentralized finance over the past year. Total locked value in DeFi protocols rose 1,961% to $247.8 million (€215 million), according to Token Terminal data published Thursday. Binance Research says that growth shows tokenized equities are now doing more than just sitting passively in a wallet.
Where the Money Is
The breakdown is heavily concentrated. Robinhood Chain accounts for $98.2 million (€85.1 million), Solana for $87.4 million (€75.8 million), and BNB Chain for $36.3 million (€31.5 million). Together, those three chains make up 89.5% of total TVL.
Binance Research also found that active DeFi TVL for tokenized stocks rose from $21.6 million (€18.7 million) in January to $289.1 million (€251 million) on September 9. Compared with its own active market value, the share climbed from 2.2% to 7.2%. That suggests these tokens are being used more broadly, even if they still do not make up a large part of the overall market.
What Tokenized Stocks Are Used For
Most activity is in liquidity pools, which account for 65.4%. Lending markets make up 28.1%. Yield tokenization accounts for 5.7%, while 0.8% falls into the rest.
That fits a broader trend where tokenized assets are being used more often in existing crypto structures. Based on the figures provided, the total market for tokenized equities has now grown to about $2.8 billion (€2.4 billion), while major financial firms are also showing more interest in the segment. On Solana, the rise of institutional DeFi on Solana is also playing a role, with protocols increasingly focusing on tokenized real-world assets and looking for ties to traditional firms.
More Than Just Ownership
Activity is also building outside direct stock-token trading. Binance Research reported that stock-paired meme coin markets generated about $2.49 billion (€2.2 billion) on Robinhood Chain and $2.90 billion (€2.5 billion) on BNB Chain between July 26 and September 9. SQD looked at a sample on Robinhood Chain and found that $711.2 million (€616 million), or 32.1%, of cumulative volume through August 30 came from trading against other tokens, especially meme coins.
For European crypto readers, the key point is that tokenized stocks are increasingly acting as a quote asset in crypto-native trading. That could expand the role of these products in DeFi, even though demand for actual stock exposure remains limited for now. At the same time, the growth shows that onchain infrastructure for tokenized assets is maturing faster, while traditional players like Nasdaq and the NYSE are also experimenting with tokenized trading.
