Tokenized stock market triples in 7 months as 24/7 trading, fractional shares drive demand

The tokenized stock market has been expanding rapidly this year, with total market capitalization more than tripling from the start of the year to emerge as a key growth driver within the real-world asset (RWA) market.

According to RWA.xyz, an RWA analytics platform, the global tokenized stock market cap stood at approximately $2.39 billion as of Saturday — up more than 250 percent from $682.27 million at the start of the year, representing roughly 3.5-fold growth in just over seven months.

The figure covers both tokenized listed equities and ETFs. As of Tuesday, tokenized stocks ranked first in year-to-date growth rate among all asset classes tracked by RWA.xyz, though by Saturday venture capital had overtaken tokenized stocks.

The tokenized venture capital market — which covers tokenized stakes in startups and venture funds — grew 270.6 percent over the same period, from $275.77 million to $1.02 billion. Tokenized private equity funds rose 201.9 percent, from $419.17 million to $1.27 billion, ranking third behind venture capital and tokenized stocks.

Among other asset classes, diversified credit — which pools investments across various credit assets — grew 88 percent over the same period, while US government bonds rose 78.7 percent. Non-US government bonds and corporate credit grew 43.7 percent and 43.6 percent, respectively.

The growth of the tokenized stock market reflects rising demand for trading major US listed equities and ETFs on blockchain networks. The ability to trade around the clock without being bound by traditional stock exchange hours, along with the ease of buying fractional shares in small denominations, are also cited as factors driving market expansion.

Yang Hyeon-gyeong, a researcher at iM Securities, wrote in a report last month that "the entry of major exchanges and fintech platforms, demand from non-US investors for access to US equities, the convenience of fractional investing, and the potential for leverage are all working together as complex drivers of growth."

Robinhood launched its own mainnet for RWA, called Robinhood Chain, in early July and expanded its tokenized stock service. That same month, tokenization platform Securitize joined the tokenized stock market by issuing its common shares on-chain simultaneously with its listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Hong Seong-uk, a researcher at NH Investment Securities, said that "nearly 100 securities were tokenized immediately after the launch of Robinhood Chain, and the number of tokenized asset holders has already exceeded 300,000 — putting it in the conversation as a rival to Coinbase's mainnet, Base." He added that Robinhood "can quickly establish a tokenization ecosystem by leveraging its existing global user base."

Among tokenized stocks, Securitize ranked first by market cap at approximately $191.28 million, followed by Strategy PP Variable (Strategy's variable-rate perpetual preferred shares) at about $137.35 million, SanDisk at about $100.48 million, Circle at about $96.61 million, and SpaceX at about $87.60 million.

Major US equities and ETFs also featured prominently, including the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF at about $73.07 million, Micron at about $66.04 million, Tesla at about $44.90 million, and Nvidia at about $43.12 million.

Meanwhile, tokenized stocks still account for a relatively small slice of the overall RWA market. As of Saturday, they represented about 6 percent of the total, while US government bonds held the largest share at roughly 42.5 percent.