Tokenized Gold Glitter, Onchain Yields Climb: RWAs Quietly Outpace a Cooling DeFi 🌟

Real-world assets are stepping out of the issuance lane and into active roles across decentralized finance, even as the broader DeFi market contracts. RWA deposits across DeFi platforms more than tripled year over year to $7.4 billion in the second quarter of 2026, while total DeFi deposits fell about 15%, according to a joint report from CoinShares and Token Terminal published Thursday. CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti attributed the divergence to functional demand rather than market momentum. "When an asset class grows through a downturn in its host ecosystem, demand is being driven by financial utility, not by market cycles," he said.

Yield-bearing stablecoins and tokenized Treasury products led RWA deposits during the quarter, according to the report. Sky Protocol's sUSDS topped the category, giving holders exposure to a yield-generating version of its USDS stablecoin. Tokenized Treasury funds, including BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), have also become a major source of onchain collateral as investors deploy yield-bearing assets in decentralized lending markets. The report said RWA products currently offer yields ranging from about 3.2% to 5.5%, with lower-risk Treasury products at the bottom of the range and higher-yield strategies carrying additional risks.

Gold-backed tokens and yield-bearing dollar products accounted for much of the RWA trading activity on decentralized exchanges. CoinShares classified gold-backed stablecoins such as Tether Gold (XAUt) and Paxos Gold (PAXG) as tokenized gold products within its broader RWA category, and noted that these assets generated significant trading volume as participants traded around gold price swings. Yield-bearing dollar products such as Ethena's sUSDe also contributed to RWA spot activity. RWA spot trading volumes rose roughly 220% year over year, even as overall DEX volumes fell about 70%, a divergence the report said reflects tokenized assets gaining traction as secondary markets where investors trade ownership rather than buy assets directly from issuers.

Onchain exposure to RWAs is expanding into derivatives markets, where traders can take leveraged positions without holding the underlying assets. RWA perpetual futures trading has continued growing despite a broader slowdown in crypto-native derivatives markets, with RWA-focused perpetual futures platform trading activity cited in the report as a sign of the category's deepening liquidity footprint across DeFi venues.