Onchain equities surpass governance tokens in user engagement as tokenized stock trading explodes

A year ago, tokenized stocks on decentralized exchanges were a curiosity. That story has changed dramatically: the active market cap for onchain equities has hit roughly $4 billion, a 314% increase year-to-date, and monthly DEX trading volume surged to $7.9 billion in August 2026. For context, that January figure was $237 million. The growth factor is north of 33x. The numbers behind the boom According to Binance Research data, tokenized equities have gone from representing about 0.1% of overall DEX spot volume at the end of 2025 to more than 4% in 2026. The 30-day DEX trading volume for tokenized equities recently hit $14.8 billion, while 90-day volumes sit around $15.9 billion. The fact that so much of the 90-day total is concentrated in the most recent month tells you the growth curve is steepening, not flattening. DeFi total value locked for tokenized equity products climbed to $289 million, up from just $21.6 million at the start of the year. The onchain market cap, which includes tokens not actively trading, reached approximately $4.7 billion. The gap between that number and the $4 billion active cap suggests most of the supply is actually being used, not just sitting idle in...