ARK Invest said in its The DeFi Quarterly (Q3, 2026) report that tokenized equities had become a key force in on-chain trading as of Sept. 30, 2026. Spot decentralized exchange, or DEX, volume in tokenized stocks rose about ninefold from the previous quarter to roughly $50 billion, equal to about 9% of total spot DEX volume, up from around 1% in the prior quarter.
The report’s subtitle, “Tokenized Equities Led Amid A Broad Recovery Across Defi,” framed the third quarter as a period of wider improvement across decentralized finance. ARK said the rise in tokenized equity trading also pushed up stablecoin active addresses and application revenue.
Tokenized equities helped lift spot DEX activity
In its market summary, ARK said adjusted stablecoin transaction volume increased about 16% quarter over quarter to roughly $781 billion. Monthly active addresses climbed about 39% to around 73 million, while total supply slipped about 3% to about $309 billion.
Real-world asset, or RWA, market capitalization rose about 19% to roughly $39 billion. ARK said the RWA base on BNB Chain, Solana and Stellar had expanded about threefold during the year, showing that tokenized assets were no longer concentrated on a single chain.
Total spot DEX volume increased about 13% to roughly $571 billion, the first quarterly rebound in four quarters. The ratio of DEX spot volume to centralized exchange, or CEX, spot volume reached about 23.3%, compared with about 20.3% in the previous quarter.
Within tokenized equities, BNB Chain led with about $16.5 billion in trading volume, followed by Robinhood Chain at about $13.7 billion. By asset, NVIDIA (NVDA) accounted for about $3.1 billion, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) reached about $2.5 billion. ARK said blue-chip U.S. equities and index products had become the main source of on-chain spot activity, helping explain the simultaneous rise in stablecoin transfers and application-side revenue.
Robinhood Chain’s first full quarter came close to BNB Chain
ARK’s second main takeaway focused on how brokerage distribution can accelerate public-chain activity. Robinhood Chain generated about $65 billion in DEX volume and roughly $51 million in network revenue in its first full quarter, nearly matching BNB Chain, which the report described as a long-standing retail-flow venue.
ARK said this showed that brokerage channels can move users and order flow into on-chain matching in a short period of time, turning “distribution is liquidity” into a new market narrative. At the same time, the report warned that after recent gas fee adjustments, network revenue is expected to fall from its peak. ARK said the strong first-quarter figures should not be projected directly as normal earnings power and that observers should separate volume growth from unit economics rather than treat one-off distribution gains as a durable fee moat.
Perpetual DEXs saw lower volume but higher open interest
ARK’s third key point was a structural shift in perpetual futures. Open interest on perpetual DEXs rose about 76% to roughly $24 billion, while trading volume fell about 16%. DEX share of total futures volume slipped to about 11.7%, pointing to a trader base with fewer transactions, larger positions and longer holding periods. ARK said Hyperliquid and its HIP-3 market were leading that segment.
In the report’s reading, leverage activity did not disappear. It moved away from high-turnover trading and toward more concentrated and longer-duration position management.
Lending and revenue metrics also moved higher
On the lending side, protocol deposits increased about 51% quarter over quarter to roughly $81 billion. Morpho’s deposit market share reached about 19%, the highest in the protocol’s history. Active loans rose about 41% to around $29 billion. For year-to-date growth, Maple was up about 116%, Spark about 107% and Morpho about 79%.
Application revenue rose about 21% to roughly $529 million, while network REV increased about 24% to about $349 million. ARK linked those gains to the recovery in spot trading and the surge in tokenized equity activity.
Focus shifted to whether tokenized equities can keep taking spot DEX share
ARK said the third-quarter discussion around on-chain capital formation had shifted from whether stablecoin supply would keep expanding to whether tokenized equities could continue gaining share in spot DEX trading. The report also pointed to a reshuffling in market share across brokerage-linked chains, perpetual open interest and lending protocols during the recovery.
ARK added that gas economics, regulation and actual settlement mechanisms still need to be weighed before deciding whether the latest tokenized equity wave represents a structural migration or a seasonal burst in trading.