Tokenized assets became the biggest listing category on major centralized crypto exchanges in the first half of 2026, according to CryptoRank. Nearly one in every five new listings fell into the tokenized asset category, up from less than 7% in 2025.
Much of that expansion was driven by tokenized stocks issued through platforms including xStocks, bStocks and Ondo Markets.
The shift marks a clear change in exchange strategy. For the past several years, meme coins, gaming tokens and other crypto-native assets dominated listing pipelines. In 2026, Wall Street-linked products started taking a much larger share.
U.S. retail stock buying slowed as tokenized equity activity picked up
Retail participation in U.S. equities has weakened. Data from financial analytics firm VandaTrack showed U.S. retail investors bought a net $13 billion of stocks over the past month, the lowest level since the early months of the 2020 pandemic.
That figure was down $18 billion from the start of 2026, a 58% decline. Net buying of individual stocks fell 71% to $3.2 billion.
The U.S. equity data and global tokenized asset figures cover different markets and investor groups, so they are not directly comparable. Even so, crypto exchanges are expanding stock-linked products for users looking for continuous trading, fractional access and exposure outside traditional brokerage infrastructure.
RWA perpetual futures hit a record $311 billion in June
Rapid growth in derivatives trading has given exchanges a stronger commercial reason to add more Wall Street-linked products.
CoinDesk exchange data showed that real-world asset perpetual futures volume on centralized exchanges rose 57% in June to a record $311 billion. Binance handled $245 billion of that total, giving it a 78.6% market share.
The segment had seen almost no activity at the end of 2025, then expanded quickly through the first half of 2026. The article said SpaceX's initial public offering helped accelerate demand for crypto-based access to traditional financial instruments, especially among traders seeking alternatives to the limits of conventional brokers and stock market infrastructure.
Perpetual futures let users speculate on price moves without holding the underlying security and without an expiry date. They are already among the busiest products on crypto exchanges, and their leverage and 24-hour trading structure can amplify both volume and volatility.
Spot tokenized equity activity is expanding too
The growth is not limited to derivatives.
RWA.xyz data showed the tokenized stock market grew by more than 470% over the past year to about $1.87 billion. Monthly transfer volume for those assets climbed to $8.4 billion, suggesting tokenized equities are attracting activity beyond exchange listings alone.
Kraken said in February that xStocks had surpassed $25 billion in total trading volume. That figure included trading on centralized and decentralized exchanges as well as minting and redemption, with more than $3.5 billion in on-chain activity.
Together, those figures suggest that growth in listings has been accompanied by measurable activity in both tokenized stocks and derivatives tied to traditional assets.
Overall listings slowed while meme coins and GameFi lost ground
The rise of tokenized assets has come alongside a broader slowdown in exchange listings.
CryptoRank said major centralized exchanges listed 351 tokens in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest quarterly count since the third quarter of 2023. New listings fell for a second straight quarter. It was also the second time since the start of 2024 that delistings outnumbered listings.
Listing activity peaked in 2025 as Bitcoin reached an all-time high. Instead of replacing that lost momentum with another wave of crypto-native projects, exchanges turned toward tokenized versions of traditional financial assets. In the second quarter alone, exchanges added 42 tokenized assets, trailing only blockchain infrastructure and decentralized finance.
Meme coin listings have now declined for six straight quarters. Exchanges added 196 meme coins in the fourth quarter of 2024, but that number fell to 41 in the second quarter of 2026, a 79% drop and the lowest quarterly level since the third quarter of 2023.
GameFi contracted even more sharply. New gaming token listings fell 84% from their second-quarter 2024 peak to just 15 in the second quarter of 2026.
Tokenized assets showed lower delisting rates
CryptoRank's broader tokenized asset category includes stocks, commodities and other real-world assets. Compared with many of the dominant themes from the last cycle, the category has shown stronger staying power.
Across all categories, about 7% of tokens listed in 2025 had been delisted by mid-2026. NFT projects had the highest delisting rate at 19%, followed by GameFi at 14% and meme coins at 11%.
By contrast, none of the 172 tokenized assets listed in 2025 within CryptoRank's classification had been delisted by mid-2026.
That lower delisting rate suggests tokenized assets have so far proved more durable on exchanges than NFTs, GameFi and meme coins. It also supports the view that exchanges are treating products linked to mature financial markets as a longer-lived listing category.
Crypto platforms are moving into brokerage territory
The gap between weak U.S. net stock buying and rising global tokenized equity activity points to a more fragmented model of market access.
Crypto exchanges can combine spot trading, leveraged derivatives, tokenized assets and stablecoin settlement on one platform. That structure lets users move between crypto exposure and traditional market exposure without transferring funds into a separate brokerage account.
Tokenized products also offer continuous trading and fractional access to assets that may be harder for some international investors to reach.
Those products come with legal and structural differences. A tokenized stock may represent a claim backed by underlying shares, a synthetic instrument tracking price, or another contractual arrangement. Investors may not receive the voting rights, custody rights or shareholder rights associated with directly holding stock.
Perpetual futures provide price exposure, not ownership, and may expose traders to leverage, funding-rate and liquidation risks. Regulatory restrictions also limit availability across jurisdictions. Many tokenized stock products are not available to U.S. residents, even when they track shares listed in the United States.
Still, the listing and trading data suggests centralized exchanges are broadening their role. In the previous two market cycles, those platforms competed to distribute newly issued crypto-native tokens. They are now increasingly competing to distribute financial products linked to stocks, commodities and other established markets.
As CryptoSlate framed it, the next major exchange listing cycle may rely less on launching thousands of new tokens and more on listing products tied to existing financial assets on venues that never close.