Tokenized U.S. stock trading is accelerating overseas even as American companies push back against having their shares represented onchain. In a quarterly staking report published on Oct. 20, asset manager Bitwise said stock tokens on Robinhood Chain, the blockchain Robinhood launched on July 1, rose from $526 million in decentralized exchange volume in July to $2.21 billion in August and $11.31 billion in September. Average daily volume increased by more than 22 times in two months.
Robinhood Chain handled $14.05 billion in tokenized stock volume in the third quarter
According to the Bitwise report, stock tokens on Robinhood Chain generated $14.05 billion in cumulative decentralized exchange volume during the third quarter. Average daily volume climbed from $17 million in July to $71.4 million in August and $377.1 million in September.
Among individual names, NVIDIA ranked first with $2.5 billion in trading volume. SPY followed at $1.55 billion, and SpaceX reached $1.51 billion. AMC and GME each recorded more than $600 million in volume.
The number of stock tokens increased from 96 at the end of July to 193 at the end of August, then stayed unchanged in September. These tokens are issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited and are backed by securities held by a custodian. Investors track the performance of the underlying assets, but they do not directly own the shares and do not receive voting rights. Dividends are reinvested, with each token’s represented position adjusted accordingly.
Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum layer-2 network. In its first 92 days, it processed 870.2 million transactions and generated $51.11 million in fees.
Solana and Hyperliquid showed similar momentum
The report said tokenized stocks on Solana recorded $6.93 billion in decentralized exchange volume in the third quarter, up 45% from $4.77 billion in the second quarter. September alone accounted for $4.28 billion.
A total of 635 tokenized stocks traded on Solana during the quarter. The number of holding wallets rose from 172,000 to 624,000, while issuance was concentrated in xStocks, which accounted for about 77%.
At perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid, non-crypto markets recorded $261.5 billion in volume in the third quarter, representing 36.5% of total perpetual futures volume, up from 32.7% in the second quarter.
Trading remains concentrated outside the United States
CNBC reported that tokenized stock trading is currently concentrated overseas. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced an innovation exemption last month, creating a temporary compliance path for tokenized stocks, though issuing companies can object.
Under a notice updated by OKXICE on Oct. 19, 16 companies have already opposed tokenized trading of their shares on OKXICE. The list includes Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Alphabet.
Mirza Uddin, chief operating officer at Injective, told CNBC that overseas trading mostly gives investors price exposure through onchain perpetual contracts and wrapped tokens, which generally does not require company approval. In the United States, by contrast, the framework is designed to place actual shares onchain, giving issuers a say.
He said growth would continue overseas until the industry can explain to issuers what they stand to gain.
ClearStreet analyst Owen Lau said the divide is not simply between the United States and non-U.S. markets, but between investors and issuing companies. He said he expects some companies to eventually accept tokenization, and that thinly traded stocks could be suitable candidates.