Over the past year, tokenized assets have dramatically expanded, growing 267% from June 2025 to June 2026, standing out as the only crypto sector to increase in market value amid widespread declines elsewhere. This surge didn’t come from price hikes but rather from a significant rise in new asset issuance, primarily driven by gold and equity tokens.
While gold prices climbed about 20% during this period, the real story lies in how much gold got tokenized and stored on-chain. The gold supply doubled, jumping from 524,000 ounces to over 1 million ounces in tokenized form. This growth in quantity, not just price, pushed the sector’s expansion.
Last year, tokenized precious metals almost completely dominated the market for openly traded tokenized assets. Top players like Tether Gold (XAUT) and PAX Gold (PAXG) held most of that market cap. By mid-2026, however, precious metals’ share dropped to 68%, as new kinds of tokenized assets entered the scene.
One notable newcomer is tokenized stocks and ETFs. Starting at zero just a year ago, these have surged to represent 23% of the tokenized asset sector. Companies like rStocks and Ondo now issue the majority of these stock tokens, with offerings ranging from tech giants like NVIDIA and Apple to diversified indices. Major exchanges haven’t missed the wave either: Binance rolled out bStocks in June 2026, quickly followed by Gate’s gStocks launch in early July.
Meanwhile, other crypto segments such as meme coins, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and blockchain infrastructure have taken sharp hits, showing the uneven fortunes across the space.
CryptoRank’s data also highlights tokenized assets as the most-listed category on centralized exchanges during the first half of 2026, signaling ongoing strong issuance. This trend suggests that supply growth, rather than price movement, will continue shaping this sector’s trajectory throughout the year.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
