As traditional US retail stock purchasing cools to a post-pandemic low of $13 billion, centralized crypto exchanges are aggressively expanding into Wall Street assets. Tokenized assets became the most-listed category in the first half of 2026, accounting for nearly 20% of new listings. This shift is supported by a record $311 billion in real-world asset perpetual futures volume in June 2026, led by Binance. Meanwhile, speculative crypto-native categories like memecoins and GameFi continue to face steep listing declines and high delisting rates.
Tokenized asset exchange listings
- ▪Tokenized assets became the most-listed category across major centralized crypto exchanges in the first half of 2026, accounting for nearly one in every five new listings
- ▪Major centralized crypto exchanges added 42 tokenized assets in the second quarter of 2026
- ▪Tokenized assets represented less than 7% of new listings on major centralized crypto exchanges in 2025
- ▪None of the 172 assets in the tokenized-assets category listed in 2025 had been delisted by mid-2026
Declining US retail stock purchases
- ▪American retail investors purchased a net $13 billion in equities over the month preceding July 13, 2026, marking the lowest total since the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020
- ▪Net equity purchases by US retail investors fell by $18 billion, or 58%, from early 2026 levels, while buying of individual stocks declined 71% to $3.2 billion
RWA perpetual futures volume
- ▪Trading volume in real-world asset perpetual futures on centralized crypto exchanges rose 57% in June 2026 to a record $311 billion
- ▪Binance accounted for $245 billion, or 78.6%, of the centralized exchange real-world asset perpetual futures market volume in June 2026
- ▪The tokenized stock market grew by more than 470% over the year preceding July 13, 2026, reaching approximately $1.87 billion with a monthly transfer volume of $8.4 billion
Memecoin listing decline
- ▪By mid-2026, approximately 11% of the memecoins listed on major centralized crypto exchanges in 2025 had been delisted
- ▪Memecoin listings on major centralized crypto exchanges have declined for six consecutive quarters, falling from 196 listings in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 41 in the second quarter of 2026
GameFi listing decline
- ▪New gaming-token listings on major centralized crypto exchanges fell 84% from their second-quarter 2024 peak to just 15 in the second quarter of 2026
Crypto exchange brokerage competition
- ▪Tokenized equities do not guarantee investors the voting, custody, or shareholder rights associated with direct stock ownership
- ▪Crypto exchanges are expanding stock-linked products to provide users with continuous trading, fractional access, and exposure outside conventional brokerage infrastructure
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