Tokenized equities are beginning to show what real-world asset adoption looks like beyond pilot programs and industry slogans: users are trading familiar financial products onchain, across multiple networks, and in meaningful volume.

A new Bitget Wallet report based on Ondo Global Markets trading activity found that tokenized equities generated more than $5.5 billion in trading volume across 2.8 million trades and over 180,000 wallets through May 2026.

The report examines activity across Ethereum and BNB Chain, covering tokenized stocks, ETFs, commodities and other onchain financial assets. The findings suggest that tokenized equities are not yet behaving like a separate financial system. They are behaving more like a new access layer to traditional markets.

That distinction matters.

Even though tokenized equities can trade on 24/7 infrastructure, user behavior still follows Wall Street’s clock. Around 52% of trading volume occurs during US market hours, while weekend trading accounts for just 0.55% of total volume.

The data points to a market where access is improving faster than liquidity depth. Trades below $500 account for nearly 64% of all transactions, but just 5% of total trading volume. Larger trades remain much more important to market depth. Transactions above $50,000 represent only 0.5% of total trades, while contributing 35% of trading volume.

That split shows tokenized equities are already attracting broad retail use, but liquidity remains concentrated among larger participants.

AI-linked equities have become the clearest driver of activity. The report found that AI-related stocks account for roughly 35% to 40% of recent trading volume. NVIDIA-linked exposure leads overall activity, but the stronger accumulation patterns appear across companies tied to AI infrastructure, memory, enterprise software and semiconductors, including Micron, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Snowflake.

The report also shows demand spreading beyond large technology names. Tokenized silver and gold products recorded some of the broadest retail participation in the dataset, suggesting commodities and ETFs may become a durable use case for tokenized financial assets.

Chain behavior also differs sharply.

BNB Chain accounts for more than 75% of total trading volume and most participating wallets. Ethereum users, however, trade at significantly larger average sizes and show stronger accumulation behavior. The same tokenized assets often display different flow patterns depending on where they trade.

“Tokenized equities are not replacing traditional markets, but they are widening access to them,” said Alvin Kan, COO of Bitget Wallet. “The significance of this market is that users can now access global equities, ETFs, and commodities through onchain infrastructure that operates beyond the limitations of local brokerage systems.”

The report concludes that issuance is no longer the main challenge. The next phase will depend on market quality: deeper liquidity, better retention, tighter pricing outside US market hours, smoother cross-chain user experience and stronger trading infrastructure.

Tokenized Stocks Are Not Replacing Wall Street — They Are Smuggling Wall Street Onchain

Here’s the part that actually matters.

Tokenized equities are finally getting real volume, but they are not behaving like some brand-new financial species.

They still move like stocks.
They still follow US market hours.
They still chase NVIDIA.
They still lean on liquidity whales.
They still go quiet on weekends.

So no, this is not the death of TradFi.

It is TradFi with a different front door.

And honestly, that may be the stronger story.

The $5.5 billion figure is not small. Neither are 2.8 million trades and 180,000 wallets. That is enough activity to stop calling tokenized equities a lab experiment.

But the behavior underneath is more interesting than the headline number.

If these assets were truly becoming crypto-native instruments, weekend trading would matter more. Overnight flows would matter more. Onchain-native cycles would dominate.

They don’t.

Only 0.55% of trading volume happens on weekends.

That is tiny.

Almost hilariously tiny.

For a market that technically runs 24/7, users are still waiting for Wall Street to wake up. That tells me traders do not yet see tokenized equities as independent assets. They see them as wrappers around US stocks.

Which is exactly what they are.

The 24/7 rails are there. The market psychology is not.

That is not failure. It is just reality.

The retail side is loud but shallow. Trades under $500 make up nearly 64% of transactions, but only 5% of volume. Translation: lots of small wallets are poking around, but they are not setting the market.

The serious flow is still concentrated.

Trades above $50,000 are only 0.5% of transactions but 35% of volume. That is the real liquidity layer. Everyone else is mostly noise, discovery, experimentation or small-size access.

I do not say that dismissively. Small trades matter. They show access. They show reach. They show that users who may not have clean brokerage access are finding another route into familiar financial products.

But size still rules the chart.

That is the part people should not ignore.

Then there is the AI trade.

Of course NVIDIA leads.

It always does now.

But the more useful signal is not NVIDIA alone. It is the accumulation around Micron, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Snowflake. That says users are not only aping the obvious AI winner. Some are trying to spread exposure across the AI supply chain: memory, chips, enterprise software, infrastructure.

That is more mature behavior than a pure hype chase.

Still hype-adjacent, sure.

But not blind.

This is where tokenized equities start to look useful. A user outside the traditional brokerage system can build an AI basket onchain. Not a synthetic meme. Not some weird farm token. Actual exposure to recognizable public-market names.

That is powerful.

And it explains why tokenized equities may have a better shot than many RWA categories.

People understand stocks.
People understand gold.
People understand silver.
People understand ETFs.

They do not need a 40-page explainer on private credit tranching or tokenized invoice finance.

Give them Microsoft, NVIDIA, gold and silver onchain, and the use case explains itself.

The commodity participation is probably underrated here.

Tokenized silver and gold seeing broad retail demand makes sense. Commodities already have a global audience, but access is uneven. Some users cannot easily buy US ETFs. Some do not have cheap brokerage rails. Some want exposure without dealing with local banking friction.

Onchain versions fix part of that.

Not all of it.

But enough to matter.

The chain split is another big signal.

BNB Chain dominates volume and wallet count. That tells me tokenized equities are finding heavy retail distribution where users are already active, fee-sensitive and comfortable with onchain apps.

Ethereum looks different.

Bigger trade sizes. Stronger accumulation. Less noisy, more capital-heavy behavior.

Same assets. Different user base. Different flow.

That matters because tokenized equities will not have one universal market structure. A tokenized NVIDIA product on Ethereum may behave differently from the same exposure on BNB Chain because the users are different.

BNB Chain may be the volume machine.
Ethereum may be the higher-conviction capital layer.

That is my read.

And it creates a problem: fragmentation.

If liquidity splits across chains, pricing quality gets harder. Spreads can widen. Arbitrage becomes more important. User experience gets messy. One chain may show accumulation while another shows churn.

That is where the next fight happens.

Not issuance.

Everyone can announce tokenized assets now. That part is getting easier.

The hard part is making them trade well.

Do prices stay tight outside US hours?
Can users exit size without getting clipped?
Can cross-chain liquidity connect cleanly?
Do traders come back after the first novelty trade?
Can market makers support depth without turning the whole thing into another opaque arrangement?

That is the real test.

Because tokenized equities do not win just because they exist. They win if they become useful enough that users keep coming back.

Right now, the strongest use case is access.

Not innovation.

Access.

A user who cannot easily reach US stocks through a local broker can now touch those markets through onchain infrastructure. That is a big deal. Not flashy. Not some “future of finance” slogan. Just practical.

The market does not need tokenized equities to replace Nasdaq.

It needs them to solve a distribution problem.

And that is exactly what this data suggests they are doing.

But I would be careful with the hype.

The fact that 52% of volume still happens during US market hours means traditional market gravity is still dominant. Users may trade onchain, but they still watch the same opening bell, the same earnings calendar, the same macro prints, the same AI headlines.

Tokenized equities are not free from Wall Street.

They are plugged into it.

That is why the phrase “real-world asset adoption” can be misleading. People hear RWA and imagine a parallel financial universe. What is actually happening is more basic and probably more durable: familiar assets are being repackaged for onchain users.

Less revolution.
More distribution hack.

And that is fine.

The best crypto products often start as access hacks.

Stablecoins were not philosophically complicated. They gave people dollars onchain. That was enough.

Tokenized equities may follow a similar path. Give people stocks, ETFs and commodities onchain. Make them tradable. Make them usable across wallets. Reduce local brokerage friction. Let global users access assets they already understand.

Simple beats grand.

The risk is market quality.

If liquidity is thin outside US hours, 24/7 trading becomes a marketing line more than a real advantage. If large trades dominate depth, retail users may get access but not great execution. If assets fragment across chains, pricing gets noisy. If retention fades after the first wave, volume can look impressive but shallow.

That is why the next phase matters more than the launch phase.

The report’s strongest point is that the market has moved beyond issuance. The question is no longer “can public equities be tokenized?”

Yes. Obviously.

The question is whether the tokenized version can trade with enough quality to matter.

That means liquidity.
Retention.
Pricing efficiency.
Cross-chain UX.
Market-maker transparency.
Reliable settlement.
Clear redemption paths.
Actual user trust.

Boring things.

Important things.

My view: tokenized equities are one of the cleaner RWA stories because they do not need to invent demand. Demand already exists. People already want US stocks, AI exposure, gold, silver and ETFs.

The product just changes the access layer.

That is why this market is worth watching.

Not because it is going to kill brokers tomorrow. It will not.

But because it gives global users another way into the same assets brokers have controlled for decades.

And once users get used to that, the broker moat starts looking less sacred.

The only move that makes sense is to watch where liquidity sticks.

BNB Chain has the retail heat.
Ethereum has the bigger-ticket behavior.
AI stocks have the strongest narrative.
Gold and silver may have the most durable global pull.

The winners will not be the assets with the loudest launch.

They will be the ones users keep trading after the hype cools.