Crypto Exchanges Flood Traditional Markets with Tokenized Assets

Crypto exchanges are expanding into traditional assets as competition from centralized and decentralized exchanges intensifies.

A report by CoinGecko found that the market capitalization of tokenized traditional assets grew to $6.6 billion in June 2026, up nearly fivefold from $1.4 billion in January 2025.

The growth was driven largely by tokenized precious metals before expanding into US equities, with US stock perpetual futures overtaking precious metals in both trading volume and open interest by mid-2026.

The report noted that derivatives dominate trading activity due to trader preference for leveraged products and exchanges' ability to list perpetual contracts without issuing or custodying the underlying tokenized assets.