Crypto’s Only Growing Sector Runs on Gold and Equities

Crypto’s Only Growing Sector Runs on Gold and Equities

Kamina Bashir

Sun, July 26, 2026 at 1:00 PM GMT+3 2 min read

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Tokenized assets grew 267% between June 2025 and June 2026, the only crypto sector to add market value, while the rest of the market declined.

The gain came from new issuance rather than rising prices. Gold tokens and equity tokens accounted for almost all of the expansion.

Gold Supply On Chain Doubled While Prices Rose Just 20%

In a recent report, CryptoRank noted that gold prices rose nearly 20% over the period. So, the price rise cannot explain the sector's growth on its own.

However, the amount of gold held on chain roughly doubled, climbing from 524,000 ounces to more than 1 million. That gap matters.

"The growth came from issuance rather than price," CryptoRank said.

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Notably, a year ago, precious metals accounted for nearly 100% of openly traded tokenized assets, according to CryptoRank. Tether Gold (XAUT) and PAX Gold (PAXG) held most of that market capitalization.

By June 2026, however, precious metals had fallen to 68% of the sector. The share dropped as more asset classes entered the market.

Note: BeInCrypto's latest report, Real State of Tokenization in 2026, tracked nearly $60 billion in tokenized real-world assets across more than 7,000 products and 12 asset classes. It found that the market is growing fast, but actual on-chain activity remains far thinner than the headline numbers suggest.

Equity Tokens Arrived From Zero

Tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) went from nothing to 23% of the sector in 12 months, as issuers put shares of major companies on-chain. Treasuries and private credit make up most of the remainder.

By token count, rStocks and Ondo issue close to two-thirds of all tokenized stocks. rStocks lists 568 tokens and Ondo more than 400, spanning single names such as NVIDIA and Apple alongside index products.

Exchanges entered the market later but moved quickly. Binance launched bStocks in June 2026, and Gate followed on July 3 with gStocks.

Meanwhile, meme coins, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and blockchain infrastructure posted the steepest declines of any sector over the same year.

CryptoRank also ranked tokenized assets as the most-listed category on centralized exchanges during the first half of 2026. That pipeline suggests issuance, rather than price, will again decide where the sector ends in 2026.

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Read the Original story Crypto's Only Growing Sector Runs on Gold and Equities by Kamina Bashir at beincrypto.com