RWAs—meaning tokenized versions of traditional financial instruments like company shares, crude oil, or the S&P 500, converted into blockchain-based contracts that traders can buy and sell around the clock—totaled $25.1 billion during July 13–19, or 52% of Hyperliquid's $48.2 billion in weekly volume, per Blockworks data. Valente put the latest running figure at $26 billion and 54%.
How stocks ended up on a crypto exchangeWe are entering a new era for DeFi.
The most-traded stock is SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chipmaker that competes with Samsung in supplying DRAM and high-bandwidth memory for AI systems.
Now one of ARK's own analysts is raising a harder question for the whole industry. "I'm no longer convinced RWA trading will naturally aggregate on the same venue as crypto," Valente wrote, predicting that dedicated category leaders may emerge within RWA—and that a platform's grip on Bitcoin and Ethereum flow may prove "far less important than many people assume."
Traders still focused only on crypto tokens, he added, "are focusing on the wrong market."
