Tokenised TradFi Derivatives Hit $1.32tn, Testing Crypto Exchanges’ Risk Plumbing

Trading volume in tokenised versions of traditional financial instruments listed as perpetual futures on crypto exchanges has surged past $1.32 trillion so far in 2026, according to a new report from data provider CoinGecko, a scale of activity that is prompting fresh scrutiny of the risk infrastructure underpinning these products. The figure compares with just $104.21 billion for the whole of 2025, underlining how quickly exchanges have moved to wrap commodities, equities, ETFs and even pre-IPO exposure into crypto-native trading venues.

CoinGecko’s study, covering listings and trading activity across major centralised and decentralised exchanges between January 2025 and May 2026, found that monthly volume in these so-called real-world asset (RWA) and TradFi-linked perpetuals rose from $230 million in early 2025 to $347.17 billion in May 2026 — a 1,472-fold increase. Perpetuals now generate more than eight times the trading activity of equivalent spot products, having been broadly balanced with spot volumes as recently as 2025.

Listing race intensifies among exchanges

The expansion has been driven by distribution programmes such as Ondo Finance’s Catalyst initiative and Backed Finance’s xStocks model, which CoinGecko credits with lowering the operational barriers for exchanges to list RWA-style assets at scale. Improved custody, pricing and liquidation tooling has allowed venues to move well beyond the tokenised gold products that once dominated the category.

Among the twelve centralised exchanges surveyed, MEXC added 358 new RWA-linked assets in total — 199 spot products and 159 perpetual futures — while Gate.io listed 224 and WEEX 192. Kraken, following its acquisition of Backed Finance, pursued a spot-heavy approach with 105 new listings. Coinbase, by contrast, added just 23 products, a comparatively cautious stance that CoinGecko flagged as an outlier among the exchanges reviewed.

Commodities lead a broader shift in flows

Spot trading in tokenised RWAs climbed from $850 million in January 2025 to a peak of $41.26 billion in January 2026, before easing to $19.07 billion in May. Cumulative spot volume for the first five months of 2026 alone, at $153.71 billion, has already exceeded the $102.71 billion recorded across all of 2025, with tokenised commodities accounting for more than half of the increase.

Average monthly commodity-perpetual volume rose from $5.68 billion in 2025 to $223.17 billion in 2026 to date, according to the report. Stock perpetuals increased from $4.34 billion to $26.84 billion, and ETF perpetuals from $1.5 billion to $8.74 billion, while foreign-exchange-linked products remained smaller but followed the same upward path.

A market integrity question for regulators

CoinGecko’s report distinguishes these instruments from regulated futures markets, which rely on clearinghouses and standardised margin frameworks. Crypto exchanges instead typically rely on insurance funds, auto-deleveraging mechanisms and, in some cases, on-chain liquidation processes to manage risk — a structure that has not yet been tested by a synchronised macro shock across correlated tokenised assets.

For European investors and supervisors, the growth of leveraged, 24-hour trading in tokenised equities, ETFs and commodities on exchanges outside traditional clearing arrangements sits awkwardly alongside the investor-protection ambitions of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. As issuance and distribution channels for these products mature, the resilience of exchange-run risk systems — rather than the novelty of the underlying assets — is likely to become the focus of regulatory attention.

Read more: Deutsche Börse’s Clearstream Widens Crypto Custody as MiCA Reshapes Access