RWA futures trading volume catches up with crypto at $107.6 billion

Real world asset futures have reached $107.6 billion in monthly trading volume, putting contracts tied to equities, commodities and private companies roughly level with crypto…

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Real world asset futures have reached $107.6 billion in monthly trading volume, putting contracts tied to equities, commodities and private companies roughly level with crypto futures after a 142 fold increase in nine months.

Summary

• RWA futures volume surged 142 fold in nine months to $107.6 billion in July, roughly matching crypto futures at $105.7 billion.
• Open interest in RWA contracts climbed 167 fold to $1.72 billion, while crypto futures open interest fell to $7.1 billion.
• Equity contracts accounted for 83% of RWA open interest, while commodity trading responded sharply to moves in oil and silver.
• Pre IPO contracts for companies including SpaceX and Cerebras drew substantial trading activity around their public listings.

According to a joint report from OKX and Token Terminal shared with crypto.news, RWA futures generated $107.6 billion in trading volume in July 2026, up from $760 million in October 2025, while crypto futures recorded $105.7 billion during the same month.

The expansion came even as overall onchain derivatives activity cooled sharply. Quarterly derivatives volume fell by more than half from its peak, while open interest dropped to a one year low of $8.76 billion, according to the report.

RWA contracts moved in the opposite direction. Open interest across the category rose 167 fold in nine months to $1.72 billion, leaving the contracts with a growing share of an otherwise weaker derivatives market.

RWA futures have caught up with crypto contracts

OKX and Token Terminal traced the change in trading behavior to the crypto market selloff on Oct. 10, 2025, when more than $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated.

Before the event, crypto futures accounted for nearly all onchain derivatives volume. Trading in contracts linked to real world assets remained limited, with the category generating $760 million in monthly volume.

By July, the composition had changed. RWA contracts reached $107.6 billion in monthly trading volume, roughly matching the $105.7 billion recorded by crypto contracts.

Open interest showed a similar divergence. Crypto futures open interest fell from $9.1 billion to $7.1 billion over the nine month period, while RWA open interest climbed from $10.3 million to $1.72 billion.

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The report said commodities accounted for 14% of RWA open interest by July, with equities representing 83% and pre IPO contracts making up most of the remaining share.

Activity in related markets has been growing outside the futures segment as well. crypto.news previously reported that the tokenized RWA market had expanded 589% since early 2025, with tokenized stocks recording some of the fastest growth.

Tokenized equity activity accelerated again in August. Monthly transfer volume reached $29.5 billion during the 30 days ending Aug. 29, an increase of more than 415%, while monthly active addresses climbed 209% to 1.3 million.

Commodity trading responds to events outside crypto

The report found that RWA futures activity was increasingly tied to developments in the markets represented by the contracts instead of movements in cryptocurrencies.

Oil provided one example. Following strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, trading volume in an onchain West Texas Intermediate contract increased 149 fold within nine days to $1.69 billion.

Bitcoin volume remained broadly flat during the same period, even as oil trading accelerated. The report linked the difference to traders responding directly to events affecting crude prices.

Silver showed another pattern. Onchain silver trading reached a record $17.3 billion in February as the metal hit a record price, before volume declined during the following months as the price eased.

Equity contracts responded to scheduled market events. Trading in an onchain S&P 500 contract peaked at $735 million on July 29, the day of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, before reaching $751 million the following day.

Liquidity in some tokenized stock markets has already moved closer to levels found in established crypto markets. A June analysis found that Nvidia linked perpetuals on Bitget had reached around $4.1 million in liquidity depth, equivalent to roughly 75% of the exchange’s Bitcoin spot market.

Pre IPO contracts have created another RWA trading market

Contracts tracking private companies have developed alongside commodities and public equities, with traders using them to gain price exposure before a company reaches the public market.

The report highlighted SpaceX and Cerebras as examples.

Open interest in a pre IPO SpaceX contract peaked at $976 million on June 11, one day before its June 12 listing. Monthly volume reached $10.9 billion within three months of the contract’s introduction.

Trading continued after the listing. The SpaceX contract traded around 28% above its offer price before the event and remained roughly 16% below that level seven weeks later, according to the report.

Cerebras contracts recorded a different pattern. Open interest more than tripled to $28.5 million around the company’s May 14 listing, while its contract traded at $289 before listing against a $185 offer price. Cerebras stock opened at $350.

OKX and Token Terminal said pre IPO contracts can establish a market price for a company before its shares begin public trading, with the contracts incorporating expectations around the eventual listing price.

Tokenized securities infrastructure has continued to develop alongside these derivative products. Ondo Finance, for example, has been exploring an acquisition valued between $250 million and $500 million after its broker dealer subsidiary received additional FINRA authorizations covering tokenized corporate equities, exchange traded funds and other investment products.

Retail and institutional traders use RWA markets differently

Trading patterns in the report varied depending on the underlying asset and type of participant.

Retail traders were more active in highly volatile markets. Short positions in the silver contract reached an average of 4.3 times the size of long positions when silver peaked in February, while retail activity declined as volatility fell.

Pre IPO SpaceX contracts produced the opposite positioning around the June listing. Short side traders roughly tripled afterward, taking the long to short ratio to 4.2 times.

Institutional accounts generally held larger positions for longer periods. Before the SpaceX listing, their average short position was around $1.1 million, compared with roughly $1,000 for retail traders, while institutional accounts recorded average holding periods of 12,046 minutes against 60 minutes for retail participants.

The report found that market structure varied across asset classes as well. Equity contracts accounted for 83% of RWA open interest in July, yet generated 72% of single name equity trading volume. Commodities represented a smaller share of open interest but reacted more sharply to changes in the prices of the assets they tracked.

A separate gap remains between RWA issuance and use inside decentralized finance. Data published in September showed that only $3.79 billion of the $34.6 billion tokenized RWA market had been deployed in protocols, leaving roughly 89% of issued value outside DeFi applications.

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