Tokenised real-world assets reached $34.5 billion at the end of August, up 140% from a year earlier, according to blockchain analytics firm Dune’s report After Issuance: Reading the Onchain RWA Market. The analysis covers data across 21 chains, more than 250 issuers and over 2,600 products. Cash equivalents remained the largest category at $17.8 billion, with more than 95% of tokenised Treasury exposure in T-bills and money market funds. Activity was limited: only 0.006% of cash-equivalent supply traded in August and 0.4% was deployed in lending protocols. Tokenised money funds yielded 3.2% to 3.6%, below the 3.91% yield on three-month Treasury bills. Tokenised equities reached $4.43 billion on Sept. 15, up 390% from the start of the year, but represented only 0.0029% of global listed equity markets. Individual stocks accounted for 81% of tokenised equities and ETFs for 19%. Equities remained the smallest asset class by value but grew roughly 25 times over the year and represented 93% of August onchain spot trading. Derivatives were much larger, with August equity perpetual volume of $72.4 billion versus $12.6 billion in spot. Asian stocks represented 24% of equity open interest, while memory chipmakers generated 47% of August equity perpetual volume. An SK Hynix perpetual reached $343 million in open interest in July, allowing traders to take positions while Korea’s exchange was closed. Tokenised credit was used more actively as collateral, with 19% to 21% held in lending protocols and yields ranging from 3% to 13%. Tokenised gold accounted for most of the $5.5 billion commodities category; ounces held rose 73% while gold prices gained 29%, although tokenised gold equalled only 0.86% of gold held in traditional ETFs. Dune CEO Fredrik Haga said blockchain trading is more about expressing a view than passive investing. The findings show that tokenisation’s market impact differs by asset: Treasuries are mostly bought and held, while activity is concentrated in leveraged, round-the-clock trading of individual stocks through perpetual contracts. Tokenised-market price movements do not necessarily track those of traditional markets. Dune measured asset use rather than whether onchain prices follow underlying securities, leaving that relationship as a key question as trading continues while reference exchanges are closed.