ARK Invest Releases Q3 DeFi Report: Tokenization of Stocks Becomes Main Driver of On-Chain Trading Activity Rebound, Accounting for About 9% of Spot DEX Trading Volume

BlockBeats news, October 21 - ARK Invest's Q3 2026 DeFi report shows that stock tokenization became the main driver of the rebound in on-chain trading activity during the quarter. Tokenized stock spot DEX trading volume was approximately $50 billion, about 9 times that of the previous quarter, with its share of total spot DEX trading volume rising from about 1% to about 9%.

Overall DEX spot trading volume grew about 13% quarter-over-quarter to $571 billion, the first growth in nearly four quarters. Robinhood Chain achieved approximately $65 billion in DEX trading volume and $51 million in network revenue in its first quarter online, with network revenue approaching BNB Chain's level in the same period. However, ARK expects that recent gas mechanism adjustments will cause the chain's revenue to decline from current levels.

Total stablecoin supply fell about 3% quarter-over-quarter to $309 billion, but adjusted trading volume grew about 16% quarter-over-quarter to $781 billion, while average monthly active addresses increased about 39% to 73 million.

Perpetual contract DEXs showed a divergence between open interest and trading volume: open interest value grew about 76% quarter-over-quarter to $24 billion, while quarterly trading volume fell about 16% to $1.4 trillion. Among them, Hyperliquid's open interest value was approximately $13 billion, accounting for about 53%. ARK believes this points to fewer but larger positions held for longer periods.