According to your recent report, Solana RWA Ecosystem, the Solana blockchain accounts for 32% of onchain RWA spot volume but only 12% of RWA market capitalization, while its share of RWA trade count reaches 47%. You describe this as a market characterized by smaller tickets traded more frequently. What do you think is driving this divergence between where RWA capital is held and where RWA activity is actually taking place?
The divergence comes down to what investors hold and how they use it. Fixed income accounts for two-thirds of RWA market cap, much of it in tokenized Treasury funds held largely on Ethereum for cash management or yield. These products can hold substantial capital without frequent secondary trading. BlackRock’s BUIDL illustrates that distinction even on Solana: it had $741 million in market cap but barely has any volume. Solana holds just 9% of fixed-income market cap, so it has a smaller share of these asset types.
Equities have the opposite profile. They account for 8% of overall RWA market cap (although growing fast) but 57% of spot volume across chains. Solana handles 31% of that equity volume, and equities make up 56% of its RWA trading and about a quarter of all tokenized equities trading across chains.
Distribution helps explain how those products trade. xStocks (80% of tokenized equities on Solana) are available through wallets and decentralized exchanges that Solana users already use, making them accessible alongside other tokens. Ultimately the divergence is a result of differences in users, trading venues as well as asset mix.
BlackRock’s BUIDL and Securitize’s STAC together represent nearly $1 billion in fixed-income assets on Solana, while Maple and Hastra account for most of the chain’s fixed-income trading. This highlights a contrast between institutional products that accumulate significant balances on Solana and products that generate substantial trading activity. How do you interpret this distinction between institutional ownership and onchain liquidity?
The difference is how investors enter, exit and use the products. BUIDL investors can subscribe and redeem through the issuer, so those flows don’t appear in secondary-market spot volume. Its transfer restrictions also limit who can trade it.
Maple’s tokens circulate through decentralized exchanges and lending markets. Investors can swap into or out of a yield position, use it as collateral, and trade price differences between venues. Those transactions generate spot volume, and the same token can change hands repeatedly without increasing the amount of capital held.
That helps explain why BUIDL can accumulate a large balance while Maple generates much more trading: one channels investor flows primarily through the fund, while the other also channels them through onchain markets.
I think over time, there will need to be a discussion if issuance and redemption should also be considered a volume metric so we can compare these things more apples to apples.
The report shows that 20% of RWA-holding wallets are on Solana. What do you attribute this breadth of RWA participation on the Solana blockchain to?
Most of that breadth comes from tokenized stocks and their distribution. Equities account for 87% of Solana’s RWA-holding wallets, and xStocks represent roughly 80% of equity holdings on the chain. Investors can buy them through familiar trading venues and withdraw them into a Solana wallet. They may be choosing access to a stock rather than choosing Solana specifically.
Fractional stock tokens also make smaller positions practical. The average RWA position on Solana is $14K, compared with $27K elsewhere, and the median trade is $29. That helps explain how Solana reaches more holders with less capital per holder. The breadth is substantial, but concentrated: much of it reflects the reach of tokenized equities, particularly xStocks.
Allium’s headline is that only $17T of $176T in onchain volume is real economic activity. How is real economic activity defined?
At a high level, real economic activity filters out automated arbitrage, internal protocol routing, MEV bots, and circular liquidity recycling. It isolates genuine end-user settlement, merchant payments, and actual value transfers.
Allium’s addressable market is clearly much bigger than DeFi, which means you have at your disposal a huge amount of data about onchain finance. What do you see in DeFi, tokenized assets, and the greater digital asset ecosystem today that you think the broader market is not fully appreciating?
I think the broader market still focuses too much on how much capital sits onchain and not enough on what people do with it. Stablecoins are a good example. In our January-to-August data, supply grew 6%, while measured payments rose 42%.
Tokenized assets show a similar gap. Treasury funds dominate market cap, but tokenized stocks account for just 8% of RWA market cap and 57% of spot trading volume. On Solana, 63% of equity volume traded outside US exchange hours. Investors are using these products to access markets 24/7 when traditional exchanges are closed.
We also see markets form around private companies before they have publicly traded shares. These prediction and pre-IPo tokens and perp markets give us observable expectations on private valuations, IPO pricing, and key events and KPIs which affect a company’s valuation.
What I think is underappreciated is how many different financial functions are already happening onchain: payments, investing, trading and pricing expectations. Market cap alone misses much of that.