Tokenized RWA value grew from approximately $22 billion in January to approximately $34 billion by mid-July 2026, up more than 50 percent.
According to Binance Research’s “Half-Year 2026: On-Chain Markets” report, tokenized stocks and private equity were the fastest-growing categories, rising 177 percent and 164 percent YTD, respectively, supported by improving regulatory clarity and exchange-led distribution from products including bStocks, xStocks and Ondo Global Markets.
Binance Research projects the tokenized RWA market could reach $661 billion in the base case and $1.6 trillion in the bull case.
Ethereum usage surges 50 percent in 2026
The report examines the first half of 2026 across the protocol layer, tokenized RWAs, prediction markets and decentralized finance, documenting where on-chain activity contracted and where new market structure took hold.
It finds that Ethereum usage rose approximately 50 percent in 2026, yet chain revenue is projected to fall 53 percent for the full year.
After the gas limit was raised to roughly 60 million, average gas prices fell 75 percent in 2025, with lower fees more than offsetting higher throughput and widening the structural gap between blockspace usage and revenue.
The finding raises a broader question for the Ethereum ecosystem about whether scaling Layer 1 and reducing fees are sufficient on their own, or whether sustained revenue growth requires stronger product-led demand.
Binance Research also finds that BNB Chain became the leading tokenized equities chain in H1 2026. On-chain tokenized equities on BNB Chain grew from $34 million at the start of the year to $652 million in July, surpassing Ethereum to capture close to a third of the on-chain total.
On-chain tokenized stock trading volume passed $4.5 billion in July, approximately 83 percent of the market, while BNB Chain’s tokenized RWA market cap grew 107 percent, lifting its share of on-chain RWA from 9.8 percent to 13.5 percent.
World Cup boosts prediction market volume to $51.6 billion
According to Binance Research, prediction market volume accelerated sharply in H1 2026, with monthly notional volume rising from $27.7 billion in January to $51.6 billion in June, an 86 percent increase driven by World Cup-related trading activity.
Kalshi and Polymarket together accounted for 92 percent of volume in June, while non-sports volume grew 136 percent YTD, suggesting the World Cup may have accelerated activity beyond sports markets.
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Crypto losses decline to $972 million
Binance Research also notes that total crypto losses declined sharply in H1 2026, falling from $2.3 billion to $972 million despite a rise in the number of hacks and exploits from 83 to 207, the highest six-month incident count on record.
The divergence suggests that while attack frequency is increasing, the financial impact of incidents has become more concentrated rather than broadly distributed across the market. In particular, nearly 60 percent of total losses were linked to two operational failures at Drift and KelpDAO, underscoring how a small number of infrastructure-related breaches can disproportionately shape aggregate loss figures.
In the report, Binance Research notes that the next phase will depend on whether secondary liquidity and collateral mobility develop as quickly as primary issuance.
