Gray selects the most potential tokenized blockchains

Gray scale research: Five major blockchains are expected to lead the growth wave of tokenized stocks

Grayscale recently announced five blockchains that it believes are most likely to capture the growth opportunities of tokenized stocks: Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Avalanche and Canton Network. This judgment stems from the research report "The Evolution of Tokenized Stocks" released on July 9 by Zach Pandl, its research director.

The report was released at a time when the market was booming, and actual progress was quickly catching up. According to data cited in the report, the value of tokenized stocks has roughly tripled since January this year, climbing from about $700 million to a peak of more than $2.2 billion in early July. This makes stocks the fastest-growing segment of the real-world asset (RWA) market, rising 20.24% in the past 30 days, while overall tokenized assets rose only 2.29%. What is more noteworthy is that six days after the report was released, on July 15, the American Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) handled the first batch of production transactions of tokenized securities on the Canton Network, marking the framework. The second phase was officially implemented.

Why did you choose these five blockchains?

Pandel believes that the development of tokenized stocks will go through three stages, and these three stages will advance in parallel in the next few years. Each stage requires a different type of infrastructure support:

Wrapper Model: The issuer holds the underlying shares in a special purpose vehicle (SPV), and the tokens serve as certificates of equity in the vehicle. This is the main model in the current market, accounting for more than 70% of the market value of tokenized stocks. The encapsulation model allows holders to gain price exposure rather than direct ownership, but has access to DeFi and enables round-the-clock trading. Most activities currently run on the Ethereum, Solana and BNB chains.

Entitlement Model: Existing securities are linked through regulated infrastructure and no new versions are created. A typical representative is DTCC's tokenization pilot project, which selected Canton Networks as the first blockchain platform.

Issuer-Sponsored Model: Companies issue securities directly on the chain. Gray believes that this model has the greatest long-term potential, but a clearer regulatory framework is still needed. This model favors open networks such as Ethereum and Solana, as well as hybrid networks such as Avalanche-with customizable subnets suitable for institutional deployment. Securitize had set a precedent by tokenizing its own common stock during its recent listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Current fund distribution pattern

As of mid-July, the total value of distributed tokenized RWAs tracked by RWA.xyz is approximately US$34.04 billion, an increase of 2.29% in the past 30 days. Here,"distributed" means that it can be freely transferred along the chain, which is a key indicator of the public network.

Ethereum holds the lead with $14.8 billion (902 assets), with a market share of 43.3%, despite a 10.5% decline in value over the past month. The BNB chain ranked second with US$5.2 billion, with a growth of 32.26% in 30 days, benefiting from distribution from the Binance ecosystem. Solana holds approximately $3 billion (nearly 700 assets), slightly more than Stellar. Avalanche is smaller ($2.1 billion) but has the strongest growth momentum, soaring 61.15% in 30 days.

In the equity space, Ondo Finance remains a core player. Its platform (renamed from Ondo Global Markets to Ondo Stocks this month) became the first platform in May to have the total locked position (TVL) of tokenized stocks exceeding US$1 billion. The current product catalog covers more than 400 U.S. stocks and ETFs, distributed on the Ethereum, Solana and BNB chains. On July 7, the platform also launched perpetual contracts with tokenized stocks as collateral. However, its market dominance is loosening: The latest data shows Ondo's tokenized stock value at $884.7 million, down 4.11% in the past 30 days, while the entire stock class grew 20.24% to approximately $1.9 billion. Ondo currently has a market share of about 46%, while competitors such as xStocks have performed strongly on Solana, driving most recent growth. Securitize's issuer-led products fill the remaining market space.

Why is Canton Network different?

Canton Networks is almost invisible in public RWA dashboards, which is exactly what it was designed for. The network is institution-centric, with built-in privacy and compliance features, and most of its assets represent value rather than freely transferred tokens. Gray's data for April 2026 shows that the network represents a value of US$329.7 billion, far exceeding any public chain.

DTCC's pilot project is even more landmark and is no longer just talk on paper. On July 15, the back-office giant that handles the settlement of most securities in the United States handled the first batch of production transactions of tokenized securities on Canton Network, calling it "the largest tokenization event to date." More than 20 institutions participated, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Vanguard Group, conducting collateral transfers, repurchase, margin changes and stock transactions on tokenized versions of treasury bonds, stocks and ETFs held by DTC. During a demonstration, JPMorgan converted Invesco's QQQ positions into tokens to meet CME Group's margin requirements. These transactions were conducted under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's December 2025 no-objection letter and covered Russell 1000 index stocks, major index ETFs and U.S. Treasury bonds, with the tokens holding the same legal ownership as the underlying securities-which is what packaged products lack. The service will be fully open in October.

What is the growth potential?

Tokenized assets are still insignificant compared to traditional markets, accounting for only about 0.01% of the market value of global stocks and bonds based on Gray's 2026 outlook. The same outlook points out that under an optimistic scenario, the category could grow by about 1000 times by 2030.

Which model can capture this growth remains an open question. The encapsulated model has the traction and DeFi infrastructure of retail users, but cannot achieve true ownership. The regulated equity model was validated in the production environment this week, but was only fully opened in October. The issuer-led model with the highest gray rating still relies on regulatory rules that have not yet been introduced.