Grayscale Picks Its Most Promising Tokenization Blockchains

Grayscale (@Grayscale) has named the five blockchains it believes are best positioned to capture the growth of tokenized equities: Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Avalanche (@avax), and Canton Network. The call comes from "The Evolution of Tokenized Equities," a July 9 research post by Head of Research Zach Pandl (@LowBeta) on the asset manager's blog “The Stack”.

The report lands mid-surge, and events have already caught up with it. Tokenized stocks have roughly tripled in value since January, climbing from around $700 million to a peak above $2.2 billion in early July, per @RWA_xyz data cited in the post. That makes equities the fastest-growing corner of the RWA market, up 20.24% in the past 30 days against 2.29% for tokenized assets overall. And on July 15, six days after the post went live, DTCC processed its first production trades of tokenized securities on Canton, putting the framework's second phase into practice.

Why These Five Blockchains?

Pandl sees tokenized equities developing in three phases, and expects all three to run side by side for years. Each phase rewards a different kind of infrastructure.

• Wrapper model: An issuer holds the underlying shares in an SPV, and the token is a claim against that vehicle. This is where the market stands today, accounting for more than 70% of tokenized stocks by market cap. Wrappers give holders price exposure rather than direct ownership, but they plug into DeFi and trade around the clock. Most of this activity runs on Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain.
• Entitlement model: Existing securities move on-chain through regulated infrastructure, with no new versions created. The flagship example is DTCC's tokenization pilot, which selected Canton Network as its first blockchain.
• Issuer-sponsored model: Companies issue securities natively on-chain. Grayscale sees the greatest long-term potential here, though the model still needs more regulatory clarity. It favors open networks like Ethereum and Solana, plus hybrids like Avalanche, whose customizable subnets suit institutional deployments. Securitize set the precedent by tokenizing its own common stock at its recent NYSE listing.

Where Does the Money Sit Today?

RWA(.)xyz tracked about $34.04 billion in distributed tokenized RWA value as of mid-July, up 2.29% over the past 30 days. Distributed here means freely transferable on-chain, the metric that matters for public networks.

Ethereum remains the clear leader with $14.8 billion across 902 assets, a 43.3% market share, though its value slipped 10.5% over the past month. BNB Chain sits second at $5.2 billion after a 32.26% jump in 30 days, helped by Binance ecosystem distribution. Solana holds $3.0 billion across nearly 700 assets, just ahead of Stellar. Avalanche is smaller at $2.1 billion but has the strongest momentum in the group, up 61.15% in 30 days.

On the equities side, Ondo (@OndoFinance) remains the anchor. Its platform, rebranded this month from Ondo Global Markets to Ondo Stocks, became the first to cross $1 billion in tokenized stock TVL in May, and its catalog now spans more than 400 US stocks and ETFs across @ethereum, @solana, and @BNBCHAIN. On July 7, it added perpetual futures with tokenized shares as collateral. Its grip on the market is loosening; recent data puts Ondo's tokenized stock value at $884.7 million, down 4.11% over the past 30 days, while the stocks category as a whole grew 20.24% to about $1.9 billion. That leaves Ondo at roughly 46%, with rivals like xStocks (@xStocksFi) strong on Solana, driving much of the recent growth. Securitize's (@Securitize) issuer-sponsored products round out the field.

What Makes Canton the Odd One Out?

Canton (@CantonNetwork) barely registers on public RWA dashboards, and that is by design. The network is institution-centric, with built-in privacy and compliance features, so its assets mostly appear as represented value rather than as freely transferable tokens. Grayscale data from April 2026 put that figure at $329.7 billion, far beyond anything on the public chains.

The DTCC (@The_DTCC) pilot is the bigger story, and it is no longer hypothetical. On July 15, the post-trade giant behind most US securities settlements processed its first live production trades of tokenized securities on Canton, in what it called its largest tokenization event to date. More than two dozen institutions took part, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Vanguard, running collateral transfers, repo, margin movements, and equity trades on tokenized versions of DTC-custodied Treasuries, stocks, and ETFs. In one demonstration, JPMorgan converted Invesco QQQ holdings into tokens and used them to meet margin requirements at CME Group. The trades ran under a December 2025 SEC no-action letter covering Russell 1000 stocks, major index ETFs, and US Treasuries, and the tokens carry the same legal ownership rights as the underlying securities, exactly what wrapper products lack. The full service opens for business in October.

How Big Can This Get?

Tokenized assets remain tiny next to traditional markets, around 0.01% of global equity and bond market capitalization per Grayscale's 2026 outlook. The same outlook argues the category could grow roughly 1,000x by 2030 in an optimistic scenario.

Which model captures that growth is the open question. Wrappers have the retail traction and the DeFi plumbing, but stop short of real ownership. The regulated entitlement route proved itself in production this week, but only opens for business in October. And issuer-sponsored listings, the model Grayscale rates highest, still hinge on rules that do not exist yet.

Sources:

• Grayscale Research post "The Evolution of Tokenized Equities" by Zach Pandl, published July 9, 2026 on The Stack
• Zach Pandl on X Grayscale's Head of Research sharing the report with RWA.xyz tokenized stock data
• RWA.xyz Dashboard data on tokenized asset value by network, asset class, and issuer
• Ondo Finance Platform dashboard with current Ondo Stocks TVL and asset count
• Genfinity Coverage of the Ondo Stocks rebrand, catalog expansion, and Ondo Perps launch
• DTCC Press release on the tokenization service roadmap with July trades and October launch
• Grayscale Research 2026 Digital Asset Outlook with tokenization growth projections