ARK Invest released the Q3 DeFi report: stock tokenization has become the main driving force behind the recovery of on-chain trading activities, accounting for approximately 9% of spot DEX trading volume

ARK Invest's Q3 2026 DeFi report shows that stock tokenization has become the main driving force behind the rebound in on-chain trading activity for the quarter. The trading volume of tokenized stock spot DEX reached 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 around 9%. Overall, DEX spot trading volume increased by approximately 13% quarter-over-quarter to $571 billion, marking 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, with network revenue nearing the level of BNB Chain during the same period. However, ARK expects that recent adjustments to the Gas mechanism will cause the chain's revenue to decline from current levels. The total supply of stablecoins decreased by about 3% quarter-over-quarter to $309 billion, but adjusted trading volume increased by approximately 16% quarter-over-quarter to $781 billion, with the number of monthly active addresses growing by about 39% to 73 million.

In the perpetual contract DEX, there is a divergence between open positions and trading volume: the value of open contracts increased by about 76% quarter-over-quarter to $24 billion, while quarterly trading volume decreased by about 16% to $1.4 trillion. Among them, Hyperliquid's open contract value is about $13 billion, accounting for approximately 53%. ARK believes this indicates fewer but larger positions held for longer durations.