TLDR:
- Ondo Finance Global Markets surpassed $5B in cumulative DEX volume on BSC.
- Most tokenized equity products cover only 2–3 of the 5 required infrastructure layers.
- BUIDL, BENJI, and VBILL are the primary products building out the collateral layer in DeFi.
- Without a collateral layer, tokenized equities function as price trackers, not financial instruments.
Tokenized equities have cleared the proof-of-concept phase, but the infrastructure needed to make them fully functional inside DeFi remains incomplete.
The debate has shifted from whether these assets work to how they are built, funded, and structured. Collateral layers and DeFi composability remain the two weakest points across most current products.
Until those gaps close, tokenized equities risk functioning as price trackers rather than active financial instruments.
Funding Paths and the Five-Layer Problem
Not every user entering tokenized equity markets arrives through the same channel. One comes from a traditional brokerage account, while another holds stablecoins in a self-custody wallet.
BNB Chain noted that the same asset can carry completely different infrastructure requirements depending on the user type. Building for only one side limits how much of the market a product can realistically serve.
Getting both user types to the same asset requires five layers working in sequence. BNB Chain outlined these as asset issuance, a collateral layer, DEX liquidity, wallet access, and KYC where the product requires it.
Most current products handle two or three layers well, but very few cover all five. The gaps consistently appear at the collateral and DeFi composability stages.
Those two layers matter the most because they determine whether a tokenized equity is actually useful inside DeFi. Without them, the asset sits onchain but cannot move through borrowing, margin, or yield strategies.
It becomes a reference price rather than a working financial instrument. That distinction separates a product with real utility from one with limited reach.
Not all tokenized equities share the same product design, either. xStocks offers 1:1 price tracking, while Ondo Global Markets captures total return, including dividends and corporate actions.
These are different structures with different DeFi use cases, and they are not interchangeable even when referencing the same underlying asset.
Where Volume Exists and Where the Collateral Layer Stands
BSC stands out as one of the few chains where tokenized equity volume is measurable at scale. Ondo Finance Global Markets cumulative DEX volume crossed $5 billion on the chain, according to data from DefiLlama.
BNB Chain attributed that volume to infrastructure being in place, not just listed assets. DEX liquidity and wallet access are further along on BSC than on most competing chains.
The collateral layer, however, remains the point where DeFi integration most often breaks down. Products like BUIDL, BENJI, and VBILL are doing the structural work of giving tokenized equities a base to borrow against or use in yield strategies.
Without this layer, assets cannot move through DeFi in any practical way. Most products on the market today are still operating without it.
The overall infrastructure behind tokenized equities is more advanced than general coverage suggests, yet still behind what volume figures might imply.
Progress is real, but the gaps in collateral design and composability remain the clearest barrier to broader DeFi adoption.
