Solana’s RWA Market Explodes 600% in a Year as Ethereum Struggles to Keep Up

Solana’s on-chain economy is growing beyond meme coins. In fact, a new report suggests that real-world assets (RWAs) are emerging as one of its fastest-growing sectors.

Castle Labs found that Solana’s tokenized RWA market grew by more than 600% over the past year as it rose from $700 million to $4.3 billion. That puts it well ahead of Ethereum, where the tokenized market grew just 7% over the same period, from $15.5 billion to $16.6 billion.

For context, Solana’s RWA market was only 4.5% of Ethereum’s size a year ago. It now stands at 26%.

Solana’s Onchain Economy

The growth comes as Solana builds out its DeFi ecosystem and attracts more assets beyond speculative trading. The network now offers access to US Treasury debt, asset-backed credit, tokenized stocks, commodities, and curated investment strategies. Tokenized stocks, for one, have been a major part of this expansion. Their market value on Solana jumped from $63 million to $455 million.

The report said more than $65 million in tokenized equities on the chain are being used to earn yield. Much of this activity is driven by xStocks, whose assets can be used as collateral on lending platforms such as Kamino and Jupiter Lend. This gives holders more options than simply buying and holding tokenized shares.

Castle Labs said that the same trend was seen across other RWA categories. Ondo-related reinsurance exposure is available through ONyc from OnRe, while Hastra offers PRIME and AUTO, backed by home and consumer auto loans. Maple Finance has also expanded to Solana with syrupUSDC. These products are bringing yield-bearing assets into the network and creating new opportunities for lenders and borrowers.

DeFi Ecosystem Gains Momentum

The RWA expansion is also helping support Solana’s wider DeFi growth. Lending protocols can use tokenized assets as collateral, while users can borrow against them and put their capital to work elsewhere. As more assets arrive, that activity can create additional demand for lending and borrowing, Castle Labs explained.

Additionally, Solana has become a major force in onchain application revenue. It generated over $193 million over the past 30 days. This figure, interestingly, is nearly twice Hyperliquid’s $86.5 million. Consumer applications still account for around 80% of that revenue. Launchpads, trading terminals, wallets, and other platforms have contributed to the total.