IMF Analyzes Tokenized Markets as Daily Activity Nears $415 Billion

Tokenized financial markets are expanding rapidly but remain dwarfed by traditional infrastructure and hobbled by liquidity fragmentation, the International Monetary Fund reported on Oct. 8, 2026 ¹. Drawing from the October 2026 Global Financial Stability Report, the Fund observed that tokenized activity has reached hundreds of billions of dollars in daily turnover, led predominantly by repurchase agreements ¹.

According to the analysis, tokenized repos account for the majority of the sector's volume, averaging between $300 billion and $350 billion daily ¹. Additional trading in tokenized credit, money market funds, and equities contributes roughly $65 billion per day ¹. Despite this footprint, the volume represents a fraction of legacy capital systems; the US repo market alone clears approximately $13 trillion daily, against a broader backdrop of $300 trillion in global capital assets ¹. Issuance remains clustered primarily in the US and a handful of offshore jurisdictions ¹.

Market Behaviors and Operational Hurdles

The IMF identified distinct retail and institutional behaviors across tokenized venues. More than half of all trading takes place outside conventional market hours, highlighting persistent demand for 24/7 liquidity ¹. Fractional investing is standard practice, with roughly 80 percent of analyzed tokenized equity trades executed in quantities smaller than a single share ¹. Overnight returns in tokenized equities are mirrored in conventional stock exchanges shortly after the traditional opening bell, indicating consistent pricing information flow across market designs ¹. Regulators have concurrently weighed how novel platforms interface with securities laws, including initiatives like SEC relief for onchain stock trading.

Despite these adoption indicators, the Fund warned that tokenized markets suffer from heightened volatility and lower liquidity compared to incumbent venues, driven by isolated ledgers and disparate settlement mechanisms ¹. As tokenization collapses legacy settlement delays into instantaneous processing, it removes conventional buffers that institutions rely on to manage liquidity and absorb market stress ¹. The IMF emphasized that uncontrolled scaling could exacerbate fire sales, runs, and contagion channels ¹. To address these risks, the institution recommended that policymakers clarify legal ownership, apply consistent regulatory frameworks regardless of technology, and mandate interoperability among disconnected platforms ¹.