ARK’s Q3 DeFi report shows incentives propping up activity as Ethereum mainnet slips

ARK Invest’s DeFi Quarterly reported a broad recovery in decentralized finance in the third quarter of 2026, with tokenized equities trading on decentralized exchanges rising ninefold to about $50 billion. That represented roughly 9% of global spot DEX volume, up from about 1% in Q2, as overall spot DEX volume rose 13% to $571 billion, its first quarterly gain in 12 months. BNB Chain led tokenized equity trading at about $16.5 billion, followed by Robinhood Chain at about $13.7 billion. Ethereum mainnet revenue fell to about $40.6 million from $63 million, and ARK said activity remained heavily dependent on brokerage distribution and token incentives.