Total value locked (TVL) in DeFi exceeds $80 billion

The total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance has passed the $80 billion mark, a high not seen since the demise of Terra’s stablecoin in May 2022. Lido’s liquid staking platform leads the way in 2024 in TVL size, with Ether-based liquid staking derivatives (LSDs) taking a dominant position with $41 billion in TVL.

Locked-in value shoots past $80 billion

A year and nine months have passed since Terra’s UST stablecoin lost its peg and Terra’s LUNA plummeted from a valuation of $80 per unit to well under a cent in the US. Just days before the crash, on May 1, 2022, data showed a significant $196.6 billion in TVL. At that point, Terra represented $28.23 billion or 14.36% of total TVL, with $16.48 billion tied up in Anchor, ready to evaporate completely.

The leaders of the DeFi sector

Those times have faded into memory, but Terra’s demise not only erased significant value from the DeFi sector but also led to the collapse of major companies and trading entities. With the crypto winter now behind us, the amount of value secured in DeFi has experienced a significant upward movement to $80.21 billion. Lido leads the DeFi sector as the protocol with the largest TVL, with an impressive $29.49 billion.

Behind Lido in the rankings are MakerDAO with a TVL of $8.66 billion, Aave close behind with $8.56 billion, followed by Eigenlayer with $7.95 billion, and Justlend with $6.31 billion, rounding out the list of the top five DeFi protocol giants are shutting down. In terms of distributing this wealth, Ethereum (ETH) reigns supreme in the DeFi space, with over 60% of the TVL share. As of this weekend, a whopping amount of $46.967 billion has been distributed across 979 DeFi protocols using the Ethereum network.

Tron secures the position as the second largest blockchain by TVL size, with $8.484 billion, representing 11.01% of the total DeFi TVL. BNB, Arbitrum, Solana and Bitcoin round out the leading six blockchains in terms of TVL size. In the last 130 days, value locked in DeFi has expanded by more than $42 billion. The renewed momentum within the DeFi sector seems to indicate renewed confidence among DeFi users. However, predicting the sustainability of this momentum remains uncertain.