TVL, Market Trends, Forecast & DEXs Data

DeFi Market Size & Dominance

• Decentralized finance reached a high of 27.7 million unique users in 2025. This is an estimate based on network-crawling methods that identify unique wallet addresses involved in buying or selling DeFi-related projects.
• Monthly active addresses interacting with decentralized protocols remained elevated, fluctuating between 300 million and 390 million throughout most of 2025.
• By 2025, decentralized finance had expanded to $2.5 trillion in on-chain value.
• The global DeFi market size was valued at $26.94 billion in 2025 and is forecast to grow to $37.27 billion in 2026, before accelerating to $1,417.65 billion by 2033, with an estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 68.2% from 2026 to 2033.
• DeFi market capitalization reached a 2025 high of $181 billion in late September, driven largely by price surges in newly launched perpetual DEX tokens such as Avantis (AVNT) and Aster (ASTER). As momentum returned to the sector, DeFi’s overall market share increased from 3.34% in Q2 2025 to 4.02% in Q3 2025.
  • However, Trump’s renewed tariff threats toward China in early October triggered a reversal during Q4 2025, with DeFi market capitalization falling 37.2% to $100.9 billion by the end of December.
• In 2025, multichain DeFi total value locked (TVL) reached a peak of $171.9 billion in early October. A huge market selloff led to a 25.5% decline, with TVL dropping from $156.7 billion at the end of Q3 to $116.7 billion by the end of Q4.

DeFi Market Share

By protocol type

• Lending & borrowing protocols led the DeFi market with a 27.33% share in 2025, while tokenized real-world asset (RWA) platforms are projected to be the fastest-growing segment, expanding at a 39.72% CAGR through 2031.

By end-user

• Retail users dominated DeFi participation in 2025, holding 62.12% of total market share, whereas institutional investors and asset managers are expected to expand at a CAGR of 32.55% through 2031.

By components

• The blockchain technology segment represented the largest share at 42.54% of the DeFi market in 2025, generating $11,459.3 million in revenue. This segment is forecast to reach $637,201.8 million by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 69.3% from 2026 to 2033. 
• Decentralized applications (dApps) generated $9,280.8 million in revenue in 2025, representing a 34.45% market share. Revenue is projected to climb to $458,057.4 million by 2033, at a CAGR of 66.8% (2026-2033).
• Smart contracts accounted for a 23.01% share of the DeFi market in 2025, with revenue of $6,200.3 million. This segment is forecast to reach $322,387.2 million by 2033, representing a CAGR of 67.9% (2026–2033).

By applications

• The global payments segment produced USD 3,720.3 million in revenue in 2025, and is projected to reach $210,866.2 million by 2033 at a CAGR of 69.7% (2026 – 2033).
• Decentralized exchange (DEX) recorded $4,492.0 million in revenue in 2025, and is expected to grow to $242,030.1 million by 2033, with a projected CAGR of 68.7%. 
• The data & analytics segment generated $4,824.9 million in 2025 and is expected to reach $245,731.7 million by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 67.5% (2026 – 2033).

Top Blockchains & Protocols

• Ethereum maintained its position as the dominant chain with $119 billion in TVL, although it saw a 4% TVL decline. Solana held the number two ranking but suffered the worst decline of any chain in the top 10, with TVL falling 33% to $13.8 billion. Hyperliquid, the onchain perpetual trading network, stood out as a strong performer, growing TVL by 29% to $2.85 billion.
• As of October 2025, Ethereum accounted for 56.5% of total DeFi TVL. Among other major chains, Solana’s TVL declined -30.2%, from $11.5 billion to $8.0 billion, as its memecoin sector lost traction.
  • Plasma, which once held over $6.4 billion in assets at its peak, saw TVL fall -45.8%, from $5.5 billion at the start of October to $3.0 billion by the end of 2025, driven by declining incentives and the depreciation of the XPL token.

• As of June 2025, Aave ranked first among DeFi protocols with $24.4 billion in TVL, followed by Lido in second place with $22.6 billion in TVL.

Top 10 DeFi Protocols by Total Value Locked (TVL)

Source: DeFiLlama, June 2025

• Meteora (Solana), Jupiter (Solana), Uniswap (Ethereum, Aave, and Hyperliquid) are the top five DeFi protocols by annualized revenue in 2025, with a combined revenue of more than USD 5 billion.

Top 5 Revenue DeFi Protocols 

Source: DefiLlama, Binance Research (as of December 31, 2025)

Regional Adoption & Forecast

Chainalysis identifies countries including India and the United States as top leaders in DeFi adoption in 2025. Here are the Top 20 Global Crypto Adoption Index rankings based on DeFi value received:

1. India
2. United States
3. Nigeria
4. Indonesia
5. Brazil
6. Vietnam
7. Ethiopia
8. Ukraine
9. Russian Federation
10. Pakistan
11. Jordan
12. United Kingdom 
13. Philippines
14. Bangladesh
15. Thailand
16. Japan
17. Uganda
18. Germany
19. France
20. Mexico

2025 DeFi Market in Europe

• In February and March 2025, DeFi activity within EEA-member European countries ran 65% above levels seen in non-EEA European regions, aligned with stablecoin market adjustments and a rise in cross-chain operations, notably on Binance Smart Chain and Polygon.
• Lending activity peaked in May 2025, reflecting increased participation in lending and borrowing services backed by crypto assets.
• DeFi activity in Russia surged to eight times its prior levels in early 2025, before settling at approximately three and a half times the mid-2023 baseline.

DeFi Market Growth by region (2025 – 2033)

• The U.S. decentralized finance market generated USD 7,358.1 million in revenue in 2025 and is forecast to expand at a CAGR of 67.7% between 2026 and 2033. By 2033, the U.S. is expected to lead globally with an estimated revenue of USD 378,841.4 million.
• Country-wise, Canada is the fastest-growing market with the highest CAGR of 72.2% (2026-2033) and is projected to reach USD 138,955.1 million by 2033.

• Asia Pacific generated USD 6,158.3 million in 2025, representing 22.9% of the global decentralized finance market. Its revenue is projected to reach USD 357,277.6 million by 2033, with a CAGR of 70.2% from 2026 to 2033.
• North America generated USD 9,821.4 million in 2025, accounting for 36.5% of the global market. Revenue is expected to reach USD 532,843.0 million by 2033, with a CAGR of 68.8% from 2026 to 2033. 
• Middle East & Africa generated USD 1,566.9 million in 2025, representing only 5.8% of the global market. It is projected to grow to USD 34,991.6 million by 2033 at a CAGR of 50.3% from 2026 to 2033.
• Europe recorded revenues of USD 7,200.7 million in 2025, and is expected to reach USD 382,131.8 million by 2033, with a CAGR of 68.3% from 2026 to 2033.
• Latin America’s DeFi market generated USD 2,193.2 million in 2025, and is forecast to grow to USD 110,402.4 million by 2033 at a CAGR of 67.2% from 2026 to 2033.

Key DeFi Sectors

• While “old guard” DeFi primitives like DEXs, Derivatives, Restaking, and Farms saw their liquidity shrink in 2025, specialized, high-utility sectors like Prediction Markets and RWA grew quickly (+233% and +139% YTD).

Decentralized Exchange (DEX)

• By mid-2025, average weekly trading volume across decentralized exchanges reached approximately USD 18.6 billion, with more than 9.7 million unique wallets engaging with DeFi protocols.
• Perpetual trading volume on DEXs increased by 346% in 2025, reaching a new all-time high of USD 6.7 trillion.
• In 2025, the top 10 perpetual DEXs processed USD 6.7 trillion in volume, up from USD 1.5 trillion in 2024, representing a +346% year-over-year rise. Hyperliquid and Lighter are the leading perpetual decentralized exchanges in 2025 by annual trading volume, with USD 2.9 trillion and USD 1.3 trillion, respectively.

• The ratio of DEX-to-CEX perpetual futures volume tripled from 6.3% to 18.7%, signaling a notable shift away from markets historically dominated by centralized exchanges. 
• Among perpetual DEXs, Hyperliquid consistently ranked among the most profitable in DeFi by protocol-captured revenue, excluding liquidity provider payouts. Its annualized perpetual volume climbed from $564.7 billion in 2024 to $3.0 trillion in 2025.

• 2025 Solana’s monthly spot trading volume declined from USD 313 billion in January to USD 104 billion in November, a 66.7% drop reflecting the unwind of the previous year’s retail-driven memecoin surge. Pump, the leading Solana launchpad in 2024, saw trading volume of graduated tokens on Raydium and PumpSwap fall from USD 46.4 billion in January to USD 5.1 billion in November, an 89.0% contraction.
  • In contrast, BNB Chain’s monthly spot trading volume rose more than fourfold, from USD 19.3 billion in January to USD 80.3 billion in November.
  • Throughout 2025, the DEX-to-CEX spot volume ratio remained under 20%, indicating that the structural efficiency gap in spot trading largely persisted and that spot DEX infrastructure had reached maturity.

• Perpetuals emerged as one of the strongest revenue drivers in 2025. Monthly sector revenue doubled from about $100 million to over $200 million, driven by renewed trading demand and improved execution environments. 
  • The DEX sector moved from generating around $25 million per month in 2024 to approaching $100 million per month in 2025. Fee generation became more distributed: ten protocols now collectively account for 80% of sector fees, compared to prior years when two or three platforms dominated. Uniswap exemplified this shift, with its market share declining from roughly 50% to around 18% within one year.

Lending

• On-chain DeFi lending accounted for about two-thirds of the record $73.6 billion crypto-collateralized lending market by late 2025.
• The lending sector began 2025 with approximately USD 48 billion in TVL and expanded significantly, peaking above USD 91 billion in October. The average utilization ratio across lending protocols rose to 36% in 2025, up from 29% in 2023.
• Aave V3 maintained dominant positioning throughout the year with an average TVL of $28 billion. Over the same period, the number of active lending protocols increased from 410 to 469, reflecting a competitive and expanding market.
• Euler V2 TVL grew from roughly $110 million at the start of 2025 to more than $2.2 billion by October.
• Total outstanding loans across major DeFi lending protocols in 2025 increased 37.2% YTD, trailing the 48.1% growth in total stablecoin market cap. 
• While Aave’s share of total debt rose from 52.0% to 56.5%, Maple emerged as a standout performer, with outstanding loans expanding from $181 million to $1.5 billion, an eightfold increase.

Stablecoins

• Total stablecoin supply expanded 49% in 2025, reaching approximately $300 billion in circulation.
• As of March 2025, the combined circulating supply of DAI and USDS was about $9 billion. 
• The number of stablecoin issuers and assets increased substantially in 2025. In early January, DefiLlama tracked 161 stablecoins, with 36 exceeding a $50 million market capitalization. By December, both figures had increased: 214 stablecoins were tracked in total, with 51 exceeding the $50 million threshold. At the high end, 18 stablecoins exceeded $1 billion in supply, compared with 11 at the beginning of the year.
• The global stablecoins segment generated revenue of $3.33 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $182.8 billion by 2033, reflecting an expected CAGR of 69% over the 2026–2033 period. 

Real World Assets (RWAs)

• The global asset tokenization sector generated $1,712.9 million in revenue in 2025 and is expected to reach $95,356.8 million by 2033, with a CAGR of 69.4% from 2026 to 2033.
• On December 29, 2025, the RWA sector reached a milestone when protocol TVL surpassed that of decentralized exchanges, hitting $17 billion and becoming the fifth-largest category in DeFi.
• Tokenized stocks were the top-performing segment within RWA during 2025. Market capitalization increased 2,695% YTD, reaching a record high of about $1.2 billion by December 31, 2025, significantly outpacing other tokenized asset categories such as commodities (225%) and tokenized funds (148%).

Prediction Markets

• The global prediction markets segment generated revenue of $2.03 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $99.4 billion by 2033, implying a CAGR of 66.7% over the 2026–2033 period. 
• Notional trading volume in prediction markets grew to $63.5 billion in 2025, up from $15.8 billion in 2024, representing a 302.7% increase.
  • Polymarket entered 2025 with a dominant 85.6% market share in Q1, but was overtaken by Kalshi by Q4. In Q4, Kalshi held a 39.6% share, followed by Polymarket at 32.4%.
  • Yzi Labs-backed Opinion, built on BNB Chain, entered the market in November 2025 and already reached $7 billion in trading volume in December.

Bridge

• Cross-chain liquidity declined by 26.8% as asset prices fell broadly. The liquidation event in October reduced on-chain activity and liquidity across the top 12 bridging protocols, resulting in a 26.8% drop in TVL from $55.7 billion at the end of September to $40.8 billion by the end of 2025.
• During Bitcoin’s 23.2% drawdown to $87,520 in Q4 2025, Bitcoin-focused bridges, including the three largest cross-chain platforms, experienced significant asset redistribution.

Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

• In 2025, DAOs collectively hold approximately USD 21.4 billion in liquid treasury assets.
• The number of active DAOs worldwide has surpassed 13,000 as of 2025.
• Environmentally focused DAOs are expanding, with research platforms estimating 500–600 sustainability-oriented DAOs worldwide by early 2025.
• DAO conference participation increased by 40% in 2025, reflecting stronger community involvement and interest.
• Low voter participation continues to be the major concern in 2025, with most DAOs reporting governance turnout below 18%.
• Charity and impact DAOs have distributed more than USD 35 million to social and environmental causes globally in 2025.

DApps

• The decentralized application sector experienced a 22.4% decline in daily unique active wallets. During Q3 2025, the industry recorded an average of 18.7 million active wallets per day.
• While shopping application KAI-CHING leads in active wallet count (177 million), gaming platforms feature 3 out of the top 5 Dapps (World of Dypians, HOT Protocol, KGeN).

Top Dapps by Total UAW (Q3 2025)

Key Categories in the DApp Ecosystem

• While NFTs climbed to second place with an 18.5% share in Q3, the Games category held its position as the dominant segment in the dapp industry, maintaining 25% market share.
• In Q2 2025, the AI segment held the third-highest market share at 18.6%, which declined to 16.8% by the next quarter. The AI category dropped the average number of active wallets from 4.8 million in Q2 2025 to 3.1 million in Q3 2025.

Security, Hacks and Exploits

• In 2025, total exploited funds across DeFi protocols reached about $512 million.
• Smart contract vulnerabilities accounted for roughly 8% of total stolen assets, with $263 million lost in the first half of 2025 alone. This figure includes the $223 million Cetus exploit, which made Q1 2025 DeFi’s worst quarter since early 2023, with about $300 million stolen across all hacks.

• Smart contract vulnerabilities resulted in more than $90 million in DAO-related losses in 2025. DAO-focused attacks in 2025 caused losses exceeding $310 million, highlighting the ongoing requirement for stronger smart contract protection.

Notable incidents in 2025:

• Bunni, a newly launched project, lost around $8.2 million in a smart contract exploit, marking the first major hack on the Unichain network.
• In March 2025, a DeFi trader attempted to swap 732,000 USDC for USDT on Uniswap, but received only 19,000 USDT as a result of a sandwich attack, resulting in a loss of over $700,000.

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