DeFi Total Value Locked rises 37.9% to $95 billion in Q3

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) saw a significant rebound in the third quarter, with Total Value Locked (TVL) rising 37.9% to reach $95.42 billion by September 26. This growth follows a period of decline where TVL had dropped to $69 billion in June.

Much of this increase is attributed to rising asset prices rather than new capital inflows. Ethereum-related TVL grew from $37.35 billion to $53.54 billion, driven by a 67% rise in the price of Ether (ETH). Ethereum now accounts for 56.1% of the total DeFi TVL. In contrast, stablecoin supply increased by only $2 billion during the quarter, suggesting that asset appreciation played a major role in the valuation spike.

Other notable developments include the rise of tokenized stocks within DeFi protocols, which reached approximately $252 million. Significant portions of these assets are held in Uniswap v3 and v4, Kamino Lend, and Pendle. Additionally, the Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 network launched in July, has already surpassed $1 billion in TVL. On the institutional side, Morgan Stanley has established a Digital Asset Lab to explore stablecoins, tokenization, and DeFi applications.