Over the past five years, decentralized finance (DeFi) has evolved from a niche corner of the crypto world into a significant part of mainstream finance. That momentum has only accelerated in 2025, fueled by growing public interest, wider adoption of Layer 2 solutions, and smoother, more intuitive user experiences.
DeFi platforms are now increasingly integrated with traditional fintech services, making them feel as accessible as online banking or digital investing. This shift has driven total deposits across DeFi protocols to multi-year highs.
According to data from BestWallet.com, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi reached an impressive $172 billion in early October 2025, marking the second-highest level in the sector’s history.
October TVL is Only 2% Below November 2021 Peak
After falling to multi-year lows in 2022 and 2023, the 2024 crypto bull run brought a fresh momentum into DeFi market, and this trend continued in 2025. With clearer regulations and crypto prices reaching all-time highs, more and more investors turned to DeFi for staking, lending, and yield farming, fueling an impressive market growth. At the same time, technological advancements like Layer 2 solutions made DeFi faster, cheaper, and more accessible to a broader audience, helping DeFi to become an even more significant part of the crypto space. The DeFi Llama data proves this trend.
Riding the crypto bull run, the DeFi sector ended 2024 with an impressive $133.6 billion in total value locked, 2.5 times more than the $50 billion reported in December 2023.
Although the first four months of 2025 didn’t look as promising, with TVL in DeFi falling by almost 35% to $87.4 billion in April, the trend reversed in May, turning 2025 into one of the best years for DeFi ever.
While TVL in DeFi usually drops during the summer months, which is typically a low-volume period in both traditional and crypto markets, that wasn’t the case this year. By mid-July, the total value locked in DeFi platforms jumped to $125.7 billion, revealing a 32% increase year-over-year. The upward trend continued in the next two months with TVL reaching close to $160 billion, more than double the value recorded in the same month a year ago. Just a few weeks later, TVL soared to over $172.6 billion on October 6, marking a 105% year-over-year increase and the second-highest figure ever recorded. In comparison, that is only 2% below the all-time high of $177.4 billion recorded on November 10, 2021.
DeFi Llama data also shows that Ethereum continues to dominate with a 56% share of the TVL market, the same as in October last year. Solana’s share rose from just over 7% to 7.56% during this period, ranking it as the second-largest blockchain by TVL. On the other hand, Tron continued its decline with its market share melting from 8.4% last October to only $3.71 this last month. Binance Smart Chain (BSC) followed with a modest 0.1% year-over-year increase, holding a 5.6% market share.
TVL Grows but Monthly Unique Users Drop
While the total value locked in DeFi has jumped close to record highs, the monthly number of unique wallets interacting with DeFi protocols on-chain has actually been falling for three straight months.
After reaching a record 27 million unique wallets, the number more than halved to 13.5 million in September, reaching the lowest point in twelve months.
This opposite trend shows fewer people are using DeFi but they are locking in more money, which may suggest a shift toward larger investors rather than regular retail users. It can also mean that funds are flowing into a few major protocols instead of being spread across many smaller ones.
