The decentralized finance (DeFi) market has seen a resurgence in the beginning of July, with total value locked (TVL) rising to $116.416 billion, reaching a level last seen in April. The increase of 4.95% in the past 24 hours reflects the uptick in crypto asset prices and renewed interest in deposit flows into lending protocols, restaking services, and yield-bearing primitives.
Ethereum and Solana continue to attract the majority of DeFi capital, with restaking-led protocols like EigenLayer and ether.fi solidifying their positions as key players in on-chain liquidity provision.
Leading the DeFi space is AAVE, with $25.871 billion in TVL across 18 chains. The platform’s 2.62% month-on-month increase highlights user preference for maturity, scale, and liquidity depth, particularly during periods of rising ETH borrowing costs. AAVE now holds over 22% of the TVL in DeFi, surpassing competitors like Lido and other restaking alternatives.
Lending has emerged as a stable category within DeFi, with protocols like Morpho posting a 25.35% monthly gain. Morpho’s success is attributed to its hybrid peer-to-peer lending structure and increased collateral caps, especially for stETH. With a TVL of $4.498 billion, Morpho is now positioned just outside the top 10 protocols, surpassing legacy competitors like JustLend and Pendle.
Speaking of Pendle, the platform, which enables tokenized fixed-yield strategies, saw a monthly increase of 11.71% to reach a TVL of $4.822 billion. The demand for yield certainty, even amidst duration risk, underscores the appeal of platforms like Pendle in the DeFi landscape.
The Ethereum-native restaking ecosystem remains a hotspot for fresh capital, with EigenLayer and ether.fi collectively controlling over $18.8 billion in TVL. Despite a slight plateau in growth for ether.fi, EigenLayer saw a 7.41% increase in TVL over the past month, solidifying its role as a collateral foundation for actively validated services and shared security mechanisms.
While most DeFi protocols experienced growth, Ethena saw a 5.74% decrease in TVL to $5.464 billion, likely due to redemptions of sUSDe and waning enthusiasm for synthetic dollar yields. On the other hand, BlackRock’s BUIDL token, backed by tokenized Treasury bills, remained stable with a TVL of $2.832 billion, showcasing the role of real-world assets in anchoring capital during volatile periods.
The convergence of spot and perpetual DEX volumes last week suggests a healthy shift towards hedging activity or organic demand for base-layer assets, rather than leverage-fueled speculation. Ethereum continues to dominate DeFi TVL, while Solana has seen a resurgence in interest, commanding $8.768 billion in TVL.
Stablecoins continue to play a crucial role in DeFi, with a total market cap of $254.598 billion, providing a buffer against sudden volatility and serving as latent fuel for the DeFi ecosystem.
The first week of July has shown renewed strength in DeFi, especially in lending and restaking segments. With a stablecoin surplus, maturing yield primitives, and a clear rotation back into blue-chip protocols, DeFi is poised for a strong second half of 2025.
In conclusion, DeFi TVL has broken above $116 billion, signaling a promising outlook for the decentralized finance sector in the months ahead.