DeFi TVL Breaks $100B Again — But Is Anyone Watching?

💰 DeFi Is Back Over $100 Billion — But Where’s the Hype?

The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is staging a serious comeback. After a rocky few weeks, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols has shot back above $100 billion — a level we haven’t seen since the end of March.

But here’s the twist: retail interest is missing in action.

📈 Who’s Leading the Charge?

According to DefiLlama, as of this week, DeFi TVL sits at $100.6 billion — up from April’s low of $84.87 billion.

Leading the pack:

• 🏆 Aave: $19.75 billion locked (19.63% of total DeFi TVL)
• 🥈 Lido: $17.03 billion locked (16.93%)
• 🌿 Combined, they now control over 36% of the DeFi market.

👉 Notable movers:

• ⚡ Spark: +96.92% since late March
• 🌱 Babylon: +1.85% growth
• 📉 Meanwhile, Uniswap and Binance’s Staked Ether both slipped between 2–4.7%.

🌐 DeFi Isn’t Just Ethereum Anymore

Ethereum still owns 51.24% of the total TVL ($51.38 billion), but the multi-chain momentum is real:

• 🟢 Solana: 8.06%
• 🟡 BNB Chain: 5.86%
• ⚡ Bitcoin DeFi: 5.65%
• 🔴 Tron: 5.12%

Together, these five chains make up 75.93% of DeFi’s locked value — signaling a healthier, more diversified sector.

👀 But Is Anyone Actually Paying Attention?

Here’s the weird part: Google Trends data shows that interest in the word “DeFi” is way down — scoring just 63/100, the lowest since December 2024.

But there’s a twist:

• 🔥 The search term “Aave” is spiking.
• 🌍 Countries most curious about DeFi right now? Mauritius, Burkina Faso, St. Helena, Haiti, and France.

So while the TVL chart is pumping, the public hype chart… not so much.

🛠️ From DeFi Summer to DeFi Infrastructure

This comeback feels different. Forget about the wild, yield-chasing days of DeFi Summer. What we’re seeing now is a sector maturing into:

• 🏦 Staking and lending dominance
• 🌉 Cross-chain innovation
• 🧱 Less speculation, more infrastructure building

The data suggests DeFi is entering a “quiet builder” phase — scaling without the noise.

🧠 TL;DR: TVL Up, But Eyes Down

• 💰 DeFi TVL back above $100B for the first time since March
• 🏆 Aave and Lido control over a third of the market
• 🌐 Multi-chain ecosystems gaining ground beyond Ethereum
• 👀 Retail search interest in “DeFi” remains low — but Aave is trending
• 🚀 This recovery feels less about hype, more about real momentum