The combined market capitalization of the tokens classified as decentralized finance: lending protocols, decentralized exchanges, liquid staking, derivatives platforms and yield products. It is a measure of what the market thinks these protocols are worth. It is not a measure of how much money is in them, which is a different number and a more concrete one.
Live. The figure above updates in your browser while this page is open, and the page was built with a real one in it rather than a blank.
The plain description
The combined market capitalization of the tokens classified as decentralized finance: lending protocols, decentralized exchanges, liquid staking, derivatives platforms and yield products.
It is a measure of what the market thinks these protocols are worth. It is not a measure of how much money is in them, which is a different number and a more concrete one.
Stated so you could reproduce it
Every token in the DeFi category, market cap added up, from CoinGecko's own classification. The tile also shows that total as a share of the whole market.
The classification is the weak point and it is worth being honest about it. Whether a liquid staking token, an exchange token or a real world asset protocol counts as DeFi is a judgment call, and the largest single component is usually a liquid staking token rather than anything most people picture when they hear the word.
The bands, and what each one actually means
| Reading | What it indicates |
|---|---|
| Rising against TOTAL2 | DeFi is outperforming the broad market. Often follows a period of higher onchain activity, sometimes just follows a narrative. |
| Falling while TVL holds up | Token prices falling while the money in the protocols stays put. The usual state of affairs in a drawdown, and the more informative of the two. |
| The DeFi share of TOTAL | Printed on the tile. Its long run range is the useful context; a single reading is not. |
The part that gets left out
- It is not total value locked. Market cap is what the tokens are worth; TVL is how much money is deposited in the protocols. They can move in opposite directions for months and frequently do.
- The category is arguable. Providers disagree about what belongs in it, so two published DeFi market caps can differ by a lot more than two published TOTALs.
- Liquid staking derivatives dominate the figure on most days, which means "DeFi market cap" is often mostly one activity rather than the sector as a whole.
- A governance token is not a claim on the protocol's revenue unless its rules say so, and most do not.