⛓ DeFi Overview
Decentralized Finance — live on-chain stats
🔥 Top DeFi Tokens
| # | Token | Price | 24h % | 7d % | Market Cap | Volume (24h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Understanding DeFi market data
What decentralised finance means
DeFi refers to financial services — lending, borrowing, trading, derivatives — provided by smart contracts on a blockchain rather than by a company. There is no institution holding deposits or approving loans; the rules are written in code that anyone can read and that executes automatically. That removes the need to trust an intermediary, and replaces it with the need to trust the code and the people who wrote it.
Total value locked, and its limits
TVL is the headline metric for the sector: the value of assets deposited in DeFi protocols. It is useful as a rough measure of scale, but it is easy to over-read. TVL is denominated in dollars, so it rises and falls with token prices even when no deposits change. The same asset deposited in one protocol, borrowed against, and deposited in another can be counted more than once. And protocols can inflate it temporarily by paying high rewards to attract deposits that leave as soon as the rewards stop.
What the token rankings represent
DeFi tokens usually confer governance rights — a vote on how a protocol is run — and sometimes a claim on the fees it generates. They are not equity, carry no legal claim on assets, and a protocol can be widely used while its token performs poorly. Usage and token price are related far more loosely than in traditional markets.
Risks specific to this sector
DeFi carries risks that do not exist elsewhere. Smart-contract bugs have led to losses in the hundreds of millions, and an audit reduces that risk without eliminating it. Assets deposited as collateral can be liquidated automatically if prices move against you, with no grace period. Governance itself is a risk: whoever controls enough votes can change how a protocol behaves.
Market data on this page is provided for information only and is not financial, investment or tax advice. Cryptocurrency prices are volatile and you can lose money. Always do your own research.