Morning Edition · Friday, July 31, 2026Published at 1:29 AM EDT · New York
DeFi Total Value Locked Fell $43.4 Billion in the First Half of 2026, Binance Research Says
Layer-1 valuations and layer-2 activity contracted together while prediction markets grew, and on-chain data now puts total DeFi value near $75 billion.
Binance Research says the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) fell by $43.4 billion in the first half of 2026, as layer-1 network valuations declined and layer-2 activity contracted. The report frames the drop as part o…
Continue the Crypto Intelligence Brief
Track on-chain flows, protocol shifts, stablecoins, and regulation.
- 5 crypto intelligence signals a day
- Tracked crypto trends, day over day
- Stablecoin and regulatory movement
- Source-grounded analysis with confidence labels
The Global Intelligence Brief stays free.
Part of a tracked trend
On-Chain Capital Concentrates
As total on-chain capital contracts, value keeps concentrating on the largest chains and the applications with live demand, squeezing long-tail protocols and forcing consolidation.
More from this edition
- Coldcard Mk3 Owners Told to Move Coins After 594 Bitcoin Swept From Dormant Wallets
- BIS Moves Real Central-Bank and Commercial-Bank Money On-Chain in 28-Lender Payments Test
- CLARITY Act Heads Toward August Recess Without the Votes to Pass
- Strategy Books $8.22 Billion Quarterly Loss as Bitcoin Falls Below Its Cost Basis
- Privacy Layer-2s Push Confidential Smart Contracts Onto Ethereum as Aztec and Miden Ship
- Aave Proposes to Shut Deployments on Six Chains That Earn Almost No Revenue
- Blockstream's Simplicity Goes Live on Liquid Mainnet With Post-Quantum Signatures
- DeFi Exploit Drains Roughly $578,000 as Seoul Police Break Up $19 Million Staking Fraud
- Coinbase Falls After Posting a Second-Quarter Loss and Lower Revenue
- US Sanctions Iranian Firms Accused of Taking Bitcoin for Strait of Hormuz Passage
- Bitchat Mesh App Keeps Running in India After a Cybercrime Notice, Spreading Peer to Peer