DeFi TVL has been on a steady monthly decline since January

DeFi protocols have shed roughly $45 billion in total value locked across all chains since January, amid a record wave of exploits and price crashes.

On-chain analysis by CryptoRank showed that DeFi TVL has been falling every single month this year, sliding from about $115 billion to around $70 billion as of late June. 

Among the ten largest blockchains by TVL, only Tron and Hyperliquid posted positive growth this year.

TRON gained about 5%, largely due to its dominant role in USDT transfers and stablecoin settlement. Hyperliquid rose roughly 7%, driven by its position as the leading venue for on-chain perpetual futures trading. 

Arbitrum took the steepest hit among top-ten chains, dropping 55.3% to $1.3 billion in TVL.

Ethereum has seen a 43% year-to-date decline but remains the largest DeFi chain, with $38.9 billion in TVL. Solana fell 40.5% to $4.93 billion.

DeFi TVL decline amid crypto market crash

The outflows closely follow the broader crypto price corrections, which began after Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $122,000 in October 2025, with the total crypto market capitalization peaking at $4.21 trillion.

At the time of writing, the crypto market sits at a $2.15 trillion capitalization, which represents nearly 50% drop from the October peak. 

BTC is down over 28% year-to-date. ETH sees as high as 43% decline, followed by BNB and SOL at 33% and 43.5% respectively, which account for the second and third-largest chains by TVL. 

DeFi hacks compound pressure

CryptoRank also attributed the outflows to a record wave of exploits that have hit the market this year. 

The crypto industry has recorded 121 hacks in 2026 through late June, with combined losses reaching approximately $942 million. The second quarter alone accounted for 85 of those incidents and roughly $775 million in stolen funds.

In Q2, KelpDAO lost $293 million through a LayerZero cross-chain bridge vulnerability, and Drift Protocol suffered a $280 million breach, Cryptopolitan reported. 

The KelpDAO attack also had an impact on Aave. The attackers used stolen, unbacked rsETH tokens as collateral on Aave to borrow against them, leaving the lending protocol with bad debt.

In the days following the exploit, Aave’s TVL dropped from $26.4 billion to $14.3 billion, a 46% decline, as depositors pulled funds.

The KelpDAO and Drift Protocol exploits alone accounted for three-quarters of Q2’s total losses.

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