Ecosystems Total Value Locked Update

According to DefiLlama data, today’s Total Value Locked (TVL) figures show notable shifts across several blockchain networks. While Aptos (APT) and Sonic have seen significant growth in TVL, major platforms like Solana, Ethereum, and Arbitrum experienced slight decreases. This article provides a detailed breakdown of these changes and explains what TVL is and why it matters – all in an easy-to-understand way for newcomers to crypto.

What is TVL and Why is it Important?

Total Value Locked (TVL) refers to the total U.S. dollar value of digital assets (such as coins, tokens, and stablecoins) that are currently locked or staked in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on a blockchain. This metric is calculated based on the USD value of the assets and is considered an indicator of the level of interest, liquidity, and overall health of that blockchain’s DeFi ecosystem.

Put simply, a higher TVL means more users have confidence in a protocol and are locking up their assets (indicating strong participation and trust), whereas a low TVL might signal that a project is less attractive to investors.

Aptos and Sonic: Notable TVL Growth

The two blockchains below saw standout TVL increases in the past 24 hours:

Aptos (APT)

In the final days of March 2025, APT has emerged as one of the fastest-growing blockchains in the market. Its Total Value Locked (TVL) surpassed the $1 billion milestone for the first time — up roughly 150% in just a few days — making Aptos the 11th largest blockchain by TVL worldwide. Simultaneously, the number of daily active wallets reached 1.2 million, ranking fourth globally behind only BNB, Tron, and Solana — a clear indicator of Aptos’s growing traction and user base.

This growth has been fueled by a combination of powerful factors, starting with an explosive DeFi boom. Key protocols such as Aries Markets (lending & leveraged trading), Amnis Finance (liquid staking), and Echelon Market (stablecoin-focused lending and farming) have all hit all-time highs in TVL, with short-term growth ranging from 20–30%. Echelon’s innovative stablecoin farming strategy — offering yields up to ~70% APR — has become a magnet for “smart money” from other ecosystems.

Meanwhile, new players like PACT Protocol (global lending) and Echo Protocol (BTC restaking on Aptos) have contributed hundreds of millions in liquidity, expanding the depth and diversity of the network.

Another key driver behind the capital inflow is a wave of airdrops and incentive programs. Following its TGE, Amnis Finance launched generous reward campaigns, attracting hundreds of thousands of stakers. At the same time, yield farming opportunities — powered by partnerships with Ethena (issuer of USDe) and other DeFi projects — allow users to “double dip” by earning both high APR and bonus tokens.

This strategy has paid off: in just one week, stablecoin inflows into Aptos increased by $200M, pushing the total supply above $1 billion — creating a deep and resilient liquidity base across the ecosystem.

Beyond DeFi, Aptos is also expanding quickly into NFTs, GameFi, and Web3 applications. A major milestone came as OKX Exchange integrated Aptos NFTs (APT-20 standard), boosting visibility and liquidity for Aptos-native collections. NFT marketplaces like Topaz, Souffl3, and BlueMove are growing in activity, while early GameFi projects like Aptos Arena are leveraging the new GameStack toolkit (a collaboration between Aptos Labs and Google Cloud) to build immersive decentralized games.

Great news for Aptos gamers! We’re taken another big stride in our partnership with Google Cloud 💪🎮

With Aptos GameStack, Aptos Labs’ gaming development hub and platform, game developers can merge Google Cloud’s innovative solutions in data and analytics, and AI/ML with the… pic.twitter.com/m4gD1v1Kb5

— Aptos Labs (@AptosLabs) March 15, 2024

On the infrastructure and community side, Aptos continues to build momentum. Nansen, a leading blockchain analytics firm, recently became a validator on Aptos and pledged to reinvest its staking rewards into ecosystem development — a major vote of confidence. In Southeast Asia, the Aptos Foundation has been highly active, launching community hubs and hosting hackathons in countries like the Philippines and Vietnam, with the goal of onboarding more local developers and startups.

Nansen is now a validator on @Aptos.

Why? Because we like fast, scalable blockchains, and we also like making smart moves in Web3.

Running a validator helps secure the network and gives us more ways to bring top-tier insights to investors, devs, and users. pic.twitter.com/viDJUr5WlV

— Nansen 🧭 (@nansen_ai) February 7, 2025

Market sentiment is also showing signs of renewed optimism. In Korea — one of Aptos’s strongest regional markets — Upbit’s decision to reopen registrations for new users has driven renewed buying pressure, helping APT recover above the $6 mark in recent days. This surge in Korean retail activity has further contributed to positive momentum for the Aptos ecosystem.

Sonic (S)

S has recently re-emerged as a rising force in the Layer-1 landscape. According to DefiLlama, Sonic’s TVL reached approximately $935 million, a 3.1% increase in just 24 hours, making it the 12th largest blockchain by TVL globally. While the short-term percentage gain may seem modest compared to Aptos, the rapid TVL surge is the result of renewed investor confidence, driven by a strategic rebrand, network upgrades, and a series of bold initiatives led by co-founder Andre Cronje.

Over the past few days, Sonic’s ecosystem has seen substantial momentum. Its total TVL surged nearly 3,000% since February, nearing the $1 billion milestone — one of the fastest TVL growths ever recorded among L1s. At the core of this expansion is a resurgent DeFi scene, featuring protocols like Equalizer, WigoSwap, and Felix Exchange, now enhanced by better developer tooling, improved infrastructure, and new incentive models.

The native token S (which replaced FTM via a 1:1 migration) also saw a 35% price increase in the last week of March, accompanied by strong liquidity and trading volume on Binance.

In recent days, Cronje, Sonic’s co-founder, has spearheaded several major developments: the introduction of the SonicCS 2.0 consensus protocol, aiming to double network throughput and reduce memory usage by 68%; the announcement of a yield-bearing algorithmic stablecoin, initially pegged to USD with potential returns up to ~23% APR; and a later pivot away from the USD peg due to regulatory concerns, toward a “digital Dirham” model aligned with the UAE’s upcoming CBDC.

These moves signal Sonic’s agility in adapting to both market opportunities and legal frameworks. Cronje also hinted at FlyingTulip, a new DeFi platform under development that aims to bring advanced liquidity tooling, impermanent loss reduction, and unified leveraged AMMs to Sonic.

We will no longer be releasing a USD based algorithmic stable coin.

Completely unrelated, we will be releasing a mathematically bound numerical Dirham which is settled and denominated in USD, which is definitely not a USD based algorithmic stable coin. https://t.co/NlLsT5IqoE

— Andre Cronje (@AndreCronjeTech) March 28, 2025

Beyond tech, the Sonic ecosystem is thriving: token S has gained ~35% in value recently, driven by increased trading activity and deeper liquidity. Strategic partnerships, such as the integration with Alchemy Pay, now enable fiat on-ramps in over 170 countries—making the token more accessible to a global user base. Meanwhile, stablecoin inflows, USDC support, and aggressive DeFi incentives (such as high-yield farming strategies) have driven massive capital inflow, with TVL growing from ~$250M to nearly $1B in just over a month.

Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum: Slight TVL Declines

In contrast, some leading blockchains saw their TVL decrease slightly in the same period:

Ethereum (ETH)

In the past 24 hours, ETH has maintained its position as the leading blockchain in the DeFi space, with a Total Value Locked (TVL) of approximately $49.014 billion, despite a slight decline of 1.02%.

Learn more: What is Ethereum?

This modest drop may reflect broader market volatility or a temporary reallocation of capital to other emerging opportunities.

Meanwhile, other major chains such as Solana and Bitcoin also saw their TVLs drop by 7.45% and 23.50%, respectively — suggesting a broader downward trend across the DeFi market.

Amid this, several Ethereum-based protocols have drawn significant attention. Most notably, EigenLayer, a liquid restaking protocol, experienced a 170% TVL surge within one week, reaching $5.67 billion. It has now overtaken Uniswap to become the fifth-largest DeFi protocol globally.

This explosive growth followed EigenLayer’s recent move to reopen restaking for select tokens and temporarily remove TVL caps per asset — a strategic decision that attracted a wave of new capital.

More broadly, the liquid restaking sector on Ethereum has witnessed remarkable year-over-year growth. Over the past 12 months, TVL in this category jumped from $284 million to over $17 billion, highlighting increased interest from the DeFi community in optimizing staking yields through restaking mechanisms.

Solana (SOL)

Over the past 24 hours, SOL has maintained its status as one of the top DeFi blockchains with a Total Value Locked (TVL) of approximately $6.62 billion, reflecting a modest 1.65% decrease. Despite this short-term dip, Solana continues to rank among the leading DeFi platforms, backed by a vibrant and diverse ecosystem.

Learn more: What is Solana?

Network Activity:

• DEX Trading Volume: Over the last 24 hours, decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume on Solana reached $2.1 billion, reflecting strong activity in the ecosystem.
• Daily Active Addresses: Solana recorded 2.88 million active addresses in the past 24 hours, indicating high user participation.
• Stablecoin Market Cap: The total stablecoin market cap on Solana is approximately $12.599 billion, signaling confidence and healthy liquidity in the network.

Arbitrum (ARB)

In the past 24 hours, ARB has remained stable with a Total Value Locked (TVL) of approximately $2.398 billion, reflecting a slight decrease of 0.79% compared to the previous day. This minor fluctuation suggests that Arbitrum’s TVL remains consistently steady, demonstrating continued confidence from its user base and investors.

Network Activity:

• DEX Volume: Arbitrum recorded a total DEX trading volume of $250.45 million over the last 24 hours, reflecting active DeFi engagement within the ecosystem.
• Daily Active Addresses: The network had 287,783 daily active addresses, indicating a healthy level of user activity and participation.
• Stablecoin Market Cap: The total stablecoin market cap on Arbitrum stands at $3.279 billion, highlighting strong liquidity and market trust in the network.

Notable News and Events:

• Arbitrum Gaming Catalyst Update: The Arbitrum Gaming Catalyst program recently hired a DAO Relations Representative, following a proposal to revoke previously allocated funds — a move that reflects evolving governance dynamics in the ecosystem.
• Layer 2 Performance Comparison: Arbitrum continues to outperform Optimism in several key areas — including daily transaction count, active wallet addresses, and overall TVL — reinforcing its lead among Ethereum’s Layer-2 scaling solutions.

Factors Influencing TVL Changes

Several factors can influence whether a chain’s TVL goes up or down, including:

• Market sentiment: Overall crypto market trends directly affect the USD value of locked assets. When coin prices rise, the USD-denominated TVL often increases; conversely, if prices fall, TVL can drop even if the number of coins locked remains the same . In this way, TVL reflects not just the amount of assets locked, but also the market value of those assets.
• Events and news: Positive events such as new project launches, reward programs (yield farming, airdrops), or protocol upgrades can attract new liquidity into an ecosystem, boosting its TVL. On the other hand, negative news like security breaches, hacks, or network outages can cause investors to lose confidence and withdraw funds, leading to a sharp TVL decrease.
• Capital rotation between blockchains: Users often move assets between chains to chase better yields. For example, if a new chain offers very attractive returns, capital from other chains might flow into that chain, causing its TVL to rise while the TVL on other platforms drops. Competition among DeFi platforms means TVL is constantly shifting as users seek the best opportunities.

Conclusion

By tracking daily TVL changes, newcomers can gain a better understanding of DeFi trends across different blockchains. However, remember that TVL is just one of many metrics for evaluating a project. To get a comprehensive view, it’s wise to also consider other indicators like user counts, trading volumes, or market capitalization. By doing so, we can more accurately assess the health and potential of a crypto ecosystem, rather than relying on any single metric in isolation.