Overview
DeFiLlama is the largest data site for decentralized finance (DeFi). It is best known for TVL (total value locked), the amount of money deposited in DeFi apps, but today it covers much more: fees and revenue, DEX and derivatives volume, stablecoins, yields, token unlocks, bridges, hacks and even crypto ETF flows.
According to its official About page (October 2026), DeFiLlama tracks:
- 9,052 protocols
- 572 blockchains
- 15,877 yield pools
- Revenue for 2,678 protocols and volume for 1,560 DEXs
On 21 October 2026, its homepage showed total DeFi TVL of about $91.8 billion and a stablecoin market of about $301 billion.
DeFiLlama was started in 2020 by a pseudonymous developer known as 0xngmi. It is part of Llama Corp, which also builds other crypto tools. Two things make it unusual in crypto: it has never launched a token, and its data and code are open source. Anyone can read how a protocol’s TVL is calculated and suggest a correction on GitHub.
At Cryptensive, DeFiLlama is a core data source for our ecosystem dashboards.
What you can do on DeFiLlama
TVL rankings
The homepage ranks protocols by TVL and shows changes over 1 day, 7 days and 1 month. You can also rank whole blockchains by TVL, which is one of the best ways to see where money and users are moving: for example, whether activity is growing on Solana, Base, Sui or BNB Chain.
Each protocol page shows its TVL history, the chains it runs on, its token, fees, revenue, audits, official links and a list of past hacks if any. Each chain page shows its largest apps, stablecoin supply, DEX volume and fees.
What TVL means. TVL is the value of crypto deposited in a protocol’s smart contracts. It is a good measure of size and trust, but it is not profit and not users. A protocol can have a high TVL because of a few very large depositors or temporary incentives. TVL also moves with token prices: if ETH falls 20%, the TVL of ETH-heavy protocols falls too, even if no one withdraws. DeFiLlama lets you toggle what counts in TVL (for example staking, borrowed funds or “double counting” between protocols), and it is worth understanding these settings before comparing numbers.
Fees and revenue
DeFiLlama shows how much users pay to each protocol (fees) and how much the protocol keeps (revenue). This is one of the most useful ways to judge whether a project has a real business. Comparing a token’s market cap with its yearly revenue gives a rough idea of how richly it is valued, a little like a price-to-earnings ratio for stocks.
Stablecoins
The stablecoin section tracks the supply of every major stablecoin (USDT, USDC, USDe and others) over time and by chain. Growing stablecoin supply is often read as new money entering crypto; a shrinking supply can signal the opposite.
DEX, perps and other volume
DeFiLlama tracks daily trading volume on decentralized exchanges, perpetual futures platforms, options, DEX aggregators and bridges. It shows which venues are gaining market share, for example in the competition between perps exchanges.
Yields
The Yields section lists thousands of pools where you can earn interest or rewards, with APY, TVL and the underlying assets. It is useful for comparing opportunities, but very high yields usually mean very high risk: unstable tokens, new contracts or temporary incentives.
Unlocks, raises and hacks
- Unlocks shows upcoming token releases to teams and investors, which can add selling pressure.
- Raises lists funding rounds by project and investor.
- Hacks is a database of DeFi exploits with dates, amounts lost and methods. It is a sobering reminder of how risky smart contracts can be.
Other tools
- LlamaSwap: a DEX aggregator that finds the best swap price across other aggregators, without extra fees.
- LlamaAI: an AI assistant that answers questions about DeFi data (limited free use, more with Pro).
- LlamaFeed: a real-time news and data feed.
- CSV downloads and embeddable charts for most datasets.
Plans and pricing
Most of DeFiLlama is free, with no account and no ads. Paid plans add advanced tools and API access. Prices below are from DeFiLlama’s official documentation in October 2026.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Open | Free | TVL, fees, revenue, prices, all public pages, LlamaFeed |
| Pro | $49 / month or $490 / year | LlamaAI research questions, custom dashboards, CSV downloads, custom columns, Google Sheets/Excel add-on |
| API | $300 / month or $3,000 / year | Everything in Pro, plus API access to all datasets (1,000 requests/minute, 1 million calls/month) |
| Enterprise | Custom | Raw database access, hourly and non-public data, licensing |
Pro includes a 7-day free trial, and DeFiLlama accepts payment by card or crypto. University students can request free Pro and API access for coursework or research.
Do you need to pay? For most investors, no. The free website already covers TVL, fees, revenue, stablecoins, volumes and yields. Pro is for analysts who want custom dashboards and exports; the API is for developers and businesses.
Strengths of its approach
- Open source. The code that calculates each protocol’s TVL (the “adapters”) is public on GitHub, so errors can be spotted and fixed by the community.
- Neutral. No token to promote and no paid rankings. Protocols cannot pay to appear higher.
- Consistent. Every protocol is measured the same way, which makes comparisons fairer than relying on each project’s own claims.
Limits to keep in mind
- Data depends on adapters. If an adapter is wrong or outdated, the numbers will be too, until someone fixes it.
- TVL is not safety. A high TVL does not mean a protocol cannot be hacked.
- Some numbers are estimates, especially for revenue on complex protocols, and definitions vary between categories.
- Lots of data, little guidance. The site can be overwhelming for beginners.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free, no ads, no account required
- Widest DeFi coverage (9,000+ protocols, 570+ chains)
- Open-source, transparent methodology
- No token and no paid rankings
- Fees and revenue data to judge real business activity
- Useful extras: stablecoins, unlocks, hacks, yields
Cons
- Can overwhelm beginners
- TVL is easy to misread (price effects, double counting)
- Data quality depends on community-maintained adapters
- Advanced exports and API cost extra
Alternatives
| DeFiLlama | Dune | Token Terminal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | DeFi TVL, fees, volumes | Custom on-chain queries | Financial metrics |
| Cost for basic use | Free | View-only free; paid to run queries | Limited free tier |
| Skill needed | None | SQL for own analysis | None |
| Open source | Yes | Community dashboards | No |
How we use it
On Cryptensive, we use DeFiLlama to:
- Rank the largest apps on each blockchain for our ecosystem dashboards.
- Compare the TVL and revenue of projects we review.
- Track stablecoin supply and DEX volume as signals of market activity.
- Check a protocol’s hack history before writing about it.
Our verdict
DeFiLlama is the best free tool for understanding DeFi. It is broad, neutral, open source and free of ads, which is rare in crypto. If you want to know where money sits on-chain, which apps are actually earning fees, or how much a token unlock might weigh on its price, this is the place to start.
Read its numbers carefully: TVL is a measure of size, not of quality or safety. Combine it with revenue, user activity and the project’s security record before drawing conclusions.
This review is for information only and is not financial advice.