Ethereum News Today: Record DeFi TVL Masks 22% Active Wallets Drop, Sustainability Concerns Rise

DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL) reached an all-time high of $237 billion in the third quarter of 2025, according to DappRadar, as institutional capital flowed into stablecoins and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization infrastructure. However, the number of daily unique active wallets across decentralized applications (DApps) fell by 22.4% quarter-on-quarter to 18.7 million, signaling a divergence between liquidity growth and user engagement. The report highlights that while DeFi protocols attracted record liquidity, categories like SocialFi and AI DApps experienced significant attrition, losing 1.7 million and 2.3 million daily users, respectively.

The surge in DeFi TVL was driven by institutional adoption of Bitcoin and stablecoins, regulatory clarity under the U.S. GENIUS Act, and new infrastructure enabling RWA tokenization. Stablecoin inflows alone totaled $46 billion in Q3, led by Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC. A new layer-1 blockchain, Plasma, designed specifically for stablecoins, debuted with $8 billion in TVL within its first month. This infrastructure expansion underscored stablecoins' role as a bridge between crypto and traditional finance, with platforms like Plasma accelerating liquidity aggregation.

Ethereum maintained its dominance as the largest DeFi network by TVL, holding $119 billion in locked assets despite a 4% decline from Q2. BNB Chain emerged as a key growth driver, with TVL increasing 15% to become the third-largest DeFi network, attributed to the launch of the perpetual DEX Aster. In contrast, Solana's DeFi TVL dropped 33% to $13.8 billion. The performance contrast reflects shifting capital flows, with BNB Chain's targeted infrastructure outpacing Solana's broader ecosystem.

Data integrity concerns emerged as Aster's trading volumes mirrored Binance Perp's metrics, prompting DefiLlama to delist the DEX pending verification. This incident highlighted the need for cross-platform validation of liquidity data, particularly as protocols compete for market share through rapid volume growth. Meanwhile, Ethereum's TVL resilience and BNB Chain's gains underscored the importance of network-specific innovations, such as Ethereum's RWA integrations and BNB Chain's focus on perpetual trading.

The report underscores a critical trend: institutional capital is increasingly prioritizing liquidity over user activity. While DeFi TVL hit record levels, the decline in daily active wallets-driven by waning interest in AI and SocialFi DApps-suggests that retail engagement has not kept pace with institutional inflows. This divergence raises questions about the sustainability of TVL growth if user participation remains stagnant. Analysts noted that the Q3 data reflects a broader shift in the DeFi landscape, where infrastructure development and regulatory clarity are outpacing organic user adoption.

Source: [1] Cointelegraph (https://cointelegraph.com/news/defi-tvl-record-237b-dapp-wallets-drop-22-q3-2025) [2] COINOTAG (https://en.coinotag.com/record-defi-tvl-in-q3-may-mask-22-drop-in-dapp-wallets-as-ethereum-remains-top-network/)