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Glossary · T
TVL (Total Value Locked)
The total dollar value of all crypto assets deposited in a DeFi protocol's smart contracts at a given time. TVL is DeFi's primary size metric — a protocol with $5B TVL has $5B of user deposits. TVL fluctuates with asset prices and net deposits/withdrawals. DeFiLlama (defillama.com) is the standard tracking source. TVL has limitations as a metric: it is reflexive (rises with prices, not just deposits), can be gamed by incentives, and doesn't measure revenue or users.
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