TVL (Total Value Locked)
The dollar value deposited in a DeFi protocol — adoption's headline metric, with well-known distortions.
TVL sums all assets deposited in a protocol’s contracts — collateral, pool liquidity, staked funds. It’s DeFi’s headline adoption metric: rising TVL signals capital trusting the code, and protocol rankings are effectively TVL leaderboards (DefiLlama being the reference tracker).
Its distortions are equally standard: TVL inflates with token prices (no new deposits needed), double-counts recursive strategies, and mercenary capital chasing incentives leaves the moment emissions stop. Sharper questions pair TVL with fee revenue: value locked earning real fees indicates a business; value locked farming emissions indicates a countdown. Directional truth, headline-number skepticism.