Ethereum’s DeFi TVL Share Falls to 53% as Rivals Gain

Ethereum’s share of global decentralized finance total value locked dropped to 53% in May 2026, down from 63.5% in January 2025, according to DeFiLlama chain rankings. The platform still records the largest single‑chain DeFi balance at about $45.5 billion in TVL, while non‑Ethereum chains together hold roughly 47% of total DeFi value.

DeFiLlama’s data show individual chain shares as follows: Solana 6.76%, BNB Chain 6.55%, Bitcoin 6.16%, Tron 6.01%, Base 5.31% and Hyperliquid 1.82%. No single rival matches Ethereum’s dollar amount, but the combined gains across multiple networks reduced Ethereum’s market share.

Market participants have moved capital toward chains with lower transaction costs and growing native DeFi options. Solana has drawn liquidity to protocols such as Jupiter, Raydium and Kamino, while PancakeSwap continues to attract assets on BNB Chain. These protocols have accumulated pools that previously might have been deployed on Ethereum.

Layer‑2 networks that settle to Ethereum, including Base, Arbitrum and Optimism, are listed separately in analytics dashboards. Base alone holds 5.31% of DeFi TVL. If layer‑2 balances were aggregated under Ethereum, the network’s effective share of global DeFi TVL would be higher.

The timing of the data coincides with ongoing discussions about Ethereum’s fee revenue, the pace of its upgrade roadmap and competition from faster, lower‑cost chains. Jesse Pollak, creator of Base, wrote on May 9: “bring every financial instrument onchain.”

Total value locked measures the dollar value of assets deposited in decentralized finance protocols. While Ethereum remains the largest single destination by absolute dollars, the multichain distribution of TVL reflects where users and developers are deploying capital and building applications.