What is DeFiLlama?
DeFiLlama is an independent data aggregator focused on decentralized finance (DeFi). It tracks Total Value Locked (TVL) across protocols, chains, and liquidity pools, offering a neutral view of where capital sits in the DeFi ecosystem. Unlike marketing portals, DeFiLlama emphasizes raw metrics, open data, and community-driven integrations so anyone can inspect, compare, and build on top of the data.
Core Capabilities
Continuous measurement of assets deposited in smart contracts across protocols and chains — the primary metric for DeFi health and adoption.
Rankings allow quick comparisons by TVL, showing which bridges, DEXs, lending markets, and yield platforms hold the most capital.
Time series of TVL, token prices, and liquidity enables trend analysis, research, and the creation of data-driven signals.
DeFiLlama provides APIs and a community of contributors that expand coverage, validate sources, and keep the dataset transparent.
How DeFiLlama Works
DeFiLlama collects on-chain data directly from smart contracts and public APIs, transforms that data into standardized metrics, and aggregates results into protocol and chain level insights. Community contributors add adapters for new projects; each adapter maps contract addresses to TVL and defines how assets should be counted. The platform documents methodology to help users understand what TVL represents and where data limitations exist.
Use Cases
- Developers use raw datasets and APIs to build dashboards, bots, or DeFi analytics apps.
- Researchers study capital flows, compare cross-chain adoption, and test hypotheses about liquidity dynamics.
- Traders & LPs monitor protocol health, liquidity concentration, and historical flows to inform risk decisions.
- Journalists & Builders cite neutral TVL rankings to provide context on market changes and protocol launches.
Strengths & Limitations
Strengths include transparency, rapidly growing protocol coverage, and an open-source mindset. Limitations are inherent to TVL: it measures nominal capital under contract rather than realized risk or profitability. Wrapped assets, cross-chain double counting, and price fluctuations can influence TVL, so DeFiLlama encourages combining TVL with activity and revenue metrics for a fuller picture.
Getting Started
To explore DeFiLlama, start with protocol and chain pages to view current TVL and historical charts. For builders, the API and GitHub repositories (open-source adapters) are the fastest path to integrate data into custom tooling. Always read the methodology notes for each adapter to understand how assets are counted and what adjustments are applied.
Conclusion
DeFiLlama has become a go-to resource for transparent DeFi metrics — offering neutral TVL tracking, open APIs, and a contributor ecosystem. While TVL is not the only signal to evaluate protocols, DeFiLlama provides the essential, auditable datasets that help the ecosystem measure growth, perform research, and build resilient tools.