Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Market — 2025 Snapshot & Outlook
Introduction
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) refers to blockchain-based financial services that operate without traditional intermediaries, using smart contracts and permissionless networks to deliver lending, trading, payments, derivatives, and tokenized real-world assets. DeFi promises programmable, composable finance with greater transparency and 24/7 access, but it also brings distinct operational, security, and regulatory challenges.
Market size & key metrics
The DeFi market can be measured in several ways—total value locked (TVL), protocol revenues, token market capitalizations, and broader market research estimates—each giving a different angle on scale and growth. Industry estimates for market value and forecasts vary by methodology: some research projects multi-billion dollar market values growing at double-digit to very high compound annual growth rates over the next several years. One widely cited industry projection forecasts a large, high-growth market expansion through the end of the decade.
A frequently used on-chain metric, Total…
