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Ethereum’s share of decentralized finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL) has fallen from 63.5% in January 2025 to 53% by May 2026, according to Defillama data. While Ethereum remains the largest single-chain venue by TVL, rival networks have increased their combined footprint as liquidity diversifies across more blockchains.
In absolute terms, Ethereum commands the largest DeFi stack on any single chain, with approximately $45.50 billion in TVL. However, the decline in share indicates that competing blockchains are attracting capital at a faster rate, spreading DeFi liquidity across a wider set of networks.
Defillama’s chain rankings show Solana with 6.76% of total DeFi TVL, followed by BNB Chain at 6.55%, Bitcoin at 6.16%, Tron at 6.01%, Base at 5.31%, and Hyperliquid at 1.82%. No single rival matches Ethereum’s absolute size, but the cumulative shift is material: non-Ethereum chains together account for roughly 47% of the global DeFi market.
The drivers behind Ethereum’s share decline include lower transaction costs on competing networks, the maturation of Ethereum-aligned layer-2 chains that draw TVL away from Ethereum mainnet, and the growth of DeFi-native ecosystems on Solana and BNB Chain.
On Solana, protocols including Jupiter, Raydium, and Kamino have attracted billions in liquidity that might otherwise have defaulted to Ethereum. On BNB Chain, PancakeSwap is cited as a key beneficiary of that liquidity migration.
The layer-2 factor is particularly important for interpreting Ethereum’s effective footprint. Much of what is built for Ethereum—such as Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism—settles to Ethereum but is tracked as separate chains in DeFi analytics dashboards. If layer-2 TVL were consolidated under the Ethereum umbrella, Ethereum’s effective share would be substantially higher.
The timing of the data comes amid sustained narrative pressure on Ethereum into mid-2026, including ongoing debates about its fee revenue trajectory, the pace of its development roadmap, and intensifying competition from faster, cheaper chains.
The broader multichain direction also reflects a push toward wider onchain financial coverage. Jesse Pollak, creator of Base, said in a May 9 post: “bring every financial instrument onchain.” Whether that expansion primarily materializes on Ethereum mainnet, within its layer-2 ecosystem, or across rival chains remains a key question for DeFi’s next phase of growth.
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