Total Value Locked — the real dollar value of assets deposited into a protocol's smart contracts, a widely used DeFi size metric.

No. DefiLlama's public API is free and key-less, the industry-standard open DeFi data source.

Does this include centralized exchanges?

No — this board filters to real decentralized protocols only.

Yes — free, no download, in your browser.

Why does TVL change when nobody withdrew?

Deposits are valued in dollars, so a fall in the price of the deposited tokens reduces TVL even when the number of tokens is unchanged.

Can the same money be counted twice?

Partly. DefiLlama counts a token once within the same protocol, but a deposit that is reused in a different protocol can appear in both, so totals can overstate the underlying funds.

Is a higher TVL safer?

Not necessarily. TVL shows how much has been deposited, not how secure the contracts are, so it is not a safety rating.

DeFi TVL Board Screensaver

The DeFi TVL Board screensaver ranks decentralized finance protocols by real Total Value Locked on a live bar board, drawn key-less from DefiLlama's open API. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.

How the DeFi TVL Board screensaver works

The saver fetches real current TVL for every tracked DeFi protocol from DefiLlama, with no key required.

Protocols rank top to bottom by real locked value, with each bar sized to scale.

The board eases smoothly if the ranking shifts on refresh.

Choose how many protocols appear on the board at once.

What Total Value Locked does and does not measure

DeFi, short for decentralised finance, is the set of lending, trading and savings services run by smart contracts on blockchains instead of by banks or brokers. Total Value Locked is the value of the crypto assets deposited in a protocol’s smart contracts, and it is the metric most often used to rank protocols by size. DefiLlama tracks it through open-source adapters, one per protocol, that anyone can contribute to.

TVL is easy to misread. Most tokens are priced in US dollars, so TVL can fall when token prices drop even though nobody has withdrawn anything, and it can rise in a rally with no new deposits. Double counting is another issue. DefiLlama counts a token once within the same protocol even if a receipt token is redeposited there, but funds can still appear in more than one protocol, and methods differ between protocols and categories.

TVL says how much is deposited, not how much is used or how safe the code is. Smart contracts can be exploited, and the ranking can include categories such as bridges as well as lending markets. A dollar figure on a bar is a snapshot of deposits, not a measure of profit or risk.

A worked example

You'll see the real current largest protocols at the top — genuine on-chain locked value, aggregated across many blockchains by DefiLlama's own real tracking.

Settings & tips

Protocols shown sets how many bars appear.
Accent recolours the bars.
TVL can shift quickly with real token price moves, not just deposits and withdrawals.

Frequently asked questions

What is TVL?: Total Value Locked — the real dollar value of assets deposited into a protocol's smart contracts, a widely used DeFi size metric.
Is a key needed?: No. DefiLlama's public API is free and key-less, the industry-standard open DeFi data source.
Does this include centralized exchanges?: No — this board filters to real decentralized protocols only.
Is it free?: Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
Why does TVL change when nobody withdrew?: Deposits are valued in dollars, so a fall in the price of the deposited tokens reduces TVL even when the number of tokens is unchanged.
Can the same money be counted twice?: Partly. DefiLlama counts a token once within the same protocol, but a deposit that is reused in a different protocol can appear in both, so totals can overstate the underlying funds.
Is a higher TVL safer?: Not necessarily. TVL shows how much has been deposited, not how secure the contracts are, so it is not a safety rating.

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