Definition of total value locked (2024)

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The current total value of a cryptocurrency that users "lock up" in various lending and staking protocols. Depending on the type of investment, cashing in tokens may not be allowed for some period of time, or there may be a penalty.

Total value locked (TVL) can be crypto locked up in a smart contract for any project, in a liquidity pool for lending or staked in a blockchain node for mining crypto that uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus method. TVL is widely used to measure the health of a crypto. See crypto liquidity pool, proof-of-stake algorithm.

Market Cap/TVL Indicator

The market cap of a crypto is the current price times total outstanding tokens, which shows the total amount invested at the moment. A more insightful indicator is the mCap/TVL (market cap to total value locked) relationship, because the higher the TVL, the greater the interest in long-term investment is presumed. Like a bond, CD or savings account, crypto is lent for yield, and as long as the yield keeps coming in, investors stay locked in.

Top 10 Total Value Locked

According to CoinGecko, the following were the top 10 cryptos locked as of November 2023. Note that although Bitcoin has the largest market cap of any cryptocurrency, it is number 8 in total value locked. The market cap values were taken from CryptoCompare.com.

  Billions $ (rounded) Crypto   TVL mCap 1 Ethereum 23.0 230 2 Tron 7.9 9 3 Binance 2.8 38 4 Polygon .8 8 5 Avalanche .6 9 6 Solana .4 31 7 Cronos .3 3 8 Bitcoin .3 703 9 Cardano .2 16 10 Kava .2 0.7