Is DeFi finally back after TVL jumps by 38% in Q3?

by shayaan
Source: CryptoRank

By the time June 2026 rolled around, it was down to $69 billion.

Remember, it wasn’t just one good month dragging the numbers up. TVL grew in July, August, and September; by 7%, 15% and 11%, respectively.

Source: CryptoRank

Ethereum [ETH] still holds more than half of it all, at about $53.7 billion. However, Monad’s [MON] TVL shot up 183% in the quarter!

Additionally, while Robinhood Chain only went live in July, it’s already over $1 billion.

$252M in tokenised stocks is now in DeFi!

It’s not just Robinhood Chain whose growth is indicative of stocks making their way on-chain. According to Token Terminal, there’s about $252 million worth of tokenized stocks deposited… across DeFi protocols!

Allow us to help you with some context: That number was close to zero until early 2025. It picked up slowly through the year, then took off over the last few months.

Source: Token Terminal

Uniswap [UNI] is where most of it ended up, with $82.1 million across its v3 and v4 pools. Kamino Lend [KMNO] came next at $51.3 million, followed by Pendle [PENDLE] at $33.8 million.

Here, it’s interesting that people aren’t just buying these tokens and leaving them in a wallet. They’re trading them, lending them out, and earning yield on them, same as they would with any other crypto!

It’s not just the crypto native platforms…

TradFi behemoth Morgan Stanley has set up a Digital Asset Lab to test out stablecoins, tokenisation, and DeFi apps across its business.

As it stands, the lab has worked on tokenisation, electronic trading, cybersecurity and machine learning. It’s run by the bank’s innovation team, overseen by its people across New York, Scotland and India.

See also  UK finalises 2026 crypto rules with DeFi carve‑out and ‘controlling entity’ test

A lot of this is coming from clients. With one of the biggest wealth management businesses in the U.S, more of those clients are likely to want Bitcoin [BTC] and other digital assets.

Earlier this year, it also started offering crypto trading on E*Trade.


Final Summary

  • DeFi TVL rose by 38% in Q3 2026 to $95 billion; $252 million in tokenized stocks are now in DeFi too!
  • Morgan Stanley also launched its own Digital Asset Lab recently.

cryptonews.net

You may also like

Latest News

Copyright © Sovereign Wealth Signals