The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi lending protocols reached a record $55.69 billion, surpassing the historical highs at the end of 2021, 2022, and 2024. Aave v3 was the main driver of this growth, with its TVL reaching $26.09 billion last week, a 55% increase from $16.87 billion two months ago, and over a 32% year-over-year increase from $19.72 billion at the beginning of 2025. In April, Aave's average daily fees were about $900 thousand, rising to approximately $1.60 million in June, indicating positive growth in protocol fee revenue. Over the past three months, the AAVE token has risen more than 65%, far outperforming Bitcoin's 26% increase over the same period. Besides Aave, lending protocols like Morpho Blue and Maple Finance have also performed strongly. Maple Finance has successfully diversified its customer base by expanding into unsecured real-world asset (RWA) lending, particularly through its "Sovereign Pools" framework, which allows any representative to grant credit lines after verifying borrowers' on-chain data. This trend also reflects the rise of tokenized finance, enabling traditional credit sectors to participate in the DeFi ecosystem by purchasing tokenized notes.

AAVE

MORPHO

The total value locked (TVL) in lending protocols has reached an all-time high of over $55.69 billion, surpassing its previous peaks set in 2021, 2022, and late 2024.Aave v3, in particular, has been a major contributor to this surge, hitting a new all-time high of $26.09 billion in TVL last week. Just two months earlier, at the start of April, Aave v3’s TVL stood at $16.87 billion, marking a 55% increase in just two months. Compared to the beginning of 2025, when TVL was $19.72 billion, Aave v3 is now up over 32% year-to-date.For the month of April, Aave averaged roughly $900,000 per day in fees generated. This figure has grown to a daily average of roughly $1.6 million in June, signalling positive growth in terms of protocol fee generation. Over the past three months, the AAVE token has increased by over 65%, significantly outperforming BTC, which has risen by just 26% during the same period.This growth trend isn't isolated to Aave. Other lending protocols, notably Morpho Blue and Maple Finance, have also recorded strong momentum in recent months:Maple Finance, in particular, has gained traction due to its expansion into under-collateralised real-world asset (RWA) lending. Its "sovereign pool" framework enables any delegate to originate credit lines provided they can verify borrower underwriting data on-chain. This innovation has enabled Maple to diversify beyond its original clientele in the crypto market-making space.More broadly, this also aligns with the rise of tokenized finance, where traditional credit desks that can’t hold spot crypto can still participate by purchasing tokenized notes, funneling capital into DeFi rails.This is an excerpt fromThe Block's Data &amp; Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.

DeFi lending TVL hits a record high, surpassing 55.60 billion USD, led by Aave, Maple, and Morpho