# TVL

> Total value locked. The dollar value of all assets sitting inside a DeFi protocol or chain.

Canonical URL: https://fudfomo.co/glossary/tvl
Source: What The Block! Dictionary v1.0 (last updated 2026-04-25), browsable at https://wtb.fudfomo.co.

## Definition

TVL stands for total value locked. It adds up the market value of everything users have deposited into a protocol's smart contracts: lending pools, vaults, liquidity pools, and so on.

TVL is often quoted as a measure of how much trust a protocol has earned, but it moves with token prices and incentive programmes. A protocol can show a falling TVL just because the price of its native token dropped, not because users walked away.

## Related terms

- [DeFi](https://fudfomo.co/glossary/defi): Decentralised finance. Apps that offer lending, trading, and saving on a blockchain instead of through a bank.
- [Liquidity Pool](https://fudfomo.co/glossary/liquidity-pool): A shared pot of two tokens that lets people trade between them on a decentralised exchange.
- [Lending Protocol](https://fudfomo.co/glossary/lending-protocol): A DeFi app that lets users deposit crypto to earn interest and others borrow against collateral.
- [Tokenomics](https://fudfomo.co/glossary/tokenomics): The economic design of a token: total supply, how it is distributed, and how it changes over time.

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