Binance Research Report: DeFi Total Locked Value Decreased by $43.4 Billion in the First Half of 2026, a Drop of 38%

Binance Research has released a report stating that the overall crypto on-chain market contracted in the first half of 2026, with the total locked value in DeFi across all chains decreasing by $43.4 billion, a decline of 38%. The total market capitalization of the six major public chains covered in the report fell by $246.5 billion, a drop of 42%. The holdings of Ethereum spot ETFs decreased from over 6 million to 5.2 million, while the holdings of digital asset management companies increased from 6 million to 7.7 million, indicating a reversal in the role of marginal holders. The gas price on Ethereum dropped by 75% year-on-year, and trading volume grew by about 50%, but the annual on-chain revenue is still expected to decline by 53%. The user attrition rate of general-purpose Layer 2 networks far exceeded the overall market decline, with total user operations dropping by approximately 77% from January to June. Solana's network revenue fell from $40 million in January to $14 million in June. The market capitalization of tokenized RWA on the BNB Chain grew by 107% in the first half of the year, becoming the main trading platform for tokenized equity, and BNB remains the only major L1 token that is deflationary. The DeFi industry suffered losses of $972 million in the first half of the year due to 207 security incidents, setting a new six-month high; driven by the World Cup, the monthly nominal trading volume of prediction markets rose to $51.6 billion.