Is DeFi outperforming Bitcoin, and is leadership broad?
Bottom line
JUST ranks first for research priority in DeFi crypto at 72.6/100, and its native activity proof is incomplete. The theme's 13-week excess versus Bitcoin is -1.4% on 8% breadth, which is what decides whether that lead is isolated or broad. 2 of the 31 assets here carry enough native evidence to move past a tape-led label.
These DeFi coins are part of the cryptocurrency universe this site tracks daily — 894 of the top 1,000 crypto currency assets by market cap, priced from exchange closes and matched to protocol fees and revenue where a protocol publishes them.
The theme itself · before any single company
How has DeFi moved against Bitcoin?
The line below covers up to 5 years and opens on the 5Y view; the buttons cut it shorter. Over the most recent two of them this theme is 34% behind Bitcoin. Protocol revenue across its protocols grew 41% on average over the last four reported quarters.
ASLEEP · 1y +7.7%·Fundamentals up, price down19 of 37 coins ahead of Bitcoin by 5% or more over three months
RS — · 3/37 >200d (−2) · 19/37 lead (+1) · EPS —
DeFi, equal-weighted, based at 200Bitcoin, same base, same starttrailing 12-month protocol revenue risingfalling
DeFi, equal-weighted, based at 200Bitcoin, same base, same starttrailing 12-month protocol revenue risingfalling
DeFi, equal-weighted, based at 200Bitcoin, same base, same starttrailing 12-month protocol revenue risingfalling
Both lines start at 200 in the same week, so the distance between them is the whole story: the theme line is an equal-weighted index of its 37 coins. The bars underneath are trailing 12-month protocol revenue, one bar per reported quarter, each member rebased to 100 at the start and the theme taking the median — so a price line pulling away from flat bars is a re-rating, not earnings. A bar turns red when that figure is lower than the quarter before. Rules are fixed and applied identically everywhere on this site: ahead by 5% or more over three months, or behind by 20% or more over a year while protocol revenue grew 20% or more. Hover any point to read both values and the gap. This is a description of what the numbers did, not advice.
RISK OFF market context
DeFi vs Bitcoin — Relative Strength & Breadth
DeFi crypto has underperformed Bitcoin by 12.2% over 52 weeks on an equal-weight index of current members. Over 13 weeks the figure is -1.4%. 2 of 26 covered assets are above their own 200-day average. Chainflip leads Bitcoin-relative strength at +78%. Price readings are as of 2026-07-31.
-1.4%13w vs BTC
-12%52w vs BTC
2/26Above 200-DMA
FLIPRS leader · +78%
Assets
31
canonical functional membership
Activity-covered
2/31
enough native evidence
Top score
72.6/100
JUST
Calendar quarters
20
complete; missing stays missing
Global asset selection · top 20 shown
Showing 20 of 31 assets
00 · exact additive research priority
4-Factor Crypto Evidence Score
A within-theme research-priority score for the 31 assets in DeFi, out of 100. The four displayed point contributions add exactly to the total, and the market regime changes the action label, never the arithmetic. JUST is highest at 72.6/100 on 50% evidence. It ranks research attention, not portfolio action.
JUST leads the current research queue at 72.6/100 with 50% evidence.
2/31 assets have enough native activity evidence to move beyond a tape-led label.
15 of the 46 DeFi coins are not rated this week: 13 have no price within 7 days, 2 report no traded volume. They are listed in full below the ranking.
Missing native metrics are not scored as zero and are not silently reweighted. They pull only the affected factor toward neutral and lower its visible evidence percentage. An asset with nothing measurable at all is not scored at 50 either — it is listed as not rated.
Which projects are generating the most network fees?
Convex Finance leads DeFi crypto on Trailing 12-month fees at $23.6M, 10% ahead of Renzo. 0 of 2 assets with comparable change data are growing. Coverage is 5 of the 31 ranked assets in this theme, through the Q2 2026 calendar quarter. Where a project publishes nothing, the cell stays blank rather than being read as zero.
LeaderConvex Finance · $23.6M
Gap10% versus #2
Persistence0 assets have positive comparable growth
Coverage5/31 assets
Investor read: Use this as a network-economics research lead, not token-holder earnings. Verify whether the measured activity accrues to the token before treating scale as value capture.
This conclusion weakens if: fee growth turns negative across two complete calendar quarters or fee coverage falls below the stated threshold.
Trailing 12-month fees is the sum of the latest four complete calendar quarters. Growth compares that sum with the prior four-quarter sum.
Trailing 12-month feestop five
1Convex Finance CVX$23.6M
2Renzo REZ$21.4M
3USD.AI CHIP$21.0M
4Sei SEI$133.3K
5Berachain BERA$96.9K
Fee growthtop five
1Sei SEI-18%
2Convex Finance CVX-27%
Network fees · asset comparison
5/31 level · 2/31 change
Latest comparable data · top 20 shown first
Asset
Trailing 12-month fees
Fee growth
just
—
—
chainflip
—
—
sun-token
—
—
ibs-3
—
—
chip-2
$8.9M
—
bonfida
—
—
ethena
—
—
sosovalue
—
—
numeraire
—
—
bim-2
—
—
yearn-finance
—
—
anvil
—
—
lombard-protocol
—
—
home
—
—
instadapp
—
—
triple-plus
—
—
stargate-finance
—
—
convex-finance
$2.7M
-27%
auction
—
—
terra-luna
—
—
orbs
—
—
dexe
—
—
yield-basis
$915.9K
—
renzo
$1.7M
—
fogo
—
—
liquity
—
—
sei-network
$12.2K
-18%
spell-token
—
—
altura-2
—
—
berachain-bera
$6.1K
—
ai-powered-finance
—
—
Showing 20 of 31 assets
02 · complete calendar-quarter evidence
Which projects convert activity into protocol revenue?
Convex Finance leads DeFi crypto on Trailing 12-month revenue at $23.1M, 242% ahead of USD.AI. 0 of 1 asset with comparable change data are growing. Coverage is 4 of the 31 ranked assets in this theme, through the Q2 2026 calendar quarter. Where a project publishes nothing, the cell stays blank rather than being read as zero.
LeaderConvex Finance · $23.1M
Gap242% versus #2
Persistence0 assets have positive comparable growth
Coverage4/31 assets
Investor read: Use this as a network-economics research lead, not token-holder earnings. Verify whether the measured activity accrues to the token before treating scale as value capture.
This conclusion weakens if: revenue growth turns negative or the revenue-to-fees take rate falls for two complete calendar quarters.
Trailing 12-month revenue is the sum of the latest four complete calendar quarters. Growth compares that sum with the prior four-quarter sum.
Trailing 12-month revenuetop five
1Convex Finance CVX$23.1M
2USD.AI CHIP$6.8M
3Renzo REZ$2.2M
4Sei SEI$111.0K
Revenue growthtop five
1Convex Finance CVX-24%
Protocol revenue · asset comparison
4/31 level · 1/31 change
Latest comparable data · top 20 shown first
Asset
Trailing 12-month revenue
Revenue growth
just
—
—
chainflip
—
—
sun-token
—
—
ibs-3
—
—
chip-2
$5.1M
—
bonfida
—
—
ethena
—
—
sosovalue
—
—
numeraire
—
—
bim-2
—
—
yearn-finance
—
—
anvil
—
—
lombard-protocol
—
—
home
—
—
instadapp
—
—
triple-plus
—
—
stargate-finance
—
—
convex-finance
$2.7M
-24%
auction
—
—
terra-luna
—
—
orbs
—
—
dexe
—
—
yield-basis
$143.2K
—
renzo
$473.5K
—
fogo
—
—
liquity
—
—
sei-network
$12.2K
—
spell-token
—
—
altura-2
—
—
berachain-bera
$6.1K
—
ai-powered-finance
—
—
Showing 20 of 31 assets
03 · complete calendar-quarter evidence
Where is capital actually committed on-chain?
Convex Finance leads DeFi crypto on Quarter-end TVL at $463.6M, 137% ahead of USD.AI. 2 of 11 assets with comparable change data are growing, fastest at USD.AI. Coverage is 15 of the 31 ranked assets in this theme, through the Q2 2026 calendar quarter. Where a project publishes nothing, the cell stays blank rather than being read as zero.
LeaderConvex Finance · $463.6M
Gap137% versus #2
Persistence2 assets have positive comparable growth
Coverage15/31 assets
Investor read: Use this as a network-economics research lead, not token-holder earnings. Verify whether the measured activity accrues to the token before treating scale as value capture.
This conclusion weakens if: TVL rises while fees and users fall; that pattern can be incentive-funded mercenary liquidity.
Quarter-end TVL uses protocol TVL first for protocol assets and exact-ID chain TVL for chain assets or where protocol TVL is unavailable. A blank is unavailable, not zero. Growth compares with the same complete quarter one year earlier.
Quarter-end TVLtop five
1Convex Finance CVX$463.6M
2USD.AI CHIP$195.9M
3Yield Basis YB$111.9M
4Renzo REZ$87.3M
5Berachain BERA$54.7M
TVL growthtop five
1USD.AI CHIP+684%
2Chainflip FLIP+7.6%
3Bounce AUCTION-0.1%
4Terra Luna Classic LUNC-24%
5Convex Finance CVX-56%
Total value locked · asset comparison
15/31 level · 11/31 change
Latest comparable data · top 20 shown first
Asset
Quarter-end TVL
TVL growth
just
—
—
chainflip
$12.6M
+7.6%
sun-token
$777.9K
-77%
ibs-3
—
—
chip-2
$195.9M
+684%
bonfida
—
—
ethena
—
—
sosovalue
—
—
numeraire
$4.8K
-100%
bim-2
—
—
yearn-finance
—
—
anvil
$10.0M
-89%
lombard-protocol
—
—
home
—
—
instadapp
—
—
triple-plus
—
—
stargate-finance
—
—
convex-finance
$463.6M
-56%
auction
$6.1K
-0.1%
terra-luna
$774.5K
-24%
orbs
$0
—
dexe
—
—
yield-basis
$111.9M
—
renzo
$87.3M
-91%
fogo
$1.8M
—
liquity
—
—
sei-network
$50.2M
-91%
spell-token
—
—
altura-2
$32.4M
—
berachain-bera
$54.7M
-87%
ai-powered-finance
—
—
Showing 20 of 31 assets
04 · let price answer last
Which assets lead on price and relative strength?
Chainflip leads the DeFi tape on Bitcoin-relative strength at +78% over 90 days. 2 of 26 covered assets are above their own 200-day average. Price shows what happened; BTC-relative strength shows whether the asset beat crypto’s opportunity-cost benchmark. Both lines run through 2026-07-31.
Complete set · no silent drops
Which assets are in DeFi?
31 of the 46 coins assigned to DeFi are rated and ranked below, and the other 15 are listed under it with the reason each one is not rated — tape-only names that publish no protocol activity included. Each asset has exactly one canonical functional theme, chosen by a specific-to-general first match on its categories.
15 of the 46 DeFi coins are not rated this week: 13 have no price within 7 days, 2 report no traded volume. Each one stays on this page with its reason instead of being scored at the midpoint of a range nothing measured.
Coin
Market cap
Reason
Detail
Rain RAIN
$10.2B
No price this week
Last traded price is 2026-04-29, 93 days before this page's 2026-07-31 reading.
No traded volume is reported on most of the last 30 days, so it has no liquidity reading.
Methodology · boundaries make the answer useful
What can make this comparison misleading?
This DeFi comparison names 5 ways its own evidence can mislead, all listed below. The largest is that crypto network activity is not company earnings: protocol revenue does not automatically accrue to token holders. Coverage is also uneven — 2 of 31 assets carry enough native evidence to rank on more than price.
Crypto network activity is not company earnings. Protocol revenue does not automatically accrue to token holders.
Market-cap values are a dated universe snapshot, not point-in-time historical supply data.
Current category labels are applied to historical prices; this creates survivorship and taxonomy hindsight.
Funding rates, open interest, liquidations, exchange flows, unlock schedules, historical circulating supply and developer activity are not held and are not inferred.
Equal weighting is used for sector history because true historical market-cap weights are unavailable.
Price and technicalsThrough 2026-07-31. Five-year weekly observations benchmarked to Bitcoin.
Protocol activityThrough 2026-07-31. Fees, revenue, protocol TVL and DEX volume.
Chain activityUsers and transactions through unavailable; separately sourced chain TVL through 2026-07-25.
Market capSnapshot dated 2026-07-04; no historical supply series is implied.
Questions the page should answer directly
Crypto analysis FAQs
These 20 answers cover the questions this page can settle from data it holds — what the category is, how the score is built, what the coverage gaps are, and what would change the read. Every answer below is also present in the page’s FAQ schema and in its plain-text rendition. None of them is a recommendation.
What is DeFi crypto?
DeFi crypto refers to cryptocurrency projects grouped by what they actually do rather than by market fashion. This page tracks 31 such coins by market cap, price and Bitcoin-relative strength, with protocol fees and revenue where a project publishes them. Readings are as of 2026-07-31.
What is the total market cap of DeFi crypto coins?
The DeFi coins on this page are tracked against a universe of 894 of the top 1,000 crypto currency assets by market cap. Market-cap metadata is dated 2026-07-04, separately from the price series, and each coin's own figure is in the table on this page.
Are DeFi crypto coins outperforming Bitcoin?
DeFi has returned -12.2% versus Bitcoin over 52 weeks and -1.4% over 13 weeks on an equal-weight current-member index. 2/26 covered assets are above their 200-day averages as of 2026-07-31.
Which DeFi asset has the strongest research score?
JUST ranks first at 72.6/100: 34.2 + 15.0 + 10.0 + 13.4 = 72.6. It is labelled “Tape-led · on-chain proof incomplete” with 50% overall evidence and 0% native-economics evidence.
Why are some DeFi coins not rated?
15 of the 46 coins are not rated this week: 13 have no price within 7 days, 2 report no traded volume. They stay listed with the reason beside each one rather than being scored at a neutral midpoint, because a missing reading is not a middling reading.
How is the DeFi 4-factor score calculated?
The exact sum is Market leadership /35 + Network and economic traction /30 + Value capture /20 + Liquidity and downside risk /15. Missing data pulls only the affected factor toward neutral and lowers evidence; it is never silently reweighted.
Why can a DeFi asset be labelled tape-led?
Tape-led means price and relative-strength evidence exists but less than half of the native traction and value-capture evidence is available. Such assets remain visible but rank below fully evidenced assets.
Does protocol revenue accrue to the token?
Not necessarily. Protocol fees and revenue measure network economics; token-holder value depends on the protocol’s burn, buyback, staking, distribution and governance rules. This page never assumes accrual merely because revenue exists.
Does crypto have a P/E or PEG ratio?
No comparable company-style P/E or PEG is used. Where coverage permits, the page shows network fee yield and protocol-revenue yield against a dated market-cap snapshot, with an explicit token-accrual caveat.
How much history is shown for DeFi?
The page shows five years of weekly price and relative-strength history and 20 complete calendar quarters of on-chain activity where available. Missing periods remain gaps.
Why do the crypto data dates differ?
Prices and technical metrics run through 2026-07-31; protocol activity through 2026-07-31; chain users and transactions through the latest available chain date; chain TVL through 2026-07-25; market capitalisation is a separate snapshot dated 2026-07-04.
Are stablecoins and wrapped tokens included in DeFi?
No. Pegged, wrapped, liquid-staking receipt and tokenized-asset instruments are excluded because they do not have independent price discovery.
Can one token appear in multiple raw crypto categories?
Yes, but public MLA pages assign each asset to exactly one functional theme using a specific-to-general first-match taxonomy. DeFi therefore has one canonical membership list.
What would invalidate the current DeFi theme read?
The read weakens if the sector’s 13-week relative return versus Bitcoin falls below zero, fewer than one-third of covered assets remain above the 200-day average, and the leading asset’s native activity also contracts.
Does this page include funding rates, open interest or token unlocks?
No. Those datasets are not held in the current research store, so the page names them as unavailable rather than inferring them from price.
Which projects are generating the most network fees?
Convex Finance leads DeFi crypto on Trailing 12-month fees at $23.6M, 10% ahead of Renzo. 0 of 2 assets with comparable change data are growing. Coverage is 5 of the 31 ranked assets in this theme, through the Q2 2026 calendar quarter. Where a project publishes nothing, the cell stays blank rather than being read as zero. Investor read: Use this as a network-economics research lead, not token-holder earnings. Verify whether the measured activity accrues to the token before treating scale as value capture. This conclusion weakens if fee growth turns negative across two complete calendar quarters or fee coverage falls below the stated threshold.
Which projects convert activity into protocol revenue?
Convex Finance leads DeFi crypto on Trailing 12-month revenue at $23.1M, 242% ahead of USD.AI. 0 of 1 asset with comparable change data are growing. Coverage is 4 of the 31 ranked assets in this theme, through the Q2 2026 calendar quarter. Where a project publishes nothing, the cell stays blank rather than being read as zero. Investor read: Use this as a network-economics research lead, not token-holder earnings. Verify whether the measured activity accrues to the token before treating scale as value capture. This conclusion weakens if revenue growth turns negative or the revenue-to-fees take rate falls for two complete calendar quarters.
Where is capital actually committed on-chain?
Convex Finance leads DeFi crypto on Quarter-end TVL at $463.6M, 137% ahead of USD.AI. 2 of 11 assets with comparable change data are growing, fastest at USD.AI. Coverage is 15 of the 31 ranked assets in this theme, through the Q2 2026 calendar quarter. Where a project publishes nothing, the cell stays blank rather than being read as zero. Investor read: Use this as a network-economics research lead, not token-holder earnings. Verify whether the measured activity accrues to the token before treating scale as value capture. This conclusion weakens if TVL rises while fees and users fall; that pattern can be incentive-funded mercenary liquidity.
Which DeFi project has the largest fee base?
Convex Finance leads covered trailing-12-month fees at $23.6M. Coverage is 5/31; this is network activity, not automatically token-holder income.
Which are the biggest DeFi crypto coins by market cap?
DeXe is the largest DeFi crypto coin by market capitalisation at $1.1B, ahead of JUST at $769.5M and Ethena at $728M. The 31 DeFi coins on this page carry $4.8B between them, with a market-cap figure on file for 31 of them. Market-cap metadata is dated 2026-07-04.