国际清算银行-去中心化金融中总价值锁定（TVL）的可验证性（英）

BIS Working Papers No 1268 Towards verifiability of total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance by Pietro Saggese, Michael Fröwis, Stefan Kitzler, Bernhard Haslhofer and Raphael Auer Monetary and Economic Department May 2025 JEL classification: E42, E58, F31, G12, G19, G23, L50, O33. Keywords: Decentralized finance, DeFi, total value locked, TVL, Ethereum. BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS. This publication is available on the BIS website (www.bis.org). © Bank for International Settlements 2025. All rights reserved. Brief excerpts may be reproduced or translated provided the source is stated. ISSN 1020-0959 (print) ISSN 1682-7678 (online) Towards Verifiability of Total Value Locked (TVL)in Decentralized Finance1st Pietro SaggeseIMT School for Advanced Studies LuccaLucca, Italypietro.saggese@imtlucca.it2nd Michael FröwisIknaio Cryptoasset AnalyticsVienna, Austriamichael@ikna.io3rd Stefan KitzlerComplexity Science HubVienna, Austriakitzler@csh.ac.at4th Bernhard HaslhoferComplexity Science HubVienna, Austriahaslhofer@csh.ac.at5th Raphael AuerBank for International SettlementsBasel, Switzerlandraphael.auer@bisih.orgAbstract—Total Value Locked (TVL) aims to measure theaggregate value of cryptoassets deposited in Decentralized Fi-nance (DeFi) protocols. Although blockchain data is public, theway TVL is computed is not well understood. In practice, itscalculation on major TVL aggregators relies on self-reportsfrom community members and lacks standardization, makingit difficult to verify published figures independently. We thusconduct a systematic study on 939 DeFi projects deployed inEthereum. We study the methodologies used to compute TVL,examine factors hindering verifiability, and ultimately proposestandardization attempts in the field. We find that 10.5% ofthe protocols rely on external servers; 68 methods alternativeto standard balance queries exist, although their use decreasedover time; and 240 equal balance queries are repeated onmultiple protocols. These findings indicate limits to verifiabilityand transparency. We thus introduce “verifiable Total ValueLocked” (vTVL), a metric measuring the TVL that can beverified relying solely on on-chain data and standard balancequeries. A case study on 400 protocols shows that our estimationsalign with published figures for 46.5% of protocols. Informed bythese findings, we discuss design guidelines that could facilitate amore verifiable, standardized, and explainable TVL computation.IndexTerms—DecentralizedFinance,DeFi,TotalValueLocked, TVL, Ethereum.I. INTRODUCTIONThe core value proposition of Decentralized Finance (DeFi)li