Berachain TVL surges above $3.2B, overtaking Base and Arbitrum

Layer-1 blockchain Berachain passed a milestone with its total value locked (TVL) surpassing $3.26 billion, making it the sixth-largest blockchain network in decentralized finance (DeFi), according to DeFi data tracker DefiLlama.

As of Feb. 24, Berachain’s TVL exceeded that of Arbitrum and Base, marking a significant achievement for the network. At the time of writing, the Berachain (BERA) token was trading at $6.75, with a market capitalization of $715 million and a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $3.3 billion.

TVL is the total value of crypto assets locked in a smart contract, a metric that often affects the overall value of DeFi projects. When the TVL of a network increases, it’s usually followed by an expansion of liquidity, popularity and usability. 

A higher TVL means more capital is locked in a network’s DeFi protocols, so participants in its ecosystem may get more yields. Lower TVLs imply lower capital availability, resulting in fewer proceeds for DeFi. 

Berachain becomes the sixth largest in DeFi TVL

With its TVL surging past $3.26 billion, the network has surpassed popular networks, including Arbitrum, which has a TVL of $2.9 billion, and Base, with $3.24 billion. The blockchain now holds 2.98% of the value locked in the entire DeFi space and has the sixth-largest TVL. 

Liquid staking protocol Infrared Finance leads the network with a TVL of $1.52 billion, followed by decentralized exchange (DEX) Kodiak at $1.12 billion and yield farming protocol Concrete, which holds nearly $800 million.

Meanwhile, Ethereum remains the dominant force in DeFi, with a TVL of $58 billion, representing 53.4% of the total DeFi market. Solana ranks second with $8 billion in locked assets, holding a 7.45% market share.

Related: DeFi is set for a longer, stronger DeFi summer: dYdX Foundation CEO

Can Berachain challenge Solana and Ether’s dominance?

Vance Spencer, the co-founder of Framework Ventures, which co-led a $100 million Series B round for Berachain, said in a Cointelegraph interview last September that Berachain’s token could be the next major Ether (ETH) competitor.

Spencer said that the network’s proof-of-liquidity consensus could usher in a fully-aligned blockchain ecosystem. “When you stake BERA, you have to direct the liquidity you get toward these primitives. And so all the fees stay in the ecosystem,” he said. 

On Feb. 6, the Bera Foundation distributed 80 million BERA tokens to eligible users. The tokens are estimated to be worth $632 million, making the airdrop one of the largest in crypto history. 

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