Is DeFi TVL a good measure of XRP liquidity, and what should be measured instead?

The full answer

TVL means total value locked: the value of coins deposited in DeFi apps on a blockchain. DefiLlama, which publishes TVL figures by chain, says TVL “is meant to be a proxy for the skin in the game / risk taken by depositors”.[1] It counts coins locked in contracts, not coins borrowed out, and “Borrows are tracked as a separate metric instead.”[1] It also states that “Bridge TVL is not attributed to any chain.”[1]

For the XRP Ledger, DefiLlama showed $46.56 million on September 29, 2026,[2] with about $41.6 million in its automated market maker (AMM) pools.[3] That figure counts deposits. How much XRP can change hands is a separate question, taken up below.

What does XRP Ledger TVL leave out?

Most of the places XRP trades. It leaves out:

• The ledger’s order book. DefiLlama’s XRP Ledger exchange entry counts AMM pools only,[3] so offers resting on the ledger’s order book are not in it.
• Exchanges. CoinGecko’s study, updated May 2026, found about $15 million of one-sided XRP liquidity within about 1% of price across eight exchanges.[14]
• Futures. The Crypto Basic reported on September 1, 2026, citing the data firm CoinGlass, that CME held about 387 million XRP of futures open interest.[15]
• Bridged XRP. FXRP, XRP moved to the Flare network, had about 145.2 million units minted on September 24, 2026, according to Flare.[19] Because DefiLlama does not attribute bridge balances to any chain,[1] XRP locked to back FXRP does not appear in XRP Ledger TVL (my reading of its rules).

TVL can also move the wrong way. On DefiLlama figures for the 30 days to September 29, 2026, each dollar in XRP Ledger AMM pools matched about $4.90 of trading, against about 28 for Uniswap V3 (my calculation).[3][4] Evernorth reported that XRP-paired AMM pools grew 26% over six quarters to Q2 2026 while trading through them fell 74%.[7]

Does XRP Ledger TVL have to reach $25 billion?

No source sets that target. For scale, DefiLlama showed Ethereum’s DeFi TVL at $53.596 billion and Solana’s at about $6.6 billion on September 29, 2026.[5][6] A payment bridge needs depth where currencies are exchanged, which can sit on exchanges and desks as well as in ledger apps. What payments would need is on how much XRP liquidity payments need.

For each undisclosed metric, who holds the data and what is the best dated proxy?

How much credit sits on XRP is covered in more depth on measuring credit against XRP, and Evernorth’s plans on what Evernorth plans for its XRP. Which of these to follow over time is on what to watch instead of price.

Can the rows be added together?

No. Fund holdings, futures, FXRP and loans can refer to the same coins, or to hedges of each other. A fund’s XRP can be hedged with a short future. Flare reported on September 24, 2026 that about 145.2 million FXRP were minted with 130 million FXRP in DeFi,[19] so the backing XRP would be counted twice if both were added (my reasoning). The risk of counting the same XRP twice is on whether XRP holdings are double counted.

How would the next order of magnitude show up?

As larger numbers in the rows that are already public (our reasoning): exchange depth within 1% moving from about $15 million toward $150 million, lending markets holding hundreds of millions rather than single millions, and native ledger lending switching on and filling. Each can be checked with a date.

What is the case against a wider liquidity measure?

A wider matrix can flatter. Several rows have no public figure, and the rows that do are small: one lending market of $7.9 million,[8] one XRP/RLUSD pool of about $4.6 million,[11] and exchange depth that CoinGecko found below Solana’s within 2%.[14] Arguing that undisclosed capacity is large rests on data no one outside can check. The view that XRP’s value runs well ahead of what its ledger shows is on XRP valuation versus ledger activity, and how deep XRP markets are today is on how deep is XRP liquidity.