DeFi TVL Surge: Real Liquidity or Just Price Inflation?

The recent $20 billion increase in DeFi total value locked (TVL) may be driven more by asset price appreciation than new capital inflows. Data from September 15 shows that while Ethereum and Solana TVL rose significantly over 30 days, stablecoin market cap growth remained minimal. With native assets like ETH and SOL seeing substantial price gains, the rise in TVL appears largely attributable to the revaluation of existing collateral rather than new user deposits.