Stacks leads Bitcoin layers in Q3 DeFi TVL at $88.9 million

Stacks finished the third quarter of 2026 at the top of the Bitcoin layer leaderboard, closing with $88.9 million in DeFi total value locked.

The network also won the fee contest, generating $448,000 in user fees during the quarter, the highest total among Bitcoin layers.

The race at the top was closer than a blowout, with Rootstock finishing the quarter with $83.2 million and Mezo coming in at $77.3 million.

Bitcoin Staking launch

The biggest catalyst arrived in July 2026 when Stacks launched Bitcoin Staking on mainnet through the PoX-5 hard fork.

The upgrade introduced yields funded by miners, paid out through set bonding periods, and approximately 735 BTC entered staking across the first two bonding periods.

The upgrade also lifted participation on the native token side, with STX staking rising to 493 million STX following PoX-5.

Liquid staking added another layer in early September when StackingDAO introduced stBTC, a token that represents staked Bitcoin and can still be moved and used elsewhere.

Lending dominance

By September 30, 2026, lending made up 92.1% of total DeFi TVL on the network, which works out to $81.9 million.

Zest Protocol sat at the center of that activity, holding the dominant share of locked value at quarter-end.

The protocol reported deposits above $122 million, with borrowed assets reaching $42 million.

Trading activity also picked up into quarter-end, with weekly volume on Stacks decentralized exchanges peaking at $16.7 million in late September 2026.

Fragile lead

By early November 2026, Stacks chain TVL had slipped to approximately $57 million.

Counting liquid staking alongside core DeFi, the broader Stacks ecosystem reached approximately $123 million, even as the headline chain figure moved around.

A $5.7 million lead over Rootstock at quarter-end is not much of a cushion when locked value can swing by tens of millions in weeks.

The November decline shows how fragile these rankings can be, with lending accounting for 92.1% of DeFi TVL and one protocol holding most of that.