The total locked value (TVL) is a metric widely used to follow the popularity, adoption and overall health of decentralized finance projects (DEFI). However, is this the most precise reflection of the real value of a chain? David Silverman, please strategic product initiatives at Polygon Labs, believes that TVL is useful for making headlines but does not provide the complete image.
In an exclusive interview with Beincrypto, Silverman explained why TVL has its limits. He also revealed how TVL (CAT) aligned by chain could provide a more significant measure for the cryptographic ecosystem.
Why does TVL not make a key defective metric
Silverman has recognized that TVL provides a general overview of the assets held in a protocol or a chain. However, he argued that its importance and precision remain questionable.
“TVL mainly serves as a tool to make the headlines and provide a general overview of the value maintained on a DEFI platform or a chain, and most people do not really know what this metric involves in particular. By saying that Ethereum has a TVL of 44.38 billion dollars does not really mean until you deepen in details,” said Silverman to Beincrypto.
According to Defilma Data, in April 2025, Ethereum (ETH) ranked the highest among all the TVL channels, dominating more than half of the market. Meanwhile, Polygon TVL (POL) is $ 760.9 million, making it the 13th largest chain.
Although there has been progress in monitoring TVL over time, Silverman thinks that several problems persist. Thus, he pleaded for what he calls a TVL aligned by chain.
According to Silverman, the name itself clearly differentiates it from traditional TVL. This metric focuses on the active use of assets rather than their simple presence on the chain.
“Know how USDC or USDT are on a channel can make good big titles, but if these tokens only collect dust in a wallet and contribute to nothing, they really add value to the ecosystem?” questioned.
To illustrate his point, he pointed out that the USDT $ 1 million dollars in Morpho is undoubtedly much more beneficial for the chain, its users and the ecosystem. For what? Because on the platform, he wins a yield and helps develop the TVL of the chain by extending the credit.
“This is the main idea of TVL aligned by chain, which is the total value of assets that support and strengthen their underlying chain directly, whether he is natively held or in aligned protocols,” Silverman revealed to be incrypto.
In addition, he said, the objective is to associate CAT with projects that really add value to their communities.
Maximize the DEFI potential: how TVL aligned by the chain benefits users
The Executive Polygon has also described the advantages aligned by the chain that TVL provides to users. He explained that Cat’s nuanced way to measure the value of a chain can help users find better performance opportunities.
“Channels will naturally want to promote projects that benefit them and their ecosystems, so they are more likely to promote projects with higher chain TVLs, which allows users to more easily locate high-performance opportunities,” he noted.
Silverman stressed that focusing on CAT can stimulate the development of more efficient and user -friendly applications. The underlying channel prioritizes well integrated projects beneficial for its ecosystem.
“The benefits for users include things like easier / cheaper / faster transitions and better challenge opportunities,” he said.
In addition, cat -ordered projects can offer better interest rates and offer more engaging experiences in areas such as non -bubble tokens (NFT), because developers are encouraged to improve the commitment of ecosystems.
The advantages are not limited to users. It can also have positive implications for whole blockchains.
“CAT is a metric whose chains can take advantage of and benefit to better understand where their development efforts should be concentrated,” Silverman revealed to Beincrypto.
He stressed that transaction costs alone are not always a sustainable business model for channels. According to Silverman, the emphasis on CAT helps to provide long-term value to a chain and its ecosystem beyond short-term transactions.
Meanwhile, to present TVL aligned by chain in action, Silverman cited the deployment of Ausd d’Agora on Polygon as an example.
“While other stables can have large quantities of inactive TVL, the transmitter and the transmitter alone take advantage of it and not by the chain and not the users. With Ausd, part of the yield generated from the reserves is made on the chain as the incentives helping to develop protocols, he underlined active users and the growth of the economy of the chain even when the active inaccessible, “he said.
While Silverman presents a solid case for TVL aligned by chain, the generalized adoption of this metric remains a challenge. TVL has dominated the DEFI space for years, becoming the standard by which the projects are measured.
The transition to a more nuanced metric as CAT will require industry level education and a change in the way developers and users assess the value of blockchain.
However, as the ecosystem matures and the need for more precise assessments of the health of channels increases, metrics like the cat could gradually gain ground, offering a more durable and significant means of measuring the real impact of a chain.
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