Back in July, the crypto market had an exhilarating run up. The NFT space was on an incredible recovery, and decentralized finance (DeFi) experienced phenomenal growth under the sun. NFT trading volume rebounded significantly, while DeFi's total value locked (TVL) reached a new high, signaling a shifting landscape in the digital asset ecosystem.
NFT trading volume made a big-time comeback in July, rising 96% to $530 million. This surge indicates a renewed interest in digital collectibles, despite the NFT market remaining below its peak levels of 2021, when trading volumes reached tens of billions. So far this year volumes are down 19% year-over-year from last year’s figures. This shows that the market is certainly moving towards recovery, but has not completely bounced back to where it once was.
This remarkable increase in the NFT market comes during an even more impressive surge of growth in the DeFi space. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi reached an all-time high of $270 billion in mid-July 2025, the largest growth in history. Ethereum led the DeFi space with $166 billion in TVL, bolstered by a nearly 60% price increase in July and staking rewards reaching an impressive 29.4% annual percentage yield (APY).
Ethereum’s TVL spike was additionally propelled by the phenomenal rise of tokenized stocks. Specifically, active wallets trading or investing in tokenized stocks skyrocketed from an estimated 1,600 to more than 90,000 just in the month of June. This trend reflects a growing institutional appetite for tokenizing traditional assets on the blockchain. That would create new opportunities not just for investors, but for traders.
Even as Ethereum was becoming central to the DeFi movement, other blockchains were playing a key role. Solana’s Hyperliquid, on the other hand, took 35% of all blockchain revenue, showing how diverse and competitive the DeFi ecosystem has become in various blockchain applications.
