The Stacks TVL was $55.42 million on January 01, 2024, and reached an all-time high TVL of $189.19 million on April 02, 2024, which is a 241.5% rise in 3 months.

But even before then, the Stacks DeFi ecosystem had been on an upward trajectory. 2023 was a banner year for the network's DeFi protocols, with Messari’s research reports noting that:

• The DeFi TVL of Q1 2023 was $26.7 million, and it surged to $61.2 million in Q4 2023, resulting in a 762.5% YoY change.

• The TVL of Stacks’ native token, STX, increased from 28.7 million in Q1 2023 to 42.9 million in Q4 2023, a 31.1% YoY change.

  
  

Let’s look at some of the key applications that contributed to this TVL.

Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs)

DEXs built on Stacks allow users to buy, sell, trade, and swap assets with BTC. These DEXs connect users to BTC-backed assets like SIP10 tokens, BRC-20 tokens, and more so that they can engage with a growing DeFi ecosystem on Bitcoin.

The TVL for Stacks DEXs has surpassed $125 million, with over 97% of TVL covered by the exchanges ALEX and Bitflow.

• ALEX: ALEX is a major decentralized exchange built on Stacks to provide users with a seamless Bitcoin DeFi experience. The network fees are to be paid using STX tokens. Users need Stack-supported wallets to buy cryptocurrencies. 

• Bitflow: Bitflow DEX leverages technologies like Atomic Swaps, decentralized liquidity pools, layer-2 smart contracts, and Stacks Bitcoin (sBTC) to offer seamless trading features to its users. 

Lending and Borrowing Platforms

Bitcoin users can use Stack-based lending and borrowing platforms to earn BTC by lending and borrowing other assets against their BTC. Here, a BTC pool is created that is controlled through the Stacks consensus. At the time of writing, the TVL of Stacks lending protocols is over $10 million. 

Zest Protocol is a lending protocol that rewards liquidity providers with BTC. Here, users can request loans with information like token amount, collateral ratio, payment period, interest rate, and more.

Stacking and Liquidity Protocols

Stacking allows stackers to earn STX and STX-backed tokens by participating in the network consensus mechanism. Users can Stack in a pool or individually (though they’ll need to become a signer) through Lockstacks. They can also participate in Liquid Stacking, which was developed by LISA and Stacking DAO.

Additionally, users can also access protocols that allow them to interact with liquidity pools for yield farming opportunities. Velar, for example, is a DeFi liquidity protocol that allows yield farming on Stacks. A liquidity pool with 15 token pairs also rewards users for adding liquidity.

Stablecoins

Stablecoins developed on Stacks help users reduce volatility in their assets. Moreover, users can opt for Stack platforms that allow STX token collateralizing to mint stablecoins. A number of projects like ALEX possess their own stablecoins while others help users access them.

Arkadiko is a platform that allows one to borrow a stablecoin USDA by collateralizing STK tokens. This platform also has its native governance token, DIKO, which can be used to participate in DAO proposals.

NFT Marketplaces

The NFT marketplace development is one of the innovative developments of the Stacks ecosystem. Users can visit this marketplace to buy NFTs minted on the Bitcoin blockchain. 

Powered by Stacks, Gamma is a prominent NFT marketplace that has sold over 600K NFTs. This marketplace has over 3,000 creators who have earned over $5 million to date.