Stablecoin deposits in DeFi hit $24B, up 560.8% in three years

Stablecoin holders have found a new hobby: putting their digital dollars to work. According to data released by Token Terminal on October 25, 2026, total stablecoin deposits into decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have reached $24 billion. That figure is up 560.8% over the past three years. The growth points to a clear shift in behavior. Users are no longer just holding stablecoins as a parking spot between trades. They are increasingly depositing them into DeFi protocols to earn yield. USDC takes the biggest slice Not all stablecoins are pulling equal weight. USDC leads the pack with a 38.2% share of DeFi deposits, which works out to around $9.2 billion. Tether (USDT) comes in second with approximately $4.9 billion, or 20.3% of the total. That puts USDC’s DeFi deposits at nearly double those of USDT. The third spot goes to USDe, a newer stablecoin that holds a 9.0% share at around $2.2 billion. Taken together, those three assets account for roughly two-thirds of all stablecoin deposits in DeFi. Token Terminal’s dataset covers 193 digital assets in total, so the market is concentrated at the top but crowded below it. A small slice of a much bigger pie The $24 billion figure rep...