DeFi TVL and DEX volumes are rising on Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon and $BNB as $NFT gaming is racing towards a $60.82 billion market and builders continue to ship via hacks.
Capital is quietly returning to DeFi even as the industry digests bridge hacks and nine-figure regulatory burdens, with total DeFi TVL now between $130 billion and $140 billion and usage metrics creeping higher in the big alt L1s and L2s.
Data collected by CoinLaw and MEXC’s DeFi dashboards shows loan utilization rates are increasing and DEX volumes are rising at chains like Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon, despite ongoing security concerns and token price volatility.
As for Solana, DeFi TVL recently rose to around 80 million SOL – about $10 billion – from around $8.1 billion at the end of 2025, while monthly DEX volume at major Solana locations has surpassed $100 billion in just a few months, putting it ahead of Ethereum in terms of raw trading flow.
For its part, Arbitrum is posting over $5.5 billion in weekly DEX volume with double-digit growth week over week, according to data from DeFiLlama. This underlines that users are still willing to take smart-contract risks for lower costs and better liquidity.
Gaming and NFTs Enjoy the ‘Builder’s Bid’
Longer horizon data suggests this isn’t just a hunt for yield, but a structural turn towards gaming rails, with CoinLaw projecting the global trend. $NFT market will reach $60.82 billion by 2026 and gaming NFTs will account for approximately 38% of all $NFT transaction volume.
The blockchain gaming market itself is forecast to reach approximately $17.82 billion by 2026, supported by cross-chain asset interoperability, in-game marketplaces, and play-to-earn-style reward loops that keep users on-chain even during bear phases.
Crucially, the activity is not concentrated on the Ethereum mainnet. This is evident from CoinLaw’s updated statistics for 2026 $BNB Smart Chain alone holds approximately 22% of the shares $NFT gaming market, while MEXC’s gaming reports highlight this $BNB as the largest chain for daily active users and a prime location for GameFi TVL among EVM-compatible networks.
This distribution of usage is consistent with the “builder’s bid” story: capital and developers continue to fund and ship DeFi and gaming products even as high-profile exploits build bridges and retake protocols.
For traders and allocators, this means looking at ecosystems like Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon and $BNB watching closely, as that’s where next cycle’s volume and fee revenues are increasingly likely to concentrate as users chase both returns and playable on-chain experiences.