In a Mar 21, 2026 guest analysis, Sentora marketing director Vincent Maliepaard argues DeFi should complement Total Value Locked (TVL) with a new metric for how much capital is actually protected. He points to stablecoin usage growth—including Visa’s estimate that global stablecoin transaction volume rose from more than $3.5 trillion in 2023 to more than $5.5 trillion in 2024—as evidence DeFi is becoming real infrastructure. Maliepaard proposes “Total Value Covered” (TVC) to measure capital backed by explicit risk-transfer mechanisms, aiming to better signal institutional readiness.

Tokenized equities are approaching $1 billion in value, with three venues—Ondo, Backed/Kraken, and Securitize—holding over 93% of market share. In December 2025, the SEC advanced a DTCC tokenization pilot and clarified broker‑dealer custody, while monthly transfers reached $2.4 billion and Ethereum, Solana, and Algorand led chain distribution.