Stacks leads Bitcoin layers in Q3 DeFi TVL at $88.9 million

Bitcoin Staking and a lending-heavy ecosystem pushed Stacks past Rootstock and Mezo in both locked value and app fees Stacks finished the third quarter of 2026 at the top of the Bitcoin layer leaderboard. It closed Q3 with $88.9 million in DeFi total value locked, more than any of its direct rivals. It also won the fee contest. Apps on Stacks pulled in $448,000 in user fees during the quarter, the highest total among Bitcoin layers. The scoreboard The race at the top was closer than a blowout. Rootstock finished the quarter with $83.2 million in DeFi TVL, and Mezo came in at $77.3 million. That leaves Stacks ahead of Rootstock by $5.7 million. Its $448,000 in quarterly fees was more than double what Hemi generated, at $208,000. Merlin followed with $181,000. Trading activity also picked up into quarter-end. Weekly volume on Stacks decentralized exchanges peaked at $16.7 million in late September 2026. What drove the quarter The biggest catalyst arrived in July 2026. That month, Stacks launched Bitcoin Staking on mainnet through the PoX-5 hard fork. The upgrade introduced yields funded by miners, paid out through set bonding periods. Approximately 735 BTC entered staking across the ...