Polygon DeFi TVL Surges 43% in 2025—QuickSwap and Polymarket Fuel the Rally

Polygon's DeFi ecosystem is on fire—total value locked (TVL) skyrocketed 43% this year, with QuickSwap and Polymarket driving the lion's share of inflows. The layer-2 scaling solution continues to eat Ethereum's lunch, proving that cheap fees and fast transactions still matter more than maximalist dogma.

QuickSwap's dominance isn't shocking—it's the DEX workhorse of Polygon—but Polymarket's surge hints at degens shifting bets from meme coins to prediction markets. Maybe they finally realized guessing real-world outcomes beats praying for a Shiba Inu ETF.

Wall Street analysts, meanwhile, are still trying to explain DeFi to their bosses using PowerPoint slides from 2021. Good luck with that.

Growth driven by traditional protocols

In the past 30 days, Polygon’s TVL increased 7% and reached its highest level since mid-December. The network’s flagship DEX, QuickSwap, and the prediction market Polymarket were the two main drivers behind the $80 million increase.

QuickSwap registered approximately $52 million in TVL inflows in the past 30 months, growing 13.4% in the period. The increase marked the first time QuickSwap has surpassed $440 million in total deposits since May 2022.

Furthermore, Polymarket drew around $28 million in bettors’ money in its 30.2% growth registered in the past 30 days.

Notably, there is potential for more TVL growth. Data from Artemis showsdirected to Polygon in the past 30 days. The movement suggests that funds are moving on the blockchain that could still be allocated to decentralized applications.

POL outperforms peers

POL’s price increased 6.6% in the past 30 days. Although the number is not a typical two-digit run seen in tokens with small market caps, it was enough for POL to outshine its peers in the sector.

Artemis groups tokens such as POL, Solana, Sui, and other smart contract-focused blockchains in the “Smart Contract Platform” category. Among thein this category, the average weighted performance was 4.5% in the past 30 days.

As a result, POL’s performance stands nearly 50% above the sector’s monthly average gain. Additionally, considering the 22 sectors tracked by Artemis, together with Bitcoin and Ethereum, the average performance was less than 0.5%.

Despite the rough price action POL experienced since 2024, the past 30 days were relatively good enough, likely fueled by on-chain action.