Stacks closed the third quarter of 2026 with $88.9 million in DeFi total value locked, putting it ahead of other Bitcoin layers. The lead was not huge. Rootstock ended at $83.2 million, and Mezo reached $77.3 million. That put Stacks $5.7 million ahead of Rootstock.
Fees and trading
Apps on Stacks brought in $448,000 in user fees during the quarter. That was the highest fee total among Bitcoin layers. Hemi generated $208,000, and Merlin followed with $181,000. Trading also picked up near quarter-end. Weekly volume on Stacks decentralized exchanges peaked at $16.7 million in late September 2026.
What drove activity
The main catalyst came in July 2026. Stacks launched Bitcoin Staking on mainnet through the PoX-5 hard fork. The upgrade added yields funded by miners and paid through set bonding periods. About 735 BTC entered staking in the first two bonding periods after launch. STX staking also rose to 493 million STX after PoX-5. In early September, StackingDAO introduced stBTC, a liquid staking token that represents staked Bitcoin and can still be moved and used in other places.
Lending dominates
By September 30, 2026, lending made up 92.1% of DeFi TVL on Stacks. That came to $81.9 million. Zest Protocol held the dominant share of locked value at quarter-end. The protocol reported deposits above $122 million, with borrowed assets at $42 million. That concentration is a clear risk. If one app or one sector pulls back, the headline TVL number can move sharply.
After the quarter
By early November 2026, Stacks chain TVL had slipped to roughly $57 million. Even so, counting liquid staking alongside core DeFi, the broader Stacks network reached about $123 million. The gap between those figures matters. It shows that headline chain TVL does not capture every form of locked or staked value. For Bitcoin layers, the Q3 results suggest native yield products can pull in capital. The July staking launch lined up with Stacks taking the top spot, and the BTC that entered staking points to demand for returns on idle Bitcoin. But the November drop also shows how quickly rankings can change. A $5.7 million lead at quarter-end is thin when TVL can swing by tens of millions in a few weeks.
