DeFi analytics platform DefiLlama has adjusted MegaETH's total value locked (TVL) figures after finding inflated data, setting off a wider debate over how DeFi networks should be measured.
DefiLlama's pseudonymous founder @0xngmi wrote in a May 27 post on X that the data platform had removed "some TVL" for a chain that had been inflating it.
But replies from other community members linked the change to MegaETH.
One user, @yieldfarming, wrote that "re: megaeth, the tvl is def some degrees of fake," while arguing that DefiLlama could have kept the inflated figure with a warning mark instead of removing it from the headline number.
Launched in February and backed by investors including Vitalik Buterin and Consensys founder Joseph Lubin, MegaETH is an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain built for faster transaction processing.
MegaETH TVL. Source: DefiLlama
- DefiLlama's current MegaETH dashboard shows about $154.8 million in TVL, down about 37% from roughly $245 million on May 12.
- But the same page shows much smaller activity figures, including $3.6 million in 24-hour DEX volume, $1.9 million in 24-hour perps volume, and only about 4,000 active addresses.
TVL is often used as a quick way to compare DeFi chains and protocols.
But it mostly shows how much value is sitting in smart contracts and it doesn't always show whether users are doing anything with that locked on-chain value.
PaperImperium, MegaETH's pseudonymous economics lead, argued in a May 23 post on X that TVL is a technical dashboard metric, not proper financial accounting.
PaperImperium
They said the metric can be especially misleading for lending protocols because deposits can inflate TVL even when they are liabilities, while loans can reduce the number even though they reflect actual economic activity.
Amid the dispute, PaperImperium added they understood DefiLlama's adjustment but disagreed with it, arguing that serious investors usually look for revenue, assets under management or other numbers that map more directly to economic value.
- DefiLlama's own methodology page says the platform aims to provide inclusive, non-biased and community-driven DeFi statistics, while treating projects equally on what is and isn't included in TVL.