DeFi faces $1.6B idle liquidity, $195M lost fees: Dune

Dune finds 85% of DeFi liquidity is underutilized, with $1.6B idle weekly and up to $195M in annual fees lost. Over a third of inactive capital remains unmanaged for 90+ days.

A recent series of studies by Dune, commissioned by 1inch, reveals that about 85% of concentrated liquidity on major decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap v3/v4, PancakeSwap v3, and Aerodrome Slipstream remains underutilized. On average, $1.6 billion out of $1.84 billion in weekly liquidity is not actively facilitating trades. Of this, roughly $542 million is completely idle and sits outside active price ranges. This inefficiency results in an estimated $150 million to $195 million in lost annual fees for liquidity providers. The research, which analyzed 26 weekly snapshots from January to June 2026 across seven blockchains, also found that over a third of out-of-range liquidity had not been adjusted for more than 90 days, indicating a lack of active management. Interestingly, while smaller positions were more likely to be idle, nearly half of all idle liquidity belonged to positions exceeding $1 million. These findings highlight significant structural challenges in capital efficiency for DeFi protocols.