For years, decentralized finance has measured growth through Total Value Locked — the amount of capital sitting inside protocols.
TVL is easy to track and looks impressive on dashboards. But it says very little about how capital is actually being used.
Value is not meant to sit still.
At Splyce, we believe the real measure of progress is not how much liquidity is locked, but how effectively it moves. That is what we call Total Value Distributed — a framework for understanding how tokenized assets circulate, compound, and strengthen the broader financial ecosystem.
TVL measures custody. TVD measures usefulness.
Two systems can have the same TVL.
The one with higher TVD is the one where assets trade freely, are reused as collateral, integrate across multiple protocols, and generate layered economic activity.
TVD does not reward hoarding. It rewards motion.
The five pillars of TVD
Pillar 1: Start with trusted, recognizable assets
Every system of value begins with trust.
TVD is anchored in assets that already have global recognition and verifiable worth — such as treasuries, credit pools, ETFs, or yield-producing instruments.
These are not speculative tokens. They are established assets that institutions already understand and rely on.
Trust is the prerequisite for flow.
Pillar 2: Tokenize into standardized, auditable units
Once assets are identified, the next step is tokenization.
Tokenization brings real-world value onto digital rails with clear ownership, verification, and auditability. It turns assets into portable units that can move across systems with transparency.
Tokenization makes value portable. But portability alone is not enough.
Pillar 3: Abstraction makes assets usable
Tokenization does not automatically make assets interoperable.
Splyce's abstraction layer converts tokenized real-world assets into DeFi-ready instruments — such as S-Tokens and dETF structures.
S-Tokens represent loan participations backed by reserves holding the underlying real-world assets and cash equivalents. These tokens can then be combined into portfolio products alongside other RWA-backed tokens or crypto-native assets.
This abstraction layer standardizes pricing, yield distribution, and onchain behavior — allowing assets to plug directly into digital markets.
Abstraction is what turns real-world yield into onchain liquidity.
Pillar 4: Distribution across native onchain markets
With standardized representations in place, value can finally move.
Splyce's distribution layer connects assets to DEXs, lending markets, stablecoin systems, and fintech platforms. This prevents tokenized value from becoming trapped inside a single venue or ecosystem.
Distribution turns ownership into adoption.
Pillar 5: Circular liquidity compounds value
The final step in TVD is reinforcement.
When assets such as S-Tokens or dETFs are reused as collateral, liquidity, or portfolio components, the same underlying value supports multiple layers of activity.
Each cycle deepens integration, expands utility, and increases capital efficiency.
TVD grows through feedback, not friction.
Measuring TVD
TVD increases as value circulates.
It can be observed through how often assets are reused, how deeply they integrate across protocols, and how much productive activity they support.
Unlike TVL, which measures how much capital is stored, TVD reflects how much capital is actively engaged.
TVD = base tokenized value × average utilization multiplier. The utilization multiplier reflects how many productive roles the same asset plays across the ecosystem without leaving its underlying vault.
Example: a tokenized treasury fund
Imagine a regulated issuer tokenizes a $100 million treasury fund inside a Splyce vault.
The underlying assets remain fully backed, so TVL stays constant at $100 million.
Instead of sitting idle, the tokenized representation is reused across the ecosystem — through portfolio products, collateral in lending markets, fintech and stablecoin treasuries, and DEX liquidity and settlement rails.
Although the base value never changes, the same capital supports multiple layers of activity.
In practice, $100 million of tokenized value can drive significantly more than $100 million in effective economic engagement.
That is the difference between locked value and distributed value.
Why collateral matters more than raw liquidity
Not all use cases contribute equally to TVD.
Collateralized assets amplify capital. Each dollar pledged as collateral can support new loans, stablecoin issuance, or credit creation that re-enters circulation.
DEX liquidity enables trading and price discovery, but it does not multiply balance-sheet capacity in the same way.
TVD rewards capital efficiency, not just volume.
From locked to distributed
Total Value Distributed is more than a metric.
It represents a shift in how onchain finance is designed.
Where TVL rewards accumulation, TVD rewards integration. Where TVL measures storage, TVD measures flow.
Splyce is building the infrastructure that allows real-world value to move, compound, and scale across digital markets. Not by locking capital in place, but by letting it work.
