Forget TVL and Volume: This DeFi Metric Could Drive the Crypto Bull Run

Key Insights:

• In crypto market, DeFi Chains with fewer but high-activity DEXs show stronger real usage than those with many idle ones.
• SUI and Avalanche are outperforming due to better volume-to-DEX ratios.
• Tracking DEX concentration, not just TVL, may help identify the next breakout tokens.

Everyone talks about total value locked in DeFi in crypto. Some shout about trading volume. But neither of those tells the full story anymore.

A new DeFi metric is quietly making the rounds, and it might actually be better at picking the winners for the next crypto bull run.

It’s simple: how many decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are active on a chain versus how much trading volume they’re pulling in. More DEXs don’t mean more strength. What matters is how efficient the few big ones are.

So instead of looking at how many DEXs a chain has, we’re asking: Is the volume concentrated into a few powerful venues?

If yes, that’s a strong sign traders actually care. And that might just point to where the next set of top-performing tokens will come from.

SUI is in Focus In Crypto Market

SUI is one of the top players in this current crypto trend. It doesn’t have dozens of DEXs scattered around. But with just a few of them, it has clocked in over $15 billion in monthly volume and has $2.25 billion in TVL. That’s no small feat.

And it’s already passed bigger names like Aptos, Avalanche, and even Hyperliquid when it comes to total DeFi volume this year.

So why does this matter?

Because SUI’s volume-to-DEX ratio is one of the strongest in this bull cycle. It means just a few DEXs are doing a massive amount of trading, which means real usage, real fees, and real attention.

Traders aren’t jumping around across 20 different apps. They’re using the big ones, hard. That kind of focus often shows where confidence is high.

DEX Volume Is Sky High, but Not Evenly Distributed

Here’s the crazy part.

Last week, total weekly DEX volume across all chains hit $114 billion, the third-highest week in DeFi history. But that volume wasn’t evenly split across all chains and DEXs.

It was highly concentrated. Meaning, just a handful of DEXs on just a few chains got most of the action.

Take Arbitrum. It has 78 DEXs deployed. Base has 94. BNB Chain has over 130. But when you look at the volume, only 3–5 of those DEXs on each chain are actually doing any heavy lifting.

This is where the metric starts to shine. Chains where just 1 or 2 DEXs dominate, while still pulling in tons of volume, are showing high signal, low noise. And that’s often where smart capital flows.

Avalanche, Hyperliquid, and the ‘Hyena’ DeFi Factor

Even Avalanche crypto is showing early signs of this shift.

Its new “Blackhole” DEX, despite being fresh, is already the top-ranked one on the chain. It’s pulling in aggressive APRs;  some over 300%, and is sucking up a lot of the liquidity from smaller venues.

Capital is rotating fast, and it’s not being spread thin. That tells us Avalanche might be setting up for a leaner, more efficient DeFi setup.

Then there’s the rumored Hyena DEX, possibly launching on Hyperliquid’s infra. If it rolls out with USDe-only collateral and becomes the go-to for perp trading, that would drive serious value to $ENA while keeping activity tightly packed into one high-impact venue.

This is the kind of structure that plays well into this metric: low DEX count, high usage efficiency. And that’s bullish for both the chain and the crypt that benefits from it.

Most people still think total value locked or raw trading volume are the only things that matter in the crypto market. But they’re noisy.

They don’t tell you if that usage is real or just spread out across dozens of unused protocols.

This new DeFi metric does. It shows where liquidity is concentrated, where traders are actually active, and where one or two DEXs are doing all the real work.

And right now, that points to names like SUI, Avalanche, and possibly ENA.

If you’re looking for the early leaders of this crypto bull run, don’t just look at the chains with the biggest numbers. Look for the ones where the biggest numbers come from just a few killer apps, including DEXs.