Dune says 85% of concentrated DeFi liquidity is underutilized

About 85% of concentrated liquidity across decentralized exchanges is not being actively used, based on Dune research commissioned by 1inch that reconstructed positions across roughly the 200 most active pools on Uniswap v3, Uniswap v4, PancakeSwap v3 and Aerodrome Slipstream. Across 26 weekly snapshots on seven chains in the first half of 2026, the study covered about $1.84 billion in average TVL, with roughly $1.6 billion classified as underutilized at any given time. Concentrated liquidity lets providers place capital within chosen price bands rather than across an entire curve, improving fee efficiency when prices stay in range but earning nothing when they drift out. Dune found 29.5% of tracked capital was fully out of range on average, equal to about $542 million idle in a typical week. Within the broader 85% underutilized share, the rest was still technically in range but sat untouched by where prices actually traded. Dune estimated out-of-range liquidity providers forgo roughly $150 million a year in fees by applying the roughly 35% fee APR earned by in-range capital over the same period to the idle TVL. The report said idleness was driven more by asset pairs and volatility than by venue, with even stablecoin pairs averaging about 30% out of range. It also found most idle capital sat in individual wallets rather than automated managers, with about one-third left untouched for more than 90 days and individuals accounting for 82% of idle capital on Base Uniswap v3 despite contracts holding about half of capital there. The report, whose cover says it was commissioned by 1inch, said concentrated liquidity remains a large improvement over older venue designs that leave about 98.7% of capital underutilized, but argued capital efficiency remains an open challenge in DeFi.