Approximately $542 million was consistently outside active trading ranges, yielding no fees and lacking market depth.
By Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Aoyon AshrafUpdated Jul 18, 2026, 3:53 p.m. Published Jul 18, 2026, 3:50 p.m. 3 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on Many DeFi liquidity pools remain underutilized. (Dune/1inch)SummaryShow- Research from Dune revealed that $1.6 billion in DeFi liquidity was not effectively utilized in H1 2026, resulting in no returns.
- Approximately $542 million sat outside of active trading ranges weekly, earning no fees and contributing no market depth.
- Out-of-range positions are estimated to miss out on about $150 million in annual fees, while maintaining active positions incurs transaction costs and execution risks.
In the first half of 2026, research indicates that $1.6 billion in liquidity across major decentralized exchanges was not fully utilized.
This amount constitutes 85% of the $1.84 billion monitored within concentrated liquidity pools on platforms such as Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and Aerodrome, as reported by analytics firm Dune, which was commissioned by decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch.
On average, around $542 million, or 29.5%, was completely out of range weekly. This capital remained within the decentralized finance sector but was priced too high for traders to access.
The report arrives as retail platforms attract more users and traditional assets transition to blockchain, while financial institutions are enhancing their efforts on tokenized funds and blockchain-based settlements. 1inch warns that as markets expand, idle liquidity will become increasingly expensive, leading to more stranded capital and unearned trading fees due to reduced liquidity.
“Decentralized exchanges have evolved into some of the most liquid markets in crypto,” stated Filippo Armani, research lead at Dune. “What our research illustrates is that this level of liquidity has been achieved despite much of it not being fully utilized.”
Concentrated liquidity pools allow providers to position assets within a specific price range. This capital facilitates increased trading and earns more fees as long as the market remains within that range; if the price exceeds it, the position becomes inactive until the provider adjusts the range or the market returns to it.
For instance, an ETH/USDC position set between $2,000 and $2,500 stops generating fees if the ETH price goes beyond this range. The provider must either redefine the range or wait for the market to revert.
Dune monitored Uniswap v3 and v4, PancakeSwap v3, and Aerodrome Slipstream across seven chains, using weekly snapshots from January 6 to June 30. The share of out-of-range liquidity mostly fluctuated between 25% and 35%, peaking at nearly 41% in early February.
The research linked idle liquidity more closely to price trends rather than volatility. A consistent price shift in one direction is more likely to leave capital stranded than a week of volatility that ends where it started. Notably, bitcoin's price hovered around $90,000 in January before plummeting to about $60,000.
Furthermore, larger liquidity positions tend to be less idle, yet the research found that these pools still contained a majority of the inactive capital.
About 54% of liquidity in positions below $1,000 was out of range, whereas only 26% of positions exceeding $1 million were inactive. However, positions over $1 million represented 47% of all idle capital, approximately $260 million.
While contract-managed positions maintained a more stable range, individual wallets were responsible for 82% to 94% of the attributed idle capital on Uniswap v3, depending on the chain. This indicates that liquidity deposited directly by users and requiring manual adjustments is more likely to be neglected and fall out of range.
Dune estimated that these out-of-range providers could be losing about $150 million in fees annually, assuming an average in-range fee APR of approximately 35%.
Liquidity providers deposit token pairs that decentralized exchanges utilize for completing trades. They receive a portion of the fees generated from trades that use that liquidity pool as long as their positions remain within the defined range.
Nevertheless, the research notes that this figure does not guarantee recoverable income. Keeping positions active may incur transaction costs, execution risks, and exposure to unfavorable price movements.
1inch commissioned this research ahead of the anticipated launch of Aqua, a new liquidity protocol. Dune independently developed the methodology and reached its conclusions.
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Why it matters:
CEX trading volumes increased for the first time in five months in June, with spot rising 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes reaching a record $311B.
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