The Decentralized Finance topic captures the broad DeFi conversation — yields, TVL milestones, exploit incidents, perps protocols, lending, and the broader on-chain yield economy. It maps closely to but is distinct from the DeFi narrative — the narrative groups specific projects, the topic captures the wider mention pattern.
What moves heat here
- Yield cycles — when stablecoin, LST, or perps-funding yields rise broadly, DeFi discussion lifts.
- Major launches — new DEX, lending, perps protocols, or strategy vaults.
- Exploit and incident news — these spike topic heat with strongly negative sentiment.
Compare topic heat against DeFi narrative heat. When the topic moves but the narrative doesn’t, the conversation is happening in the broader yield/macro context without landing on specific projects. When the narrative moves but the topic doesn’t, a single-project catalyst is at work.