Idle liquidity, in numbers
In the first half of 2026, Dune measured concentrated liquidity across the top pools on four major venues and seven chains, about $1.84 billion in an average week. Averaged over 26 weekly snapshots, 29.5% of that liquidity sat fully outside its fee-earning range. On the Uniswap v3 family the broader measure is starker: roughly 85% went unused once you count in-range liquidity that swaps never touched. More than a third of the out-of-range share had not been adjusted in over 90 days. Uniswap v4, the newest design, sits at about 30% out of range, and even stablecoin pairs run near 30%.
Why pooled liquidity sits idle
A pool deposit earns only when swaps route through that exact pool, and a concentrated position earns only while the price stays inside its range. To be present across pairs and venues, LPs must split tokens into separate deposits before knowing where volume will land, so much of the liquidity ends up active on paper but idle in practice. 1inch research puts the idle share of top pools at 83-95% for most of the year. In constant-product pools like Uniswap v2, where every deposit is spread across all prices, Dune measured about 98.7% of liquidity sitting outside the band that swaps actually crossed.
What sharing one balance changes
On Aqua, positions quote against the tokens sitting in your wallet, so one balance backs many positions across many pairs at the same time. Nothing is pre-split: tokens move only at the moment a swap fills, and every other position immediately re-quotes against what remains. Fees land in the same wallet and re-back your positions right away. See how Aqua works.
How to measure it
Deposit-based metrics only say how much liquidity is parked. Utilization asks how much of it is actually available where swaps happen.
- Shared Liquidity Ratio
- How much liquidity the same tokens make available across your positions: availability, not exposure.
- TVL (Total Value Locked)
- What is deposited across protocols. It counts parked liquidity, whether or not swaps ever use it.
- TVU (Total Value Unlocked)
- What is actually usable when swaps happen: the measure shared liquidity is designed to raise.
Common questions
In pooled DeFi you split tokens into separate deposits, and each deposit works only in its own pool, so much of it sits idle. With shared liquidity the same wallet balance backs many positions at the same time, and the same tokens are available wherever a swap actually fills. More of your liquidity is in play at any moment, and nothing is borrowed to make that happen.
No. Shared liquidity is not leverage. Your tokens are not borrowed and you take on no debt. The same tokens are simply made available to many positions, and a swap can only pull what is actually in your wallet. The Shared Liquidity Ratio measures availability, not exposure.
Only partly. Concentrated liquidity cut the unused share from about 98.7% in constant-product pools to roughly 85% in the pools Dune measured. A position earns only while the price stays inside its range, and prices move, so a quarter to a third of that liquidity sits fully out of range at any time. Aqua approaches the problem differently. The same wallet balance backs many positions at the same time, so your tokens are available wherever a swap actually fills instead of waiting inside one range.
