According to Santiment’s latest development activity rankings, Chainlink (LINK) continues to lead the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, securing the #1 position among more than 4,000 tracked crypto projects. The report, published on November 1, highlights the top 10 DeFi protocols by notable GitHub activity, signaling sustained innovation and active developer engagement.
DeepBook (DEEP) and DeFiChain (DFI) followed closely in second and third place, respectively, rounding out the month’s top three projects by total code commits and repository contributions.
Santiment’s analysis focuses on the frequency and quality of development events across public repositories, a key metric often used to gauge long-term project sustainability beyond market speculation.
Injective and Lido DAO Climb the Rankings
While Chainlink maintained its dominant position, several other projects made notable moves this month. Injective (INJ) climbed to #6, continuing its strong momentum following multiple ecosystem integrations and increased GitHub activity linked to its derivatives and DeFi infrastructure updates.
Here are crypto's top 10 DeFi projects by development. Directional indicators represent each project's ranking positioning since last month:
1) @chainlink $LINK 🥇 2) @deepbookonsui $DEEP 🥈 3) @defichain $DFI 🥉 4) @itsfoxcrypto $FOX 5) @lidofinance $LDO 6)… pic.twitter.com/ui0mjTBYKZ
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) October 31, 2025
Lido DAO (LDO), the largest liquid staking protocol, ranked fifth, reflecting ongoing upgrades to its staking mechanisms across Ethereum and other supported networks.
Other active DeFi developers in the top 10 include FOX Token (FOX), Babylon (BABY), dYdX (DYDX), Centrifuge (CFG), and Curve Finance (CRV), all of which have maintained consistent progress despite mixed market conditions.
The Role of Development Metrics in DeFi Maturity
Santiment’s methodology emphasizes development activity as a proxy for project reliability and future resilience. High developer engagement often correlates with innovation, security upgrades, and long-term ecosystem stability, especially within DeFi, where continuous iteration is vital.
The data shows Chainlink logging 385.43 notable development events over 30 days, followed by DeepBook with 144.3 and DeFiChain with 119.4. These figures underscore how DeFi’s most active teams are evolving their core infrastructure to meet the growing demands of on-chain liquidity, oracles, and decentralized governance.
A Signal of Renewed Confidence in DeFi Innovation
As market conditions stabilize following Bitcoin’s volatile October, the resurgence in DeFi development intensity reflects the sector’s adaptability and focus on utility. Chainlink’s continued dominance and DeepBook’s rapid rise highlight a trend of cross-chain and liquidity-focused innovation leading the next phase of DeFi growth.
With new entrants like Babylon Labs joining established giants such as Lido and dYdX, Santiment’s data signals that DeFi’s technical foundation remains stronger than ever, even amid fluctuating token prices.
The message from developers is clear: while markets ebb and flow, the code keeps building.