DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL), which is a metric to gauge the overall DeFi market, hit a new All-Time High (ATH) alongside Bitcoin yesterday, as it traded a high of $233 million.
Data from DeFi Llama, a DeFi monitoring tool that collects data from DeFi protocols across all major blockchain networks, reveals that DeFi TVL hit a new record of $233.88 billion in protocols across the various blockchain networks.
TVL is the sum of all assets deposited in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols earning rewards, interest, new coins and tokens, fixed income and so on. According to the statistics on DeFi Llama, AAVE leads with $19.04 billion. This is followed by CURVE and WBTC which are both occupying second and third place with $18.07 billion and $14.24 billion respectively.
The biggest gainers in TVL over the past seven days were Trader Joe with a 57.2% increase and Rari Capital which saw a 50.57% surge. Yield Yak also gained 36.52%.
In addition to the rising token values, the DeFi ecosystem also saw a sharp increase in new user inflow and data from Dune Analytics shows that 3,591,876 unique wallets have now interacted with at least one DeFi protocol, an ATH.
Conclusion
Despite the inflow of new users, trading volumes across decentralized exchanges (DEX) have remained below the highs set in May and are currently lower than the activity seen in recent months as well. A reason for this could be the increased focus on BTC over the past couple of months as speculation about when a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) would pass and whether or not BTC price will surpass $100,000 by the end of 2021.
With many DeFi protocols launching new pioneer programs such as an NFT marketplace and offering new ways to earn passive income, the trading volumes on DeFi protocols are expected to increase exponentially, especially now that there are talks of a renewed altcoin season in the works as Bitcoin traded a new ATH.