Several prominent measurements of the DeFi sector have doubled in Q1. NFTs are enjoying all the hype now, but DeFi has continued to grow in the first months of 2021, with less attention paid to it by the mainstream.
A report by The Defiant took a look at some of the metrics for the industry, such as total value locked, decentralized exchange volumes, and stablecoin minting. The findings show that things are bullish for the fledgling financial ecosystem.
An Amazing Q1
Starting with TVL, the report shows that Ethereum-based DeFi protocols have doubled, going from $16.6 billion at the beginning of 2021 to $37.7 billion currently. This outperforms the Q4 of 2020 by 90%.
DappRadar shows an even higher increase of 145% to $54 billion from $22 billion for Q1 of 2021. Meanwhile, DeFi Pulse is showing a gain of 175% for Q1, with TVL growing from $16 billion to $44 billion.
As Ethereum dominates the DeFi, around half of this TVL increase is attributed directly to Ethereum’s worth increasing, now labeled as “ultra-sound money.” During the same period of time, the price of ETH grew by close to 150%.
DEX Volumes Have Doubled
Also worth mentioning is the fact that DEX daily volumes have doubled during this period of time, averaging more than $2 billion in Q1 2021, while in Q4 2020, it averaged less than $1 billion. This is attributed to a rise in the usage of BSC:
“As with TVL, DEX volume has been bolstered by BSC’s rise. The chain had never facilitated more than $300K of trading prior to 2021, but now appears to be on track to average over $1B in volume after hitting a high of $1.9B on Mar. 24.”
Furthermore, the research shows that stablecoins have also doubled in Q1 2021, growing 100% from $21 billion worth when the year began to $42 billion currently.
Borrowing volume across DeFi platforms has also increased 3.5 times, growing from $3.9 billion to $13 billion. Compound Finance represents 55% of the total market, while MakerDAO is placed second, with a value of 30%.
Source: Beincrypto.com