There are still some concerns over the future potential of the DeFi industry. Despite the semi-bullish crypto market momentum, the current Total Value Locked is on the same level as June 2022. Aptos has come out as a chain that moves up the rankings, although there’s much work to do.
DeFi TVL Rises Slightly
It has been a while since the decentralized finance industry got some positive momentum. Although L2 networks and new chains launch regularly, they all struggle to captivate an audience. Competing against Ethereum is virtually impossible, although many protocols follow a multi-chain approach. That brings more DeFi opportunities to other networks, which yields more liquidity.
Despite the multi-chain approach, the DeFi TVL has yet to reclaim the $100 billion mark. That remains elusive, even though things look up since late 2022. The Total Value Locked dropped from $95 billion to $70.4 billion in October 2022, and hit $68 billion in late December. However, the rising crypto prices have allowed protocols to prop up their numbers a bit. Farming yield has become a tad more popular, although not much.
With the TVL now returning to nearly $87 billion, cautious optimism seems warranted. That is the same level as July 2022 and early October 2022, before things went south. However, reclaiming the $300bn+ TVL levels remains out of the question. Many people migrated to NFTs and stablecoins, which they won’t necessarily commit to decentralized finance.
Moreover, nothing has changed regarding the top five projects by Total Value Locked. Lido, MakerDAO, AAVE, Curve, and Convex Finance all maintained their positions. Although their TVL has risen by an average of roughly 30% in the past month, competitors have risen less quickly. Moreover, these five projects are all active on Ethereum (and other networks), further strengthening that chain’s position.
Aptos Notes Growth Through PancakeSwap
One of the alternative DeFi networks people keep tabs on is Aptos. Its APT asset has pumped hard in recent weeks. Although the chain provides decentralized finance possibilities, it has yet to make any big moves. Today, it holds over $74 million in TVL – peanuts compared to other major L1 chains – which isn’t too exciting. However, it is one of three chains supported by PancakeSwap, one of the world’s largest decentralized exchanges.
PancakeSwap was initiated on the BNB Chain, but also expanded to Ethereum. In recent months, they expanded to Aptos, which represents $34.17 million in liquidity. That value is more than twice that of PancakeSwap liquidity on the Ethereum blockchain. Of course, those numbers don’t mean much, given how little liquidity they represent, but it remains interesting.
While the PancakeSwap liquidity on Aptos rose, AUX Exchange went the other way. It still represents over $11.8 million in TVL, similar to Tortuga, a liquid staking solution on Aptos. The network is home to 16 decentralized finance protocols, although most are very small. It will be interesting to see if things can pick up in the remainder of 2023.
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