DeFi Deposits Reach 65 Trillion Won... Up 27% Since Early Year
Staking Platform Lido Attracts $9.1 Billion Worth
As the virtual asset market, which had been stagnant last year, shows signs of recovery this year, the scale of DeFi (Decentralized Finance) deposits is also on the rise.
According to DeFi analytics platform DeFiLlama, as of 2:26 PM on the 27th, the total DeFi deposit size was recorded at $49.39 billion (approximately 65.26 trillion KRW), an increase of 2.11% compared to the previous day. The total DeFi deposit size has been increasing since the beginning of this year, reaching the level of November last year. As of the 1st of last month, it was only $39.01 billion, but it showed an upward trend afterward, surpassing $50 billion on the 16th of this month. Compared to the beginning of the year, the total DeFi deposit size surged by 26.61%.
The total DeFi deposit size shows a trend similar to the rising prices of virtual assets. Bitcoin, which accounts for more than 42% of the total virtual asset market capitalization, was hovering around the $16,000 level at the beginning of this year. However, it showed an upward trend as concerns about tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) somewhat eased and analyses suggested that regulatory actions by authorities on the virtual asset market would enhance market stability. On this day, it recorded around $23,400, rising more than 40% compared to the beginning of the year.
Growing Distrust in Centralized Exchanges like Binance and FTX
Additionally, the bankruptcy of the global exchange FTX has increased distrust in centralized exchanges (CEX) such as Binance and FTX, leading to more usage of decentralized exchanges (DEX), which is also seen as a cause for the rise in DeFi deposit size. Decentralized exchanges refer to platforms where virtual assets can be traded peer-to-peer (P2P) without intermediaries or administrators.
According to data from virtual asset analytics firm Dune Analytics, the trading volume on decentralized exchanges over the past week more than doubled compared to the first week of last month. Compared to the beginning of the year, the weekly trading volume from the 13th to the 20th of this month increased about threefold. As trading on decentralized exchanges, rather than centralized ones, increased, this led to the growth in DeFi scale.
Looking at the deposit size by DeFi platform, Lido had the largest amount at approximately $9.1 billion, followed by MakerDAO ($7.24 billion), Curve ($4.94 billion), and AAVE ($4.82 billion). Lido, a staking platform where users delegate virtual assets to blockchain networks and receive coins as rewards for participating in operation and verification, saw its deposit size increase by 9.36% compared to a month ago. Lido supports blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana, Moonbeam, Moonriver, and Terra Classic. The decentralized exchange platform Curve increased by 1.76% during the same period, and Uniswap, another decentralized exchange platform ranked sixth in total deposits with $4.12 billion, also rose by 5.77%. Additionally, the virtual asset lending platform AAVE increased by 3.56%.
Ethereum Leads in Total Deposit Size by Blockchain
Ethereum was found to have the largest total deposit size by blockchain. The deposit size on the Ethereum blockchain was $28.92 billion, accounting for 58.53% of the total deposits across all blockchains. Following were Tron with $5.2 billion (10.52%) and Binance Smart Chain with $4.96 billion (10.04%). Next were Arbitrum (3.94%), Polygon (2.34%), and Avalanche (1.92%). Among the top 10 blockchains by deposit size, Arbitrum recorded the highest growth rate in the past month at 66.58%, increasing its deposit size to $1.95 billion. Optimism followed with a sharp increase of 36.58%, reaching $950.66 million.
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