Ethereum leads whilst Avalanche and Solana make solid strides
The total value locked (TVL) in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem now stands at a whopping $142 billion according to the August DappRadar Industry Report. As expected, Ethereum still leads the space, controlling 70% of TVL whilst newcomers Avalanche and Solana made solid strides forward accounting for more than $5.3 billion. As NFTs roar, it’s clear DeFi is still king of the jungle.
The rise in popularity of DeFi services such as staking, yield farming, and liquidity provision has led to this meteoric rise in Total Value Locked, or shortly TVL. Importantly, those appealing DeFi mechanics are now present in dapps from other categories. MOBOX, an NFT platform on Binance Smart Chain, for example. Allows users to purchase MOBOX NFTs to earn MBOX tokens. This is just one of several iterations of staking mechanics entering NFTs and gaming this year. Ethereum usage is shifting towards NFTs. Shown through the fact that DeFi’s unique active users decreased by 17% whilst unique users interacting with NFTs increased by 202% in August.
This trend can be better observed when looking at the most active DeFi apps over the last 30-days. Four operate from BSC whilst only Uniswap is present from Ethereum. Nonetheless, with over $50 billion in volume – Uniswap is still a vital player as users transact with far more value than on other dapps such as Pancake Bunny or ApeSwap. Moreover, the rise of DeFi platforms on alternative chains has been mesmerizing to observe and the multi-chain paradigm born out of Ethereum’s woes is obviously here to stay.
NFTs closing in on DeFi
The NFT space has exploded surpassing at least $14.27 billion in market capitalization. Axie Infinity and OpenSea ($355 million and $205 million respectively) generated $560 million in revenues during August alone, the amount is 7 times greater than the entire revenue generated by Binance Smart Chain and would represent 87% of Ethereum’s total revenue.
The Dapp Industry is also seeing an increase in terms of play-to-earn opportunities and GameFi projects. Games like Axie Infinity, CryptoBlades, and Alien Worlds are constantly increasing the number of unique active wallets interacting with them. These projects successfully combine both DeFi and NFTs and are on a mission to take blockchain gaming to new levels.
As mentioned, Ethereum still leads the DeFi space in regards to the total value locked in its protocols. Additionally, many new NFT projects are emerging on Ethereum. Showing still that bigger investors favor the long-standing network over competitors.
Nonetheless, two newcomers have planted their respective flags in August. Solana, with its lightning-fast processing and ultra-low fees, is having a moment. Its TVL grew to more than $3.1 billion across its DeFi dapps. In addition, the native SOL token broke the $100 value barrier. A similar story is forming on Avalanche. With a TVL of $2.2 billion and a growing ecosystem of finance dapps, users are increasing and so is the AVAX token price. In the last 30-days, AVAX increased by over 227%.
A multichain paradigm is driving increased adoption, usage, and value. To get the full story, and dive deeper into the data read the full August Dapp Report on DappRadar.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in ETH, BTC, NIOX, AGIX, MATIC, MANA, SAFEMOON, SDAO, CAKE, HEX, LINK, GRT, CRO, OMI, GO, SHIBA INU, AND OCEAN.