Towards the end of last year, the total value of assets locked in decentralized finance plunged to around $230 billion.
However, since that low, the space has seen a steady rise of up to 12% in its TVL, with the first four days of this new year accounting for 4% of the rise — an early indication that DeFi is starting the year strongly.
DeFi TVL has already risen by 4% in 2022
According to available data from DeFiLlama, DeFi’s TVL stood at $228.13 billion as of December 11 but the figure had risen to $245 billion by January 1 and as of press time, it had risen to $256 billion. This means that the space TVL has gathered over $10 billion within the first 5 days of this year.
Per the data, the TVL is shared across blockchain networks supporting smart contract features like Ethereum, Terra, BINANCE Smart Chain (BSC), Avalanche, , Near, Harmony, Ronin, etc.
A cursory look at the data will reveal that Ethereum leads with $160.96 billion across 383 protocols, followed by Terra with $19 billion. Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is third with $16.57 billion across 265 DeFi protocols.
Other notable blockchains with massive TVL include with $6 billion while Osmosis recently crossed the $1 billion mark. The remaining balance is shared across other blockchains.
DeFi Protocols contributing to the TVL
Curve Finance is the leading DeFi protocol dominating the TVL with over $24 billion which is roughly 10% of the total. Curve Finance is a leading DeFi automated market maker (AMM) that allows users to exchange tokens with low fees.
follows Curve closely with over $21 billion locked in it while Makerdao has $18.28 billion. Other protocols with high TVL include Aave, Lido, WBTC, and Instadapp with $14.62 billion, $12.48 billion, $12.11 billion, and $10.88 billion respectively.
Surprisingly, the seven leading smart contract blockchain platforms like Ethereum, Solana, , Polkadot, Terra, Avalanche, and Polygon have had a slow start to the year while other platforms like Chainlink, Algorand and Near, are among the top gainers with +5.3%, +3.2%, and +12.6%, respectively. In fact, FUSE is the biggest gainer, with 183.6% in the same timeframe.
