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DeFi Rallies Towards New Highs As Multiple Layer 1 Blockchains Amaas $50 Billion in TVL

source-logo  bitcoinexchangeguide.com 06 September 2021 09:41, UTC

The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has started to go up, yet again. DeFi tokens are in the green, gradually moving up with Perpetual protocol (PERP), leading the gains up 16% in the past 24-hours. Popular DeFi coins, PancakeSwap, AMP, Thorchain, Synthetix, Bancor, Curve, Swipe, Alpha, Venus, Polkastarter, and Akropolis are also up 5% to 10%. This has the total DeFi market cap climbing towards its all-time high of almost $150 bln from mid-May, according to CoinGecko. As of writing, the market cap is above $143 bln. https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain/status/1434727202638028805 But it is the total value locked (TVL) in the sector that is rising even more rapidly, which has surpassed the May peak of $156.2 bln last month, as per DeFi Llama. Currently, the TVL of the entire sector is sitting at almost $180 bln, with Aave contributing the highest at $16.33 bln. In terms of layer 1 blockchains, Ethereum is a clear winner with roughly $131 bln in TVL, followed by Binance Smart Chain at $19.32 bln. Other popular blockchains with smart contract capability attracting the most capital include Terra $7.63 bln, Polygon $5.28 bln, Solana $4.81 bln, Avalanche $2.42 bln, and Fantom $1.25 bln. Binance and Polygon are the only ones that are about 40% down from their ATH TVLs, while others are hitting new highs.

Deflationary Pressure

With these latest uptrends, DeFi is actually catching up to the rest of the market, with the overall market capitalization of crypto reaching $2.45 trillion, just inches away from May 12 ATH of $2.55 trillion. Ether, in particular, has been rallying for the past month thanks to being the popular chain for the latest mania in town NFTs. Ether briefly hit $4,000 late Friday and is currently trading around $3,950. Besides NFTs, the London upgrade early in August, which implemented EIP 1559, is another factor behind its success as it reduced Ether’s supply increases and, at times, even making it deflationary. Since the EIP 1559 upgrade a month ago, more than 212,000 ETH worth $714 mln has been burned, “resulting in continued disinflationary pressure on the Ethereum supply,” the Fundstrat crypto team wrote in a note Friday.

Onto New Highs

The breakout in Ethereum has cascaded into other cryptos and is also expected to help Bitcoin lead the way now. The gains recorded by the leading cryptocurrency have been relatively smaller than its peers. But BTC also jumped $52,000 early on Monday and is hovering around this level now. “Hold $50,000 and I expect Bitcoin to have another leg up to $60,000 and test the April highs,” said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto lender Nexo. But Bitcoin “needs to start closing above $50,000 and settle in the early 50s to temper concerns that this is a double top and we’re heading down to $30,000 again,” he said. Amidst this, users on platforms including Reddit and Twitter are discussing plans to buy $30 worth of BTC en masse on Sept. 7 to mark El Salvador’s law-making Bitcoin a legal tender coming into effect. El Salvador has already begun installing Bitcoin ATMs for the conversion of the token into USD, and Congress has approved the creation of a $150 million fund to back conversions. Meanwhile, USD went back above 92.2 to start the week after dipping to 91.941 for the first time since August 4. Benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields firming to over a week high helped boost the dollar. US markets are shut for Labor Day.

bitcoinexchangeguide.com