Solana DeFi Tops $2 Billion in Value Locked for First Time Since June 2022

Interest in decentralized finance (DeFi) on Solana is surging—and the total value locked on the blockchain just passed the $2 billion mark again.

Figures from DeFi Llama show that the amount of money being used on DeFi apps running on Solana is now $2.062 billion. The last time it was that high was back in June 2022.

At the start of December, that figure stood below $1 billion.

Still, the Solana DeFi space has a long way to go until it reaches the highs of the 2021 bull run, when total value locked stood at more than $10 billion. At the time of writing, its two largest DeFi projects are Marinade and Jito, according to DeFi Llama data—both of them platforms for staking assets and earning rewards for doing so.

Solana is a popular crypto network, and the blockchain behind the fifth biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, SOL.

It aims to compete with Ethereum, the blockchain behind ETH, the second biggest cryptocurrency.

Many DeFi apps and projects—which allow decentralized borrowing, lending and trading—run on Ethereum’s network.

But more and more interest is flooding into the Solana space because it is a cheaper and faster network.

Hype around Solana has exploded recently. Big money investors have been eying-up the asset and major brands such as Visa and Shopify have said they will utilize its blockchain.

It was expected to take a nosedive due to its proximity to collapsed crypto exchange FTX and its now-convicted criminal founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

But developers kept building on Solana and its price surged towards the end of 2023.

SOL’s price currently stands at $106.79, having dropped by more than 6% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.