DeFi market cap explodes, surpasses $15 billion

So far, the only way is up for DeFi's market cap.

Aug 16, 2020

2 min read

Crypto prices increase. But are they inflationary assets? Image: Shutterstock

Another day, another billion dollars. The total market cap of DeFi, or decentralized finance, is now $15 billion, according to metrics site Coin Gecko.

The growth is staggering. On August 9, DeFi's market cap hit $11 billion. By August 12, $13 billion. And now four days later—the rise almost like clockwork in DeFi's steampunk utopia—the market cap hits $15 billion. As of today, DeFi's market cap is $15.1 billion.

The huge rise is of course down to the prominence of Chainlink, the decentralized price oracle that's responsible for 49.2% of DeFi's market cap. Chainlink seems to rise every weekend, and this weekend resulted in a huge price bump of about 13% in under 24 hours. Chainlink is now the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and the only one dedicated to DeFi.

And to be clear: market capitalization refers to a token's supply multiplied by its price. The total DeFi market cap is all of the DeFi-related market caps totted up. This is different from the "total value locked" (TVL) in DeFi, a statistic that refers to the amount of crypto locked up in DeFi smart contracts—most of the popular ones are non-custodial lending protocols. The total value locked in DeFi protocols is nearing $6 billion, up from $5 billion on Friday.

The continued rise of DeFi, both in market cap and total value locked, suggests that the current bull run is far from over.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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