Hello HODLers,
It has been a while but I thought I would share with you some interesting data on DeFi trends and current market structure.
This is a good time as CryptoMarkets are pushing higher, Bitcoin is having another go at $50k and Ethereum is close to its $4K ATH.
Ethereum is the King. Period.
Ethereum is the blockchain where innovation happens (Smart Contracts, DeFi, NFTs...) and it has managed to stay the number 1 chain after Bitcoin of course but I see Bitcoin more of a macro/monetary asset than a blockchain for applications.
We all know that ETH is barely usable for the average user with fees being higher and higher. This is the playing field of whales and some are hoping the ETH 2.0 upgrade might bring back the people.
With ETH close to $3.8k, TVL locked on the Ethereum blockchain is also close to ATH.
Binance Smart Chain is a solid number 2 even if it has been stagnated for a few weeks and despite trying to reach its ATH TVL, seems to have lost a bit of momentum.
And then we have 3 other chains trying to challenge the status quo.
Zoom on the 3 challengers (Terra, Polygon and Solana)
How many times did we hear about the Ethereum Killer, I was on the fool to strongly believe in EOS but we had so many other chains trying out and none of them was even close to succeed. BSC being the most successful.
Polygon (MATIC) was very popular a few weeks back because of its low fees but as I felt reading on Twitter, it seems despite very low fees, users are not so hyped anymore; TVL is stagnating.
Solana and Terra are the new darlings and getting a lot of social attention. I have even read a few ETH whales saying they sold their assets to go ALL-in on Solana.
Nevertheless and even if I did not have the time to make a thorough analysis of the Soolana ecosystem, it misses a lot of dapps at the moment to compete with BSC or ETH ecosystem. They are supposed to go live soon though.
In any case, it is safe to say that Ethereum is the blue chip DeFi chain and that should be the case for the forseable future as it stayed number 1 for the past 5 years !
Ethereum DeFi market structure
Lending and DEXes are the 2 main categories and even if new use cases are coming live. I am quite excited about synthetic assets even if it will face regulartory hurdle.
Top 5 projects on Ethereum + Uniswap (by TVL)
The Top 5 Ethereum DeFi projects have a combined TVL of c.$65bn ! More than 2/3rd of the total ETH DeFi TVL. It just shows how concentrated and oligopolistic the DeFi space is at the moment.
You have the blue chip players that are the Top20-25 projects, the contenders Top 25-50 and then the Degen plays where you get high APR and return if you pick the right projects but where you can get rugged and scammed.
It is still the WildWest though !
Stay safe out there, but remember there are still a LOT of opportunities.
Sources