DeFi Rundown, Curve Captures the Long Tail, & Stablecoin Growth

Data Digest

Multi-Chain DeFi TVL
ETH DeFi Performance YTD
Meta Pools Push Curve’s Liquidity Higher
DeFi Stablecoins Nearing $10 billion market cap

Key Takeaways

DeFi protocols across the top ecosystems — Ethereum, BSC, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Terra, etc — crossed $130 billion in cumulative TVL.
Ethereum still leads by a long shot, but growth on other L1 ecosystems is now undeniable as they account for 34% of DeFi TVL ($45.3 billion).

Key Takeaways

ALPHA, MKR, and UNI are clear market favorites amongst established DeFi projects.
SNX, YFI, and REN have been laggards, mostly due to a lack of short to mid term catalysts.

Key Takeaways

Curve’s tripool (USDC, USDT, DAI) added over a billion dollars in liquidity in 2021. This is a result of Curve capturing the long tail of stablecoin liquidity through its meta pools.
All Curve meta pools are effectively bonded to the tripool. As new stablecoin projects set up Curve meta pools, the tripool’s liquidity rises too.

Key Takeaways

DeFi native stablecoins are on the cusp of cumulatively reaching the $10 billion market cap threshold.
DAI remains the largest DeFi stablecoin after crossing four billion in circulating supply, but UST continues to show formidable strength and could prove to be a challenger in the mid to long term.

Notable Tweets

Michael Novogratz explains how Dogecoin evolved into a cultural phenomenon.

“In a research report out yesterday and we called it the most honest sh*itcoin,” says @novogratz on #dogecoin. “It is literally just a stored value for this group of millennials and Gen Z–it’s a little bit of a middle finger to the system.” pic.twitter.com/oba8PuE047

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) May 5, 2021

Uniswap v3 launches on mainnet today — a huge step forward for DEX capital efficiency.

? Is this $26k TVL in v3 offering better prices than $28m TVL in v2 for a $7000 swap on DAI/USDC?

? Who is hype AF to see capital efficiency in action tomorrow?

??? pic.twitter.com/G6kKSGyRvc

— Hayden Adams ? (@haydenzadams) May 5, 2021

Larry Sukernik, formerly of Digital Currency Group, pens a short piece highlighting the implications of DeFi treasuries starting to unlock their balance sheets.

Something big is brewing in project governance.

I wrote a short piece on what that big thing is. https://t.co/4jUkNTcOFb

Read on for a quick thread ?

— Larry Sukernik (@lsukernik) May 4, 2021