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