The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector continues to attract heightened attention from cryptocurrency investors. ForkLog has compiled the most important events and news of the past weeks in a digest.
Key metrics of the DeFi segment
The total value locked (TVL) across DeFi protocols declined to $46.93 billion. Leading the chart is Lido with $7.87 billion, followed by MakerDAO ($7.02 billion) and Curve ($4.72 billion).
TVL in Ethereum applications declined to $27.78 billion. Over the last 30 days, the metric rose by 12% (as of January 11 it stood at $24.86 billion).
Trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX) over the last 30 days totaled $53.9 billion.
Uniswap continues to dominate the non-custodial exchange market, accounting for 72.9% of total volume. The second DEX by trading volume is Curve (10.1%).
Lido developers reveal details of new protocol version
The Lido Finance announced the release of a new version of the liquid staking platform.
According to the developers, the upcoming upgrade will be the largest in the protocol’s history, representing a major step toward decentralization.
Key components of Lido v2:
- Staking Router — a new modular architecture allowing market participants, including solo stakers, to become node operators;
- Withdrawals — holders of stETH will be able to release the underlying asset — ETH — from the Beacon Chain (this capability will appear after the planned March Shanghai hard fork).
Participants said that the ability to withdraw stETH from staking in exchange for ETH would positively affect user experience and the DeFi sector as a whole.
Security audits are already underway. The next steps before deploying the second version will be a vote in the DAO for the proposed changes, and launching the system on the Goerli testnet in early March.
dYdX DeFi platform trading volume in 2022 reached $466.3 billion
The cumulative trading volume on dYdX amounted to $466.3 billion in 2022. Over the same period, the leading non-custodial crypto-derivatives platform earned $137.8 million in fees.
Compared with 2021, dYdX turnover rose by 140%, despite the bear market and the fall in TVL from a peak of $1.1 billion in October 2021 to the current $400 million.
Aave developers launch GHO stablecoin on testnet
The Aave Companies, behind the DeFi platform Aave, launched the GHO stablecoin on the Goerli Ethereum testnet.
The developers introduced the GHO project in early July 2022. The instrument is an over-collateralized stablecoin — a model used by DAI from MakerDAO. This means that to issue GHO, users must provide collateral exceeding the value of the target stablecoins.
Assets in collateral will generate yields. Interest from borrowers of the stablecoin will go to the treasury of the DAO backing the project. The latter will also control the set of coordinators (facilitators) who can mint and burn GHO.
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