{"id":23886,"date":"2025-05-12T13:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T10:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/defi-lending-protocols-surpass-dex-in-volume\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T13:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T10:11:10","slug":"defi-lending-protocols-surpass-dex-in-volume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/defi-lending-protocols-surpass-dex-in-volume\/","title":{"rendered":"DeFi Lending Protocols Surpass DEX in Volume"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The volume of funds in lending DeFi protocols has reached record levels in the current market cycle, while decentralised exchanges (DEX) have continued to lose ground.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"499\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-115711-1024x499.png\" alt=\"Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-115711\" class=\"wp-image-258491\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-115711-1024x499.png 1024w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-115711-300x146.png 300w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-115711-768x374.png 768w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-115711-1536x748.png 1536w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-115711.png 1633w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Aave leads among protocols. Data: <a href=\"https:\/\/defillama.com\/protocols\/lending\">DeFi Llama<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The total <span data-descr=\"total value locked\" class=\"old_tooltip\">TVL<\/span> of such projects amounts to $53.3 billion\u201443% of the overall $124.6 billion in the industry. Aave leads with $24 billion. This <a href=\"https:\/\/defillama.com\/categories\">figure<\/a> also surpasses the liquid staking segment.<\/p>\n<p>In comparison, the total value locked in DEX has decreased from $85.3 billion in November 2021 to $21.5 billion at the time of writing.  <\/p>\n<p>Henrik Andersson, founder of Apollo Capital, <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/crypto-lending-tvl-outpacing-dexs-vc-explains\">attributed<\/a> this to lending becoming the only sustainable source of income in DeFi. According to him, DEX liquidity pools are losing appeal due to impermanent losses and increased competition.  <\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;capital-efficient&#8221; design of Uniswap v3 allows for higher earnings with smaller investments, but this reduces overall TVL, Andersson noted. He explained that <span data-descr=\"cross-chain trading mechanism\" class=\"old_tooltip\">intent swaps<\/span>, where liquidity is sourced from centralised exchanges (CEX), divert funds from DEX.  <\/p>\n<p>Lending protocols like Aave offer Ethereum and stablecoin holders an annual yield ranging from 1.86% to 3.17%. In DEX pools, profits are higher but volatile and depend on daily fluctuations.  <\/p>\n<p>The share of DeFi lending in the market reached 65% by the end of 2024, surpassing centralised platforms. This followed the bankruptcies of Celsius, BlockFi, and other <span data-descr=\"centralised finance\" class=\"old_tooltip\">CeFi<\/span> players, which shrank the market by 78% from its 2022 peak.  <\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.galaxy.com\/insights\/research\/the-state-of-crypto-lending\/\">Galaxy Digital<\/a>, the volume of loans in DeFi increased by 960% from the end of 2022.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"522\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-120858-1024x522.png\" alt=\"Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-120858\" class=\"wp-image-258492\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-120858-1024x522.png 1024w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-120858-300x153.png 300w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-120858-768x391.png 768w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snimok-ekrana-2025-05-12-120858.png 1260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Market share changes between CEX and DEX lending protocols from Q3 2018 to Q4 2024. Data: Galaxy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;Institutional investors and regulatory clarity will drive the next phase of growth,&#8221; predicts Galaxy. <\/em> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In the first quarter of 2025, TVL in DeFi protocols <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/defi-tvl-and-nft-trading-slump-in-q1-says-dappradar\">fell by 27%<\/a>, NFT trading volume decreased by 24%, while social and AI applications showed the most growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The volume of funds in lending DeFi protocols has reached record levels in the current market cycle, while decentralised exchanges (DEX) have continued to lose ground. Aave leads among protocols. Data: DeFi Llama. The total TVL of such projects amounts to $53.3 billion\u201443% of the overall $124.6 billion in the industry. Aave leads with $24 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1093,787,1097,1145],"class_list":["post-23886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-defi","tag-dex","tag-lending","tag-market-analysis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"61","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}