The total deposits of the three major DeFi lending protocols hit a new high, exceeding $20 billion

The amount of collateral pouring into the leading decentralized finance protocol has not slowed down this year.

According to Dune Analytics, deposits in the three major DeFi lending protocols have reached approximately $20 billion. A report evaluating these platforms by Messari research shows that they will generate more than $500 million in interest each year.

Deposits on Maker, Compound Finance, and Aave have all reached record levels as investors engaging in liquidity mining seek exponentially higher returns than those offered by traditional banks. Messari tweeted:

“At the time of writing, the three largest lending platforms generate $660 million in interest annually,”

Aave, Compound, and Maker have deposits of $20 billion.

— Messari (@MessariCrypto) February 17, 2021

Messari researcher Mira Christanto commented that protocols capture value by attracting capital and using capital, and the protocol’s total value locked (TVL) reflects this.

TVL is the metric currently used to measure the performance of DeFi protocols, and it varies depending on the calculation method used by different analysis providers.

According to Dune Analytics, Maker’s collateral deposits have reached a record high of $6.38 billion. Compound Finance also hit a record high of $8.7 billion, while Aave has $6.5 billion. Their deposits totaled $21.58 billion.

However, data from both DappRadar and DeFi Pulse show that the combined TVL of the three protocols is currently closer to $17 billion.

Meanwhile, the centralized financial platform Celsius Network has also performed well in terms of users and collateral lock-in. According to a February 15 release, Celsius has paid out more than $250 million in crypto earnings to customers, has more than 415,000 users, and manages more than $8 billion in crypto assets.