Analysis: Average returns of DeFi tokens far outstripped Bitcoin in 2020

Despite the pullback in the decentralized finance bull run, the average return of DeFi tokens has far outpaced that of Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, the median return tells a different story.

On November 17, anonymous crypto analyst "Ceteris Paribus" shared some data with his 12,000 followers that aggregated the median and average returns of 40 top crypto assets year-to-date, including 38 top DeFi assets, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Currently, about 26 DeFi assets have announced their year-to-date returns.

The analyst found that the median return of these 26 top DeFi assets was about 148.8%, which is 15.5% higher than Bitcoin's year-to-date return of 133.3%. Therefore, half of the DeFi tokens have a return above 148.8% and half are below 148.8%. Paribus said that the median return of DeFi tokens is generally about the same as Bitcoin's return:

“So far, DeFi tokens have shown a strong rebound in November, but not as high as the summer rally, with median returns comparable to BTC but not outperforming Bitcoin by much.”

However, in 2020, the average return of these 26 DeFi tokens was 428.7%, more than three times that of Bitcoin.

As of writing, the top performing DeFi assets in 2020 are: Aave (AAVE) with a return of 4245%, Band (BAND) with a return of 2466%, and Yearn Finance (YFI) with a return of 1597%. THORChain (RUNE) has a return of 1203%.

The worst performing assets in the DeFi space so far are Curve (CRV), SushiSwap (SUSHI), and Swerve (SWRV), with losses of 88.7%, 80.1%, and 79.9%, respectively.

DeFi assets have seen extreme volatility in recent months, with 10 of the 29 DeFi tokens reporting returns of more than 1,000% in August, while CRV was the only asset to experience a loss.

However, only Gnosis (GNO) and Hegic (HEGIC) saw single-digit growth between September and October, while the remaining 34 tokens were in the red, with five of them falling by more than 89%.

November has been relatively volatile so far, with 32 of the 38 coins reporting median and average returns of around 20% and 35% respectively.