Data: Institutional investors are reviving the DeFi market, and YFI is the biggest beneficiary token

According to crypto market data aggregator IntoTheBlock, on-chain YFI trading volume has increased by 282% in the past week, with nearly $134 million in trading volume on November 10 alone.

On-chain YFI transaction volume: IntoTheBlock

According to crypto market analytics firm Messari, YFI is the best performing DeFi asset over the past week, followed by yAxis with a 78% return, Loopring with 50%, and Akropolis and Curve with 49% each. However, the DeFi rally is a recent thing, with only 11 of the 41 DeFi tokens tracked by Messari up in the past 30 days, while 22 have risen in the past 12 months.

On November 12, Messari confirmed that Polychain Capital had become the 10th largest YFI holder, despite not holding YFI tokens until October. Polychain currently controls 470 YFI (1.6% of the YFI supply).

Polychain is hoarding several other top DeFi tokens, including Compound (COMP), Maker (MKR), Filecoin (FIL), Orchid (OXT), and 0x (ZRX).

From mid-September to early November, YFI was one of the tokens that suffered the most during the decline in the entire DeFi space, falling 80% from about $43,300 on September 13 to $8,550 on November 6. In the past week, Yearn has rebounded by more than 95% and is currently trading at $16,600.

Last month, Crypto.com published the results of a survey of 411 “decision-makers” representing traditional financial institutions familiar with DeFi, which showed that mainstream entities are investing heavily in the DeFi space.

58% of respondents expressed concern that they “will lose their competitive advantage” if they do not create DeFi products, and 61% said their companies are “considering adopting DeFi as a way to perform financial services through smart contracts.” 35% of respondents said they are currently working with existing DeFi platforms or services.

However, the survey also found that 61% of respondents believe that the lack of regulation in DeFi is a major challenge to the industry’s growth.