Data: DeFi locked value exceeds $8 billion, doubling in one month

summary:

• There is now over $8 billion in cryptocurrency locked in DeFi smart contracts.

• DeFi Pulse data shows that this number has doubled since the end of July.

• Aave has recently surpassed Maker due to its explosive growth.

Image source: unsplush

If the constant headlines and social media coverage haven’t convinced you, fresh data now shows that decentralized finance (DeFi) has continued to surge throughout August.

According to data from data analysis website DeFi Pulse, the amount of cryptocurrency locked in DeFi application smart contracts exceeded $8 billion this week and currently stands at $8.41 billion as of writing.

Over the course of August, the value of cryptocurrency locked in these smart contracts doubled to the amount on July 31 ($4.19 billion), according to DeFi Pulse.

Most of the growth occurred in the first half of the month, reaching $7 billion on August 16 and gradually climbing to $8 billion during the week of August 26.

Maker has been the leading DeFi protocol for some time, and as of the beginning of this month, it was far ahead of its competitors. However, it is now ranked second, behind the new champion: Aave.

Aave currently tops the list with $1.55 billion in crypto locked in its smart contracts, a figure that has almost tripled in just two weeks. As of August 13, it only had $529.6 million locked in its smart contracts, but it surged to nearly $428 million the next day and has been climbing ever since.

Aave now accounts for 18% of the value locked in DeFi contracts. As reported earlier this week, the price of Aave’s LEND token has soared by more than 20,000% in the past year due to the explosive growth of Ethereum’s DeFi.

Maker has seen more consistent growth in August, growing from $1.28 billion in value locked in its smart contracts on August 1 to $1.43 billion as of yesterday. Curve Finance follows closely behind with $1.26 billion as of yesterday, while Balancer is the last protocol to pass the $1 billion mark in value locked, at $1.07 billion.

The DeFi market cap has also exploded recently, now at $15.5 billion, according to CoinGecko data. As of August 9, the figure was only $11 billion.