Ethereum

Ethereum’s Defi Dominance Drops 14%, Value Locked In Defi Shrinks to $55 Billion in Two Months

The crypto-economy has been sliding in value during the last 48 hours as the current market valuation for all 13,000+ crypto assets is $1. 83 trillion. Furthermore, the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) protocols has slipped below the $200 billion mark to $196. 02 billion on Sunday morning (EST). Meanwhile, Ethereum’s dominance is 55. 54% of the current aggregate TVL held in defi today with $108. 88 billion.

Value Locked in Defi Protocols Sink, Ethereum Loses Decentralized Finance Dominance

The value in defi protocols has slipped from the $251 billion mark at the end of December 2021, to today’s current $196. 02 billion. That’s a drop of around 21. 91% in USD value during the last two months.

On Sunday, March 6, 2022, the current TVL held in defi has increased 0. 11% during the last 24 hours with Curve Finance dominating the protocol pack. Curve’s $17. 88 billion TVL represents 9. 12% of the TVL held in defi, as it increased 0. 64% during the last week. Curve is followed by Makerdao ($15. 15B), Lido ($12. 79B), and Convex Finance ($12.58B).

Value Locked in Defi Sheds $55 Billion in 2 Months, Ethereum's Defi Dominance Loses 14% — Value locked in decentralized finance (defi) on Sunday, March 6, 2022.

Ethereum still dominates the TVL in defi this weekend, but only by 55. 59%, according to defillama.com chain stats. On October 5, 2021, ETH defi dominance was 69% and over the last five months, it shed 14% dominance. Today, Terra holds the second-largest defi TVL with $22. 67 billion locked, and more than half locked into the Anchor protocol.

Terra is followed by BSC ($11. 71B), Avalanche ($10. 74B), and Fantom ($7. 69B) in terms of TVL held in defi protocols on Sunday. Solana’s weekend defi TVL is $6. 83 billion down more than 5% during the last seven days.

At press time, there are 381 decentralized exchange (dex) platforms holding a combined TVL of around $64. 65 billion. Coingecko.com data shows Uniswap v3 is the top dex this weekend with $856.6 million in 24-hour volume.

Uniswap v3 is followed by Pancakeswap ($317M), Spookyswap ($270M), Curve ($155M), and Astroport ($155) in terms of daily dex volumes. The top three leading smart contract platform tokens in terms of seven-day gains include waves (WAVES) up 51% this week, lisk (LSK) up 28.9% and wanchain (WAN) jumped 23.6%.

On March 6, there’s currently $23. 37 billion total value locked in cross-chain bridges to Ethereum, according to Dune Analytics’ metrics. The top cross-chain bridge TVLs are blockchains such as Avalanche and Polygon, Fantom and Ronin.

Presently there are 25 decentralized finance (defi) oracles and Chainlink dominates the pack. Chainlink secures $52. 23 billion in value across 141 protocols, as it has an oracle dominance of around 54. 83% on Sunday morning.

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Aave, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Balancer, Binance Smart Chain, blockchains, Bridges, BSC, Chains, Curve, decentralized exchange, decentralized finance, DeFi, Defi Blockchains, Defi Total Value Locked, Defi TVL, defillama.com, DEX, Dex Platforms, ETH, Ethereum, LUNA, Pancakeswap, Protocols, Solana, Sushiswap, Terra, total value locked, TVL, uniswap

What do you think about the activities tied to the decentralized finance (defi) space? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman, the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News, is a Florida-based financial journalist. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. Redman is passionate about Bitcoin, open-source codes, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, defillama.com,

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Ethereum

Ethereum Derivatives Traders Position for $4K Rebound, Data Shows

Ethereum ( ETH) derivatives traders are back in full swing, with open interest, volume, and options activity all flashing signs of renewed energy across futures and options markets. ETH Max Pain Sits Near $3,300 as Traders Eye Key Expiry Levels At 10 a.m. Eastern time on Nov…
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Ethereum

ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract Now Controls 60% Of All Ethereum: Arkham

Rain Lohmus bought $75,000 worth of ETH in 2014, which is now worth $871 million. Yet, he cannot move even a single coin.

New on-chain research from Arkham Intelligence this week shows that the wallet address holding the most ETH today is not an individual, not an exchange, not an ETF issuer, but the staking contract that secures Ethereum.

According to Arkham, the ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract currently holds more than 72.4 million ETH, worth around $252 billion at current market prices, and represents approximately 60% of the total supply.

Ethereum’s Power Center

In terms of individuals, the research firm confirmed that the largest known individual holder of ETH is still Rain Lohmus, the founder of Estonian bank LHV, who bought 250,000 ETH in the 2014 presale for around $75,000. Those coins would now be worth roughly $871 million, but Lohmus does not have access to them because he lost the private keys years ago.

The second largest identifiable individual holder is Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who currently holds around 240,000 ETH, worth around $840 million.

Beyond individual wallets, centralized exchanges and institutional entities collectively control some of the largest pools of Ether. Binance, for one, holds approximately 4.09 million ETH, while asset manager BlackRock holds around 3.94 million ETH, largely associated with its iShares Ethereum Trust ETF. Coinbase is the next largest institutional holder, with approximately 3.5 million ETH across multiple addresses, including cold wallets and staking reserves for its cbETH staking token.

Following suit are Upbit, Robinhood, Kraken, OKX, and Bitfinex, which appear among the top institutional holders.

Seized Funds, Stolen Funds, and Layer-2 Bridges

Arkham found that governments also appear on the leaderboard. For instance, the United States government controls around 60,000 ETH, which largely consists of seized criminal funds, including from the Potapenko/Turogin case and from seizures related to the Bitfinex hacker.

Ethereum

Ethereum Traders Just Flipped Bullish, But History Says This Is a Major Red Flag

Ethereum’s bounce toward $3,500 triggered instant FOMO, but Santiment says extreme optimism usually means price is about to disappoint.

Ethereum traders have swung sharply from extreme bearishness to extreme bullishness within just a few days, based on social media sentiment.

But fresh data suggest that when ETH nearly rebounded to $3,500 on Thursday, the crowd interpreted the move as a confirmation that the asset was “back in business.”

ETH Trader FOMO

Santiment warned that this sudden pivot is similar to the same pattern seen earlier in the week, when retail panic selling actually contributed to the rebound. Now, the rapid return of FOMO could similarly stall further upside.

According to the analytics platform, prices have shown a tendency to move in the opposite direction of the crowd, and that more neutral sentiment phases have proven to be stronger buy signal environments than euphoric ones.

Crypto trader Ted Pillows also noted that even though the altcoin is showing some rebound after this week’s sharp decline, the recovery lacks conviction. According to Pillows, the current move higher, though modest, is being driven largely by short positions being closed rather than new spot buyers stepping in. He added that Ethereum needs to reclaim the $3,600-$3,700 price range with meaningful inflows to establish strength and dismiss the risk of further downside. Without that confirmation, Pillows believes the odds still favor lower prices from here.

Despite the near-term uncertainty, some traders say the bigger picture is still pointing toward a substantial upside scenario. For instance, crypto trader “Trader Tradigrade” said that ETH’s monthly chart is currently developing what he describes as a massive Inverse Head and Shoulders pattern, with a potential price target of $14,000 once confirmed.

“Wet Blanket” Phase

As the crypto market remains sluggish, Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz believes that this could be due to long-term holders rebalancing their net worths and diversifying away from massive concentrated holdings after a very long bull market. Novogratz deems this to be a healthy sign in the medium and long term as these positions get distributed. In the short run, however, he said that “it’s a proverbial wet blanket” and has weighed on prices.

About the author

Chayanika has been working as a financial journalist for six years. A graduate in Political Science and Journalism, her interest lies in regulatory implications with a focus on technological evolution in the crypto realm.