
After weeks of languishing below the $50 billion range, the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) has now risen to above that mark. At the time of publishing on March 22, the DeFi TVL is $50.34 trillion, an increase of 1.97% over 24 hours.
DeFi Value Swells Close To 2% Higher To Over $50 Billion
The crypto economy is on the rise with crypto currency values increasing 1.2% to $1.24 trillion. On Wednesday, the figure was $50.34 billion. The top DeFi protocol leader is Lido Finance with $10.76 billion in TVL, a growth of 10.60% in seven days and an increase of 24.61% over the past month. Makerdao’s TVL is the only DeFi protocol out of the top five to have experienced a TVL reduction of 1.29%. On the other hand, Aave, Curve and Uniswap have all seen a jump in their usage with an increase of 13.62%.

The smart contract platform market capitalization has risen 3.6% to $357 billion in the past day, resulting in an increase in DeFi. The top five smart contract tokens appreciated in value over the week, except for Polygon (MATIC) which dropped 3.9% over seven days. Ethereum is the dominant force in terms of TVL with a total of $29.71 billion accounting for 59%. Tron follows at $5.35B, BSC at $5.1B, Arbitrum at $2B and Polygon at $1.07B.
As far as liquid staking goes, Lido is the best protocol on Ethereum, Neopin Staking on Tron, Ankr on BSC, Tenderize on Arbitrum, and Thunderpokt on Polygon. For Ethereum, there’s 7,843,929 ETH worth $14.29 billion locked into liquid staking protocols today, with Lido leading the pack. Behind Lido is Coinbase ($2.15B), Rocketpool ($805.53M), Frax ($224.22M), Stakewise ($158.34M), and Stakehound ($118.85M). WBTC is one of the top five bridges in TVL, alongside Justcryptos, Multichain, Poly Network and Portal.
At 3:30 PM (ET) March 22.2023, after the recent Fed Rate hike and a 3.4% drop in Bitcoin (BTC), TVL in DeFi has managed to stay above the $50 billion range at 50.08 billion.
What do you think is driving DeFi’s rise and TVL? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.