DeFi TVL Exploded 936% In One Year, While The NFT Sector Matures

The DeFi craze of 2020 seemed to be a massive event, but new research from DappRadar reveals that the decentralized finance and NFT sector have grown immensely over the past year.

DappRadar’s “Value Flow Report” from September 30 reveals massive growth in both the NFT sector and DeFi. “Although the value flows to some extent from DeFi to NFTs, it appears that both categories are generating value independently.” the report noted, highlighting that Ethereum is still dominant in the sector.

It turns out, 68% of all of the collateral locked in DeFi was based on Ethereum. Binance Smart Chain comes second with $17.8 billion currently locked, or 15.5% of the total value locked (TVL) figures. Polygon is third with $2.7 billion locked, but alternative data sources suggest that Solana, which has $9.5 billion locked, may flip Polygon for the third place.

Overall, the DeFi sector clocked in at $114.8 billion, which marks an almost ten-fold increase over the same period last year, or 935% precisely. Furthermore, from July 23 to September 5 the DeFi sector’s TVL value spiked 75%, peaking at $195 billion.

Meanwhile, NFTs have recorded a massive uptick, with a total of $5.2 billion worth traded and a vast popularity surge in August. The NFT sector is also heavily dependent оn Ethereum, with 90% of all the NFT volume on its blockchain.

For example, NFT marketplace leader OpenSea makes a total of 99.7% of its trades on Ethereum’s blockchain and also offering USDC, DAI, and Polygon (MATIC) options for sellers.

“All in all, it appears that the value in DeFi is growing constantly, whilst NFTs were able to generate a major value flow in August.”, the report noted, emphasizing that NFT growth has been organic and has not stolen a lot of liquidity from DeFi protocols.

The report also analyzed the performance of the top five cryptocurrencies to date, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT) finding a central spot in supporting the DeFi ecosystem. The key points of the report state that Bitcoin in centralized exchanges fell to its lowest level in 2021, the same trend is also observed with Ethereum, as the amount of ETH leaving centralized exchanges is at its highest.

Furthermore, four stablecoins (USDC, USDT, DAI, and UST) account for 39% of the assets bridged in Ethereum, suggesting a hefty use in both DeFi and NFTs.