Since its inception, the decentralized finance ecosystem has been attracting more and more users. The result: the number of addresses that interacted with DeFi protocols on Ethereum (ETH) increased by 65% in the last quarter.
DeFi at the top of its game
So far, 2021 has undoubtedly been the year of DeFi. Indeed, after being developed on Ethereum, the ecosystem has expanded to several other blockchains.
According to the data compiled in Consensys’ latest report, the second quarter of 2021 was by far the best for Ethereum’s DeFi. Between April and June, the number of addresses on Ethereum actually increased by 10% to finally reach 161 million unique addresses.
At the same time, 2.91 million addresses interacted with DeFi protocols. This represents an increase of 65% compared to the first quarter of the year.
However, as Consensys points out, this in no way means that Ethereum’s DeFi has 2.91 million users:
“It should be noted that with wallets, such as MetaMask, it is easy to create multiple accounts, which means that addresses and users are not simply one-to-one.”
Speaking of Metamask, the cross-platform wallet has also benefited from the DeFi craze. As a result, the latter surpassed 7.3 million active users as of June 1. This increase can be explained in particular by its compatibility of other networks, such as BSC or Polygon, with Ethereum’s EVM.
Stablecoins continue to climb to new heights
Unsurprisingly, stablecoins have continued their ascent that started more than 2 years ago. As a result, their total supply has continued to rise to a maximum of $65 billion, an increase of 60% compared to the first quarter of the year.
As usual, the giant Tether represents the largest share with 48% of the total supply. Let’s still note a decrease compared to Q1 when USDT represented 58% of the offer. A drop in favor of Circle’s USDC, which has seen its share increase in recent months.
DeFi gives TradFi the eye
Beyond the classic users from the cryptosphere, more and more investors from traditional finance are getting into DeFi.
“Driven to take advantage of the exceptional investment returns, but also able to do so from a regulatory and compliance standpoint, more regulated institutional investors are now jumping into this space.”
Consensys report
Indeed, according to Consensys, about 47% of fund managers are reportedly considering investing in cryptos. For its part, the crypto ecosystem is slowly starting to implement tools aimed at them, as is the case with Aave, which has opened pools aimed at institutional investors.
Unfortunately, not everything is rosy for the DeFi ecosystem. Indeed, it continues to be the target of attacks resulting in large losses for its users. Recently, ThorChain was the victim of 2 consecutive attacks, causing the loss of more than 10 million dollars.
