Major Defi Token Prices Plunge, as Money Moves Back Into Bitcoin

Major decentralized finance (defi) projects fell sharply in October, with token prices tumbling by between 30% and 56%, as money appears to be moving away from the overhyped space and back into bitcoin.

According to Coingecko data, Andre Cronje’s Yearn Finance (YFI) fell fastest, crashing 56% to around $10,400 as of Nov. 1, down from $23,800 thirty days earlier.

Since Sept. 12, YFI total market capitalization has bled $957 million from a high of $1.27 billion. The asset, whose price peaked at over $43,000 two months ago, currently boasts $312.9 million in market value.

Uniswap (UNI), the popular decentralized exchange (dex) built on the Ethereum blockchain, lost 46% of its value to $2.34 from $4.43 on Oct. 1. Market capitalization fell similarly to $486.7 million.

Lending protocol Aave (AAVE) tanked 45% to $30 from $54.81 at the beginning of October. Compound (COMP) plummeted more than 30% to $94 from $137, as it tracked declines across the entire defi industry.

Several other tokens such as sythentix (SNX), UMA, maker (MKR), and loopring (LRC) all fell by between 9% and 35%.

Defi protocols are built around smart contracts. Through them, investors can move their assets across different protocols looking for the best possible return in a process that has become to be known as ‘yield farming’.

But as the total value of deposits locked in defi projects somewhat remained high – at $11.1 billion as at Nov. 2, according to Defi Pulse – trading volume on decentralized exchanges has nosedived, suggesting funds may be moving away from defi and back into bitcoin.

Weekly volume skid to just $3.1 billion in the last seven days, Dune data shows, down from $18.3 billion thirty days ago, as the defi hysteria cools off. At the same time, the price of bitcoin (BTC) has been gaining in value, soaring nearly 30% in October to a yearly high above $14,000.

And, apart from existing crypto money retracing back to BTC, new institutional money is pouring into the top digital asset. Multi-million-dollar investments into bitcoin by corporate outfits such as Microstrategy and Square appear to have added momentum to the emerging BTC bull market, with some analysts targeting a price of $20,000 by year-end.

Ilya Abugov, lead analyst at Dappradar, told industry media that despite the defi token bloodbath, “there is nothing that has damaged the story of defi and dex growth [fundamentally]. New projects are being developed.”

What do you think about the massive price correction in defi? Let us know in the comments section below.

Tags in this story
Aave, Bitcoin, CoinGecko, Compound, Decentralized finance (Defi), Defi prices crash, Defi Pulse, Dune , microstrategy, Square, uniswap, Yearn Finance, yield farming

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