As the cryptocurrency market grows at a dizzying pace, Ethereum confirms its dominant position, attracting the vast majority of investment funds. What makes Ethereum still lead in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi)? Why do investors continue to bet on this particular cryptocurrency?
Ethereum, long recognized as a key smart contract network, reaffirmed its leading position last week, according to information provided by the 0xScope blockchain analytics protocol.
While the cryptocurrency market is vast and diverse, Ethereum plays a key role in the field of DeFi. It serves as the primary driver for the total value locked in crypto (TVL), attracting over 75% of all funds related to various DeFi activities.
It’s worth noting that Ethereum already has a well-developed ecosystem for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. In fact, it was the first protocol to introduce the use of smart contracts.
According to DeFiLlama data, over $22 billion in cryptocurrency value was locked in Ethereum, a sum greater than the combined value locked in the next 10 networks on the list.
Moreover, Ethereum recorded a significant increase in volumes on decentralized exchanges (DEX). Over the past week, transactions worth over $9 billion were finalized on the network – the highest since mid-June.
Increased activity on the Ethereum network was also evident in the sharp increase in the number of users. On average, about 320,000 users accessed the network in the last seven days.
Concurrently with the sharp influx of users, the number of transactions increased, which in turn led to a rise in transaction fees. On October 25, fees collected on the network exceeded $6 million – the most in almost two months.
Are cryptocurrency whales bullish on ETH? According to Lookonchain data, one of the “whales” borrowed 100 Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC] using the leading lending protocol Aave [AAVE]. He then exchanged this amount for 1526 ETH. Furthermore, he withdrew 2374 ETH from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange and then deposited 16,313 ETH, nearly $29 million at current market prices, into major lending protocols to earn interest. This indicates that the influential investor anticipates a significant increase in the value of ETH.
Today, the second-largest cryptocurrency was priced at $1821, recording a weekly gain of 9.07%. Although these gains are not as spectacular as those for Bitcoin[BTC], they are consistently held by Ethereum.
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