Top 3 DeFi lending protocols exceed $20B in deposits

DeFi’s top three lending protocols have reached record levels of collateral lockup above $20B.

There has been no slowdown in the amount of collateral pouring into the leading decentralized finance protocols this year.

DeFi’s leading three lending protocols have amassed approximately $20 billion according to Dune Analytics. A Messari research report into valuing these platforms suggests they’re on track to generate in excess of half a billion in interest annually.

Maker, Compound Finance, and Aave have all seen record levels of lending deposits as crypto yield farmers seek exponentially better returns than traditional banks can offer. Messari posted on Twitter:

“The top three lending platforms will generate $660m in interest per year at the time of writing,”

Lending deposits reach $20 billion across Aave, Compound, and Maker pic.twitter.com/NSAThXcYy8

— Messari (@MessariCrypto) February 17, 2021

Messari researcher Mira Christanto commented that protocols extract value by both attracting capital and putting it to use, and their total value locked (TVL) reflects this.

TVL is the current metric for measuring the performance of a DeFi protocol and it can vary depending on the calculations employed by different analytics providers.

According to Dune Analytics, Maker has reached an all-time high of $6.38 billion in deposits locked as collateral. Compound Finance also has an all-time high of $8.7 billion while Aave has $6.5 billion. Between them they have a total of $21.58B.

However, DappRadar and DeFi Pulse both suggest the combined figure for the trio of protocols is currently more like $17B.

Meanwhile centralized finance platform Celsius Network is also performing well in terms of users and collateral lockup. According to a Feb. 15 release, Celsius has paid over $250 million in crypto yield to its customers, has over 415,000 users, and manages over $8 billion in crypto assets.