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VI New stories about cryptocurrency continuously appear this year and derivatives DeFi is one of them. Growth in previous years is likely to continue into 2023.
Derivatives DeFi made a strong impression right from the first step into the ecosystem cryptocurrency. Despite the bear market of 2022, the top projects perform well.
Derivatives include investment vehicles such as futures, options, swaps, and other financial contracts that track or provide exposure to cryptocurrencies.
Traditionally, derivatives trading was only available to institutional traders. However, DeFi and decentralized exchanges (DEX) has opened the digital door for everyone to learn together.
On January 30, DeFi analyst “ViktorDefi” shared insights into the next “crypto gold rush.”
One Another story about cryptocurrencies in the year 2023
Cryptocurrency derivatives have grown steadily since the last bull market, but the analyst noted:
“However, recently users are being attracted to decentralized exchange derivatives clearly due to the failure of FTX and demand for self-custody”.
Furthermore, derivatives DEX offers several advantages over centralized derivatives. Including, real yield, hedging relative to the market, natural growth and capital efficiency.
Some of the top projects in this niche have performed very well, like dYdX, GMX, Gains Network, Perpetual Protocol, etc.
In addition, there are several emerging projects that could perform well in 2023 as identified by the researcher. For example, Vela Exchange recently opened public beta registration and Perp88 is based on Polygon - one DEX offers great leverage and zero swap fees.
El Dorado Exchange, Y2K Finance, NFT Perp, Logium and Vest Exchange are also mentioned as needing attention.
When DeFi returns, traders will be looking for higher yields from more unconventional products like derivatives.
TVL DeFi hits a high in 2023
According to DeFiLlama, the total value locked (TVL) into DeFi increased by 29% since the beginning of 2023. Thus, TVL reached its highest level since early November of $57.3 billion on Jan. 30. However, it fell back to around $55.4 billion today in line with the prevailing decline in the market.
TVL is now back to where it was in March 2021 when the bull market was accelerating. These levels are nearly 600% higher than at the same time three years ago.
TVL DeFi 3 months | Source: DeFiLlama
Liquid staking platform Lido has the largest market share (14.5%), reaching $8 billion in locked collateral. DeFi pioneer MakerDAO comes in second with over $7 billion TVL and DEX Curve is the third largest protocol.
