Bitcoin crashes, but the DeFi sector holds against it: The reasons!
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) was one of the few sectors in the crypto space to benefit this week. While Bitcoin (BTC) has been moving downwards for more than two weeks, some DeFi tokens have been able to make significant gains over the same period. What is the reason for this and what news has kept DeFi from collapsing this week?
After the extreme bitcoin price rally of the last few months, it is only Bitcoin System normal for investors to take profits. Still, the strength of the DeFi sector is surprising. While the DeFi ETF token (DPI) also only managed to rise by just under five per cent last week, this is a remarkable performance compared to a price drop of almost 20 per cent for BTC.
The main driver of the index this week was the lending project Aave (AAVE), which rose by 28.3 percent on a weekly basis. However, other DeFi projects such as SushiSwap (SUSHI) or Uniswap (UNI) also performed strongly this week.
In addition, the total value locked indicator, which shows how much capital is deposited in the entire DeFi sector, was relatively unimpressed by the bitcoin crash.
Total capital held in DeFi protocols fell 3.63 per cent from $23.42 billion to $22.57 billion at press time. But what were the reasons for the continued strong performance of the DeFi sector?
Travel app Maps.Me to offer DeFi access to 140 customers
Travel app Maps.Me has raised $50 million in a funding round led by Alameda Research. Last Monday, the company announced that it will use the fresh capital to integrate a multi-currency wallet into its app.
This wallet is also expected to not only support popular currencies, but also integrate apps from Decentralised Finance. According to a press release published by Maps.Me, this will give 140 million customers access to DeFi. Sam Bankman-Fried, head of the funding round and CEO of Alameda Research even believes in a breakthrough into the mainstream:
By embedding and democratising return-generating finance for millions of users through an everyday app, Maps.Me has the potential to drive mainstream adoption of decentralised finance.