Active loans through decentralized loan requests reached a record of 23.723 billion dollars on May 21, on the basis of the Token terminal data.
Meanwhile, the total locked value of the total value (TVL) of the DEFI ecosystem is 6.4% below the level recorded on January 31, the day before that President Donald Trump formalized his proposed import rates.
The sharp increase in pending loans grants an expansion that started in early April when the loan markets resumed the momentum alongside wider price of cryptography.
The data on token terminals show that aggregated loans have increased by around $ 8.5 billion since April 8, lifted by a deeper liquidity on Aave, Morpho and Compound.
At 23.723 billion dollars, active loans are now exceeding the peak of the previous cycle set in December 2021 about $ 3 billion. It highlights the growing role of credit without authorization in crypto-native trading, leverage and basic commerce strategies.
Pricing shock
The global dashboard of Defillama shows DEFI TVL at 180.4 billion dollars on May 22, only 6.4% less than the TVL of $ 192.8 billion recorded on January 31.
This reference is important because it occurred one day before the White House confirms an executive decree activating new import rates, which are currently in 90 days.
The functioning of tariff plans has caused a gradual drop of 27% Bitcoin (BTC) from February 1 to April 8, when it has reached its lowest price level this year. The TVL of the DEFI ecosystem followed with a decrease of almost 36% during the same period.
In addition, the guarantees dominated by Ethereum (ETH), the marked derivatives and the stablecoins were contracted accordingly. He has a background at almost $ 110 billion in mid-March.
Potential appetite for yield and lever effect
The increase in loan sales suggests a greater demand for leverage among sophisticated merchants. Many borrow stablescoins to finance the directional positions of the BTC and the ETH or basic yields and liquidity exploration.
However, the guarantee of these loans is the net profit of loans in standard TVL calculations.
Consequently, a simultaneous increase in the loan and warranty withdrawals can leave a global TVL flat or even more while the credit activity accelerates. This reiterates the scenario of the lever effect on a chain using loan protocols.
Loan returns also play a role. The average USDC rates provided on Aave and Morpho-Aave have oscillated between 6% and 8% annualized since April, well above the US cash bills in the short term.
This keeps stable deposits away from passive reserves and in loan pools. Higher use pushes the upward loan sales but only exercises a silent effect on TVL because the stablecoins generally enter the protocols to one to one to one dollar.
The record of 23.723 billion dollars in active loans and the 6.4% deficit of TVL highlight a market where the demand for credit accelerates even if the overall warranty remains slightly lower than its late peak.
