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- Tokenized shares in circulation jump 35%.
- Aave celebrates three historic peaks.
- Stablecoin supply exceeds $190 billion.
DeFi users buy stocks
Investors are turning to blockchain versions of popular U.S. stocks like Coinbase and Nvidia.
Since the start of the month, the amount of these so-called tokenized shares in circulation on public blockchains has jumped 35% to reach more than $10 million – a record level.
The most popular onchain stocks and index funds are:
- Coinbase Global – issue worth $6.4 million.
- BlackRock iShares Core S&P 500 ETF – $2.1 million issue.
- Nvidia Corp – $1.4 million issued.
Wall Street firms like BlackRock and State Street are increasingly experimenting with blockchains to speed up asset transfers and increase efficiency. Tokenize shares in a single application.
Still, the tokenized stock sector is small, at just $10 million.
In comparison, the market value of all tokenized assets stands at over $13 billion, with the majority issued representing private credit and U.S. Treasury debt.
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But the recent growth of tokenized stocks legitimizes this use case and shows that investors are increasingly comfortable with the idea.
The two main issuers of tokenized stocks are Backed Finance and Swarm Markets. Adoption is poised to grow as these issuers and others expand their portfolios by introducing additional stocks and index funds for trading.
The historic peaks of Aave
Top lending protocol Aave just reached all-time highs in deposits, revenue, and borrowing.
DeFi users have deposited over $32 billion worth of crypto into the protocol and borrowed $12 billion across the 13 blockchains it is deployed on.
Annualized revenue from lending and borrowing also exceeded $97 million, narrowly surpassing leading DeFi protocol Lido.
Aave’s success shows that demand for DeFi services is growing even though the value of crypto locked across all DeFi protocols is still $61 billion below its 2021 peak.
Aave’s Ethereum instance remains the most popular, accounting for $27 billion of its total deposits.
As the crypto bull market continues, demand for leverage – and therefore Aave’s services – is likely to grow further.
Stablecoins Skyrocket
The number of crypto stablecoins in circulation has just reached a record level.
There are now over $190 billion worth of dollar-pegged tokens circulating on blockchains, breaking the previous record of $188 billion set in April 2022.
Tether’s stablecoin USDT accounts for 70% of the market, while rival issuer Circle’s USDC accounts for just over 20%.
Stablecoins help crypto traders quickly trade more volatile crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. In countries with poor banking infrastructure or high inflation, dollar-pegged stablecoins have partly replaced local currencies.
Fintech giants PayPal, Robinhood and Stripe have all entered the stablecoin market in one form or another.
PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin is now the eighth largest after launching in August 2023. Trading app Robinhood is also launching its stablecoin with crypto firms Galaxy Digital and Kraken.
This week in DeFi governance
VOTE: Uniswap DAO supports Tally’s DAO governance improvements
VOTE: Arbitrum DAO considers hackathon continuation program
VOTE: Lido DAO votes for the creation of a network expansion committee
Article of the week
Crypto Twitter captures the mood as Ethereum begins to rally.
Do you have a tip on DeFi? Contact us at tim@dlnews.com.
