DeFi slowly recovers while NFT fever abates – February’s monthly report

February saw steady execution of applications in the blockchain sector, despite the deterioration of macroeconomic conditions caused by the conflict in Ukraine. DeFi recovered slowly, and some blockchains and cryptocurrencies showed a moderate recovery.

According to Footprint Analytics data, DeFi’s TVL is $ 207.2 billion, up 1.06% MoM, while BTC and ETH are up about 10% MoM. Most notably, Terra has surpassed the BNB chain to become the second blockchain on the network at $ 18.83 billion, and the price of the token LUNA has skyrocketed to $ 91, up 75.8% from MoM.

Conversely, the NFT market is chilling in terms of monthly trading volume. This report analyzes the overall situation of the crypto market in February according to the data.

BTC and ETH increased by about 10%, clearing funds decreased by 95.53%

BTC prices in February fluctuated between $ 37,000 and $ 44,000, and ETH prices fluctuated between $ 2,600 and $ 3,200, neither of which has recovered from its peak in November last year.

Here’s how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affected BTC and ETH prices.

• On February 24, Russia announced a “military operation,” with BTC and ETH prices declining along with global financial markets.
• Cryptocurrencies fund humanitarian and military assistance in late February as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and subsequent economic sanctions revealed the need for a decentralized ecosystem and the price of cryptocurrencies clearly rose. Used more and more to.

As of February 28, BTC was priced at $ 43,286 and ETH was priced at $ 2,929.53, up about 10% from the previous quarter, according to Footprint Analytics pricing trends. This also means that cryptocurrency prices are highly correlated with national policy and macroeconomic conditions.

The dispute between Russia and Ukraine caused the liquidation of more than 80% of the investors in the AAVE loan agreement on February 24th. However, compared to January, the liquidation amount in February decreased from $ 425 million to $ 18.96 million. 95.53%.

DeFi recovers slowly, MoM increases by 1.06%

Following a full downtrend in the DeFi market in January, February saw a slow recovery.

TVL recovered from $ 205.02 billion to $ 207.18 billion, ending the month with a mere 1.06% increase in TVL. Despite a slight increase in TVL, the overall market size remains above $ 200 billion.

Lido’s single currency staking model helps Terra overtake the BNB chain

Terra overtook the BNB chain in the second spot with a lockup volume of $ 18.83 billion in eight months and withdrew from the BNB chain in February. Of course, Terra TVL’s growth is driven by the Lido and Anchor protocols.

LUNA is Terra’s native token, and as of February 28, LUNA prices rose from $ 52.31 at the beginning of the month to $ 91.01 and MoM rose 75.8%.

LUNA growth is due to two main factors:

• Terra and Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), a non-profit organization that supports Terra, will support the development of the Terra ecosystem on February 23 to create decentralized foreign exchange reserves to protect UST (TerraUSD) pegs. Announced the sale of $ 1 billion of LUNA tokens. USD.
• Lido supports several mainstream blockchains, and Lido TVL’s largest share is currently Terra (about 55%). Lido also features innovative tokenomics to support single currency staking to higher APY external contracts (for example, staking LUNA to get a 1: 1 priced stLUNA).

Fixed rate lids and anchors, the fastest growing on DeFi

Curve and MakerDAO haven’t been touched yet and are associated with stablecoin, and their stability is trusted by most users.

Of the many DeFi protocols, the most prominent and fastest growing are Lido (+ 46%) and Anchor (+ 52%), with TVLs of $ 11.2 billion and $ 10.3 billion, respectively, and Compound and Uniswap v3. It exceeds the protocol such as. Both Lido and Anchor are deployed on Terra. It uses the algorithm’s stablecoin as an entry point to provide users with UST stablecoin for savings and lending.

February NFT trading volume down 67% compared to January

According to Footprint Analytics data, NFT transaction volume in February was $ 2.787 billion, down 67% from January.

Does investor interest in NFTs appear to be declining? In fact, in the case of NFTs, the decline in trading volume in February could have been a simple setback, as the January numbers were high.

Moreover, in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, investor attention has shifted to cryptocurrencies, and they see BTC as a safe haven.

OpenSea targets Looks Rare and X2Y2

In February, OpenSea trading volume growth slowed significantly. Especially after February 14, the average daily trading volume has been on a downward trend. This may be related to phishing attacks on OpenSea and volatile global market conditions.

However, the slowdown in OpenSea has led to the emergence of emerging exchanges for LooksRare and X2Y2. In early February, LooksRare was able to attract most of OpenSea’s NFT trading volume, but the short-term incentive program did not threaten OpenSea’s dominance.

Terraforms and Meebits are the most prominent NFT projects

According to Footprint Analytics, Terraforms and Meebits experienced a surge in transactions from February 16th to 21st, reaching $ 56 million in volume.

Older NFT programs such as Axie Infinity and Bored Ape Yacht Club have more consistent trading volumes and are of most interest to users.

Monthly investment fell 19.6% MoM

According to the data, the investment in February was $ 4.7 billion, a decrease of 19.6% compared to January. As for the investment sector, the NFT sector showed the biggest decline as investors turned their attention to cryptocurrencies and reduced their investment in NFTs.

In contrast, as distributed systems become mainstream, Web3-based technologies are becoming more and more important. In addition, a16z is also the largest investor in the Web3 sector, with a team of former employees from across the US government. This resulted in the largest increase in Web3 investment in February (+ 79% MoM).

Overview

Despite the bearish environment in February, adoption in the blockchain sector continues steadily and is on a slight uptrend. In addition, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and economic sanctions have exposed the need for a decentralized ecosystem.

Meanwhile, NFTs are expected to recover to their January peak in March in the face of sharp declines in trading volumes and a shift in investors to the Web3 sector.

February event review

Nation

• Ukraine raised $ 16.7 million in cryptocurrency donations
• ECB Governor seeks approval of cryptocurrency regulatory framework to prevent Russia from evading sanctions
• South Africa finalizes amendments to financial law in 2022, including crypto-related regulations
• Central Bank of Argentina sets new rules for digital wallets
• Bitcoin fiat bill proposed in Mexico

Fundraising

• Blockchain storage app ArDrive completes $ 17.2M seed round-led Arweave team
• Web3 infrastructure provider Aligned has completed $ 34 million in funding with Gsr and others
• Hack VC Raises $ 200 Million to Support Early-stage Cryptographic Startups
• NFT platform ucollex completes $ 10 million series loan led by Animoca Brands
• Brazilian crypto exchange foxbit raises $ 21 million in Series A funding
• Payment Technology Company Flutterwave announced that it has completed $ 250 million in Series D financing with a valuation of $ 3 billion, led by B Capital Group.

Blockchain

• The number of ETHs locked in the ZkSync L2 network has exceeded 90,000 and TVL has reached $ 75 million.
• Terra, CEO Do Kwon, ordered to comply with th SEC subpoena related to Miller Protocol investigation
• Avalanche Bridge TVL reaches $ 6,238 million
• Ethereum’s preferred trading network, Eden Network, announces POS chain expansion plan

DeFi

• In short positions, BTC and ETH will increase by 10%, so liquidation is expected to be $ 143 million.
• Yearn. Finance was introduced in the Ethereum Layer 2 solution Arbitrum
• PancakeSwap DEX is reported to be set to block users from Iran
• MakerDAO Launches $ 10 Million Bug Bounty on Immunefi
• Wavebridge releases Chainlink node to provide digital asset index data to DeFi

NFT

• OpenSea phishing email attacks, official reminders to pay attention to risk
• Top NFT game Axie Infinity generated $ 1.3 billion in revenue last year
• The ENS domain name “defi.eth” is traded at 40 ETH on OpenSea
• Indian Media Giant Completely Faltoo NFT Sold Out In 48 Hours
• NFT Marketplace X2Y2 Launches Vampire Attack on OpenSea
• CryptoPunk # 5822 was sold at 8:00 ETH. This is the highest price in the history of this series of NFTs.

safety

• Multi-Chain Recovers $ 2.6 Million Stolen Funds and Conditionally Reimburses Losses
• Titano Finance was hacked at 4828.7 BNB

This work is provided by the Footprint Analytics community.

The Footprint Community is a place where data and crypto enthusiasts around the world can gain insights and insights into Web3, Metaverse, DeFi, GameFi, or other areas of the new world of blockchain. Here, lively and diverse voices support each other and move the community forward.

Date and Author: March 10, 2022 – Vincy
Data Source: Footprint Analysis – February 2022 Report Dashboard