It’s been a great past day for Bitcoin but not for DeFi coins.
After stagnating around $10,700, BTC surged higher to a local high around $10,950 — the highest price in around a week. Decentralized finance coins, on the other hand, have slipped lower.
According to data from CoinGecko, some of the top DeFi coins have posted losses in the past 24 hours of around 5%. The coins that have done so include Maker (MKR), Compound (COMP), and Synthetix Network Token (SNX).
This comes in spite of continued strength in the fundamentals of the DeFi space: DeFi Pulse reports as of this article’s writing that there is over $11 billion worth of value locked up in decentralized finance applications. At the start of the year, this very same metric was much closer to $500 million and even lower than that at the start of 2019.
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DeFi Still on Path of Macro Growth
DeFi is on a macro path of growth despite recent price weakness according to top fund managers and analysts in the space.
Spencer Noon, head of DTC Capital and an editor for Our Network, recently commented on the topic:
“Right now, the ethereum advantage is composability. Defi is a token speculation casino and most of the tokens people want to bet on are ERC20. Interoperability, wrapped coins, and DEXs like serum may erode/eliminate that edge fairly soon, but not yet.”
The strong fundamental backdrop to #crypto — which is unlike any bull market previously — is that there are billions of cryptodollars coming on-chain to use #DeFi. Unless that shows signs of slowing, we are on track for a multi-trillion dollar aggregate marketcap for the space.
— Spencer Noon (@spencernoon) September 26, 2020
This optimism has been echoed by many others including Andrew Kang, as they note that technical development and flows of capital suggest DeFi is on the verge of a longer-term cycle of growth.
Related Reading: Critical On-Chain Signal Predicts That Bitcoin’s Next Move Will Be Upward
Reconciling Speculation
While DeFi has space to grow, many in the space amid that much of the growth is purely speculative as opposed to true economic value. Ari Paul, founder of BlockTower Capital, commented earlier this month on the state of DeFi right now:
“Right now, the ethereum advantage is composability. Defi is a token speculation casino and most of the tokens people want to bet on are ERC20. Interoperability, wrapped coins, and DEXs like serum may erode/eliminate that edge fairly soon, but not yet.”
Others in the space have echoed this assertion that much of the growth in DeFi right now is based on speculation only.
It is unclear right now how decentralized finance developers will reconcile speculation and true economic growth.
Related Reading: Ethereum Transaction Fees Surge to All-Time Highs After Uniswap Launch
Featured Image from Shutterstock Price tag: compusd, compbtc, competh, mkrusd, mkrbtc, snxusd, snxbtc Charts from TradingView.com Top DeFi Coins Maker, Compound, & More Slip 5% Despite Positive Fundamentals