Decentralized finance (defi) has continued to remain deeply ingrained in the cryptocurrency economy as the ecosystem provides users with a non-custodial way to exchange digital assets, lend cryptocurrencies, issue stablecoins, and ways to profit from arbitrage. In the lending sector of defi, a lot has changed during the last 12 months as lending applications like Terra’s Anchor Protocol bit the dust, and 71.95% of the total value locked in defi lending protocols evaporated.

Last year around this time, decentralized finance lending protocols held $37.41 billion in total value locked (TVL), and the defi protocol Aave dominated with $12.87 billion. An archive.org snapshot from Jan. 10, 2022, shows that Aave’s $12.87 billion TVL was larger than the TVL the top five defi lending protocols held on Jan. 17, 2023.