- Uniswap posted the highest daily trading volume in history on March 11.
- The DEX to CEX spot trading volume indicator reached 19.26% in March 2023, the highest ever.
According to a report from the Web3 development platform, Alchemy, Q1 2023 recorded a 19% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and decentralized exchanges (DEXs), showing that users are increasingly leaning towards themselves custody.
The report highlighted that incidents following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March contributed to record trading volumes in DEXs.
6/ The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank pressured traders to trade stablecoins 💡
Contributing to record DeFi trading volumes, including:@uniswap‘s highest volume day in history ($11.8 billion) 🤯 pic.twitter.com/4PGbpSaEri
— Alchemy | The web3 developer platform (@AlchemyPlatform) April 18, 2023
Read Uniswaps [UNI] Price Forecast 2023-24
DeFi is key
On March 10, USD Coin [USDC] lost its dollar peg on some exchanges amid concerns that reserves supporting the stablecoin were tied up in SVB. Due to the FUD, most centralized exchanges (CEXs) have paused USDC conversions.
This is when DeFi came into the picture. Daily transaction volumes on DEXs reached nearly 25 million on March 11, a day after the drama began to unfold.
Source: Alchemy
Basically Uniswap [UNI] recorded its highest daily trading volume in history on March 11, with transactions worth $11.8 billion settled on the DeFi giant. Total trading fees earned by liquidity providers in March reached $77 million.
In addition, Curve Finance [CRV] also witnessed a similar spike in trading volume, clocking in at an all-time high of nearly $8 billion on March 11.
On expected lines, the increased volumes on these DEXs were mainly driven by traders selling USDC and buying other stablecoins like USDT [Tether] and DAI.
The growing prominence of DEXes was illustrated by the DEX to CEX spot trading volume indicator, which hit its all-time high of 19.26% in March.
Source: The Block
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Ecosystem witnessing strong growth in TVL
At the time of writing, the total volume of all DEXs over the past seven days was $20.35 billion, up more than 55% weekly, according to DeFiLlama.
Since the sharp spike on March 11, trading activity has returned to normal levels. It was interesting to note that before the USDC depegging saga, the other noticeable jump was observed on November 6, at the height of the FTX liquidity crisis.
Source: DeFiLlama
Moreover, the DeFi landscape recovered handsomely after numerous blows during the crypto winter of 2022. The total value locked (TVL) on the DeFi protocols broke through $60 billion at the time of writing, registering a year-to-date ( YTD) growth of more than 45%.
Source: DeFiLlama