MakerDAO Passes $1B Milestone in DeFi First

The total value of ether locked in DeFi's oldest project has surpassed $1 billion for the first time.

AccessTimeIconJul 27, 2020 at 9:40 a.m. UTC
Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 9:36 a.m. UTC
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The total value of cryptocurrency locked in decentralized finance's (DeFi) oldest project has surpassed $1 billion for the first time.

  • MakerDAO, which is also the sector's largest protocol by a margin of $271 million locked in, crossed above $1 billion at around 18:00 UTC on Sunday, according to analytics aggregator DeFi Pulse.
  • The milestone, which represents how much money has been committed and not earned, demonstrates a rising interest in MakerDao and DeFi projects alike.
  • Collateral, locked up in the form of ether (ETH) or basic attention token (BAT), is used on Maker's protocol to undertake lending and generate DAI as debt against collateral.
  • Saying the news marked a "big day" for MakerDAO, David Freuden, co-author of "DAO: A Decentralized Governance Layer for the Internet of Value," told CoinDesk that innovation in DeFi will increasingly challenge the premise of centralized finance.   
  • Maker's dominance over other projects in the sector stands at 27.1%, with the highly valued Compound protocol coming in second place at around $729 million total value locked up.
  • The DeFi industry has seen a significant rise in total value locked up with the sector's $1 billion milestone in all protocols having been surpassed on Feb. 7, now up by more than $3.3 billion at time of writing.

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