Total value locked (TVL) on DeFi plunges to a new 2022 low of $160B

LAGOS (CoinChapter.com) — The recent decline in the cryptocurrency market has extended to the decentralized finance (DeFi) space as the total value locked (TVL) has plummeted to a record low.

In detail, the total value of assets locked in DeFi dropped to a yearly low of $160.34 billion as Bitcoin, and major aspects of the crypto market entered “extreme fear.”

Data from DefiLlama disclosed that so far in 2022, over $80 billion in locked value was lost. Interestingly, DeFi protocols as of January held more than $240 billion but have since slumped by over 25%. Additionally, about $35 billion in TVL was lost in the last five days.

Notably, in addition to the recent crypto market crash, the decline in digital assets’ locked value has been credited to new regulations targeting cryptocurrencies. Also, investors’ interest in risky assets has decreased, as only a few are ready to invest their funds in crypto.

Also, some analysts have explained that the drop can be attributed to the falling prices of the underlying tokens stored.

It is worth knowing that TVL has been the standard for measuring the success of decentralized protocols (dApps). Notably, the total value of crypto assets is deposited in dApps protocols.

Curve (CRV) Remains The Top Protocol With By Value Locked

Meanwhile, stablecoin swap platform Curve (CRV) remains the largest DeFi protocol by total value locked. Curve, dominating the space by over 8%, slumped by over 16% in the past week. Furthermore, at the time of publication, Curve TVL was around $15.8 billion.

Staking service Lido (LDO) also recorded a sharp decline of about 30.3% in the last seven days. Lido, currently the second-largest DeFi protocol by total value locked, was around $12.9 billion at press time.

MakerDAO TVL slumped by 35% and is currently around $11.9 billion. Similar drops were recorded with Aave (AAVE) and Convex Finance (CVX), which dropped to $10 billion. Anchor (ANC) TVL declined by 55% and was around $7.4 billion during the same period.

Uniswap (UNI), Compound (COMP), PancakeSwap (CAKE), and Instadapp (INST) TVL also dropped significantly.

Crypto Investors Searching For Safe Haven

In a parallel development, data from Google Trends has disclosed that investors are teaching for “Safe Haven” during this market turbulence.

Google Trends data shows that searches for “Safe Haven” rose from 58 between April 17-23 to 80 this week. Notably, this increase is no surprise as investors are frantically looking for safe assets to invest in.

Notably, Google Trends uses numbers to represent search interest, with ‘100’ as the peak popularity for the specific term.