KEY POINTS

  • DeFi market cap reaches $11 billion, driven by Chainlink's surging popularity
  • Chainlink (LINK) itself pushed through a new all-time high on Aug. 2
  • Chainlink jumps to 6th on Coinmarketcap's top cryptocurrency rankings

The market cap of decentralized finance or DeFi has recently hit $11 billion, with no signs of stopping as Chainlink (LINK) takes the lead with another all-time high.

LINK went on to print a new 8% increase as it reached as high as $14.40 before closing at $13,81, a new all-time high for the popular cryptocurrency. At the second place on CoinmarketCap’s DeFi rankings is Maker (MKR) with a 5.39% increase to $618.33. Aave (LEND), Compound (COMP) and Synthetix Network Token (SNX) make up the top 5.

According to crypto data aggregator Coingecko, the total DeFi market cap is at $11.7 billion, with Chainlink dominating at 44%. DeFi’s dominance against the overall crypto market is at 3.1% and the total trading volume in the last 24 hours is $3.9 billion. Other websites that rank DeFi, such as DeFi Market Cap said the total market cap is at $8 billion but it does not include Chainlink in its rankings, news outlet Decrypt reported.

Chainlink has surged past Bitcoin SV, Litecoin, Cardano and Binance Coin to become the 6th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. On Aug. 9, Chainlink has flipped Bitcoin to be the coin with the largest volume on Coinbase.

DeFi is an ecosystem of financial apps built on top of the blockchain. Proponents of DeFi aim to create a new financial ecosystem that is permissionless and transparent without the need for a central authority. A number of DeFi apps are currently making waves as investors put money staking, lending and other apps that give potential returns. On June 25, YFI token, the governance coin of the Ethereum-based protocol Yearn.finance, surged past $3,900, an increase of over 1,000 in seven days.

The hype is more evident in Chainlink, the decentralized oracle network that aims to provide real-world data to smart contracts on the blockchain. Vance Spencer, the co-founder of Framework Ventures, says Chainlink’s scaled usage in the decentralized finance space has fueled its upsurge.

"Most of the ecosystem is now relying on (or planning to rely on) Chainlink for connecting on-chain DeFi smart contracts to off-chain data feeds like commodities and crypto price data,” Spencer told Coindesk. Framework Ventures has sizable LINK holdings, the news outlet reported.

Blockchain
In this photo illustration of the ethereum cryptocurrency 'altcoin' sits arranged for a photograph in London, England, April 25, 2018. Jack Taylor/Getty Images
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