Decentralized Finance (DeFi) tokens and exchanges appear to be making a comeback after China announced its latest crackdown on crypto.
Beijing is clenching its fist in anger at the crypto industry, this is nothing new. It happens a couple of times every year, and now markets have become mature and resilient enough to shake off the FUD storm that usually follows. On September 24, the Chinese central bank did it again, banning crypto transactions for the umpteenth time.
There was a minor dip in total market capitalization over the weekend when it fell below $2 trillion briefly, but assets are recovering to start the week and DeFi related tokens are leading the pack.
Chinese media outlet Wu Blockchain correlated the two, stating that as the regime clamps down on centralized exchanges, decentralized exchanges see a surge in activity Chinese traders.
“The market has soared in the last hour. ETH rose 9% and returned to $3,000. Chinese exchange CEX shares triggered major DeFi projects to lead to the upside. “
DeFi Token Surge
Market cap is currently up 4.8% on the day according to CoinGecko, with a cash injection of more than $100 billion since the same time yesterday.
Much of that went into DeFi tokens, including Ethereum which is currently trading at $ 3,130 after gaining over 10% in the past 24 hours.
The leading crypto asset in the top-100 in terms of gains is DYDX which has surged 44% to hit an all-time high of $21.44 in the early hours of Sept 27. The DEX token was driven by increased demand from the Chinese. traders on the dYdX derivatives platform according to Wu Blockchain.
As exchanges such as Huobi have now banned Chinese from registering new accounts, they are flocking to decentralized alternatives such as dYdX. However, the current dynamic is driven by liquidity farming incentives rather than trade – “The huge volume of transactions today is still driven by agriculture rather than real demand. “
The surge in transactions on dYdX has been large enough to overtake Coinbase’s daily volume as it tops $4 billion in volume.
Uniswap Tops 25 $
The Uniswap DEX token, UNI, is also in full swing right now, having gained 34% in the last 24 hours to exceed $ 25. This makes UNI the second-biggest gainer in the crypto top-100 at the moment.
SushiSwap’s SUSHI token is currently third with a 23% increase over 24 hours to $ 11.27 according to CoinGecko. Other DeFi tokens enjoying double-digit gains include Curve Finance (CRV), Compound Finance (COMP), Aave (AAVE), and Synthetix (SNX).
