DeFi industry TVL rises as investors return to bullish crypto market

March has been polarizing for the cryptocurrency market, with the weakness from the start of the year starting to fade. Bitcoin’s (BTC) strong break above the $40,000 level helped lift sentiment across the sector, while DeFi tokens also started to rise.

Most of the top tokens in the DeFi space have posted double-digit gains over the past 30 days, with THORChain (RUNE) up 199.81% and Aave (AAVE) up 53.95%, according to crypto market intelligence firm Messari.

Here’s an overview of the state of DeFi as the industry attempts to return to its former glory and kickstart a new bull run.

The value locked in DeFi is on the rise

Some of the best evidence of DeFi’s continued comeback can be found by looking at the total value locked (TVL) across the industry, which currently stands at $228.05 billion according to Defi Llama.

While many tokens are still well below their all-time highs, the DeFi space’s TVL is only $28 billion below its previous high of $256.62 billion. This shows that the DeFi ecosystem continues to expand and attract value with the launch of new protocols and blockchain networks over the past few months.

Data from Dune Analytics shows that the total number of DeFi users has grown steadily throughout 2022 and now stands at an all-time high of 4,562,318 unique wallet addresses.

NFT market surpasses DEX

One sub-sector of the DeFi market that has yet to really see a reversal of its downtrend is decentralized exchange (DEX) activity levels, which are currently at their lowest point since July 2021.

While traders don’t appear to be too eager to swap tokens in the current environment, data from Token Terminal shows that they have been active in other areas of the market, with top apps generating revenue on an upward trend since bottoming out in February.

OpenSea and LooksRare NFT marketplaces have been the top performing decentralized applications (dApps) over the past few months, followed by Uniswap (UNI), Convex Finance (CVX) and PancakeSwap (CAKE).

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is currently $2.151 trillion, with Bitcoin dominance at 41.7%.