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Fantom Becomes Third-Largest DeFi Protocol by Value Locked

The value locked on DeFi-centric projects built on Fantom surged 52% in the past week.

Updated May 11, 2023, 4:46 p.m. Published Jan 24, 2022, 9:41 a.m.
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Fantom overtook Binance Smart Chain (BSC) over the weekend to become the third-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem by total value locked, data from analytics tool DeFiLlama showed.

DeFi broadly refers to smart contract-based financial services such as trading, lending and borrowing offered by blockchain projects to users.

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As of Monday morning in Europe, more than $12.2 billion worth of Fantom’s FTM and other tokens were locked on 129 protocols geared toward Fantom users. That's just over $94 million locked per project on average, and it's a 52% increase in the past week and a greater than 170% increase over the past month, the data showed.

Cross-chain swap Multichain is the biggest protocol by value locked on Fantom, with over $6.97 billion worth of assets in its smart contracts. In second place is the relatively new 0xDAO, which locks over $3.91 billion, while decentralized exchange SpookySwap takes third place with just over $1 billion in locked value.

Multichain is the biggest project on Fantom by value locked. (DeFiLlama)
Multichain is the biggest project on Fantom by value locked. (DeFiLlama)

BSC slipped to the fourth-largest DeFi ecosystem with $11.96 billion in locked value over 294 projects. Terra, which displaced BSC in December to become the second-largest DeFi ecosystem, retains second place with $16.54 billion in locked value. Ethereum retains the DeFi crown with over $116 billion in locked value over 415 projects, more than any other blockchain.

Ethereum remains the top DeFi protocol by value locked. (DeFiLlama)
Ethereum remains the top DeFi protocol by value locked. (DeFiLlama)

Tokens of Fantom have emerged as the top performers in recent months as investors bet on the tokens of layer 1 projects – protocols with their native blockchains, such as Fantom or Solana – as an alternate to Ethereum.

FTM prices rose from $1.30 in mid-December to approach all-time highs of $3.46 earlier this month, before tumbling with the broader market in the past week.

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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.

What to know:

  • KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
  • This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
  • Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
  • Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
  • Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

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Bitcoin stuck near $88,000 as gold's and silver's record-breaking rallies show exhaustion signs

Bitcoin (BTC) price on Jan. 26 (CoinDesk)

"Gold and silver casually adding an entire bitcoin market cap in a single day," wrote one crypto analyst.

What to know:

  • Bitcoin is off its worst levels of the weekend, but still near the year's low at $87,700.
  • Facing the same news cycle as crypto, precious metals continued to surge higher, but a quick retreat from their highs on Monday suggested a bit of exhaustion was setting in.
  • Analysts remain dour on the outlook for crypto prices given the looming government shutdown as well as delays in passage of the Clarity Act.