Share this article
Compound's 'Yield Farmers' Briefly Turned BAT Into DeFi's Largest Coin
The digital advertising token briefly became bigger than ether in the decentralized finance space, thanks to popular lending protocol Compound.
By Paddy Baker
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:59 a.m. Published Jul 6, 2020, 2:00 p.m.
A digital advertising token briefly became bigger than ether in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, all thanks to popular lending protocol Compound.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
- – a token used to incentivize digital ad consumption on the Brave browser – was the most used coin in DeFi in Q2 2020.
- BAT's volumes in DeFi came to $931 million, over $300 million more than ether, according to a report Monday from Dapp.com.
- Jon Jordan, director of communications at DappRadar, a data source on decentralized apps, told CoinDesk the token's overnight popularity came from generating the best return on Compound, not because of any feature of BAT.
- Data from DappRadar found more than $500 million worth of BAT was borrowed on Compound in June alone, enough to make it the most traded digital asset in the DeFi space across Q2 2020
- Launched as recently as June 15, Compound quickly became one of the most popular DeFi platforms as it rewarded lending and borrowing activity with free COMP tokens, worth around $200 at press time.
- "Yield farmers" – who maximize activity on Compound to receive as much free COMP as possible – could earn a high rate of interest from lending BAT, where annual percentage yield (APY) stood at 14%.
- The next highest yield was 3.5% for the stablecoin tether .
- Trading volumes for the interest-receiving proxy token, cBAT, were up to about $320 million in June.
- When Compound modified its COMP reward system to disregard interest rates on Thursday – so markets with less borrowing demand suddenly had smaller allocations – the lender-heavy BAT market promptly subsided.
- BAT's supply on Compound fell from $324 million to $155 million Thursday, and is now down to just $24 million as of Sunday.
- BAT borrowing on the platform fell from $292 million to $126 million, and was just $2 million by Sunday.
- Rock-bottom borrowing means BAT's APY has now slumped to 0.17%, one of the lowest rates on Compound, which has taken out many of the lenders, too.
- Only $67 million worth of BAT loans has been made on Compound in July.
- Over the same timeframe, $478 million worth of dai loans have been made; its APY is currently 2.63%.
Meer voor jou
Wat u moet weten:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
Meer voor jou
These Three Metrics Show Bitcoin Found Strong Support Near $80,000
Onchain data shows multiple cost basis metrics confirm heavy demand and investor conviction around the $80,000 price level.
Wat u moet weten:
- Bitcoin rebounded from the $80,000 region after a sharp correction from its October all time high, with price holding above the average entry levels of key metrics.
- The convergence of the True Market Mean, U.S. ETF cost basis, and the 2024 yearly cost basis around the low $80,000 range highlights this zone as a major area of structural support.
Top Stories
