ETH 2.0 and the DeFi boom push spot prices up
Malta, Aug. 20, 2020 — With the recent surge in price of many altcoins this month, top cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has seen the revival of a so-called “alt season” — evidently driven by the approach of the Ethereum 2.0 update and the growth of the DeFi ecosystem.
In particular, leading altcoin Ether (ETH) saw significant growth this month, with its spot price breaking past $400 on Aug. 1. After trading sideways, the price of ETH on OKEx was roughly 10% higher by the middle of the month. On OKEx, the top two ETH trading pairs — i.e., ETH/BTC and ETH/USDT — have increased their trading volume to over $160 million, as of press time.
OKEx CEO Jay Hao believes that Ethereum 2.0 may be a major factor in the recent strength of ETH prices, commenting:
“For now, one of the primary limitations of Ethereum is its inability to scale and achieve mass adoption. Therefore, positive market sentiment has increased in the lead up to Ethereum 2.0. The upgrade will allow Ethereum to implement sharding and scale, which will subsequently promote the growth of decentralized applications as well as the DeFi space.
“OKEx is excited about the upgrade from the proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus. Holders of ETH on OKEx will be in a prime position to stake ETH, which will not only help maintain the network, vastly reduce energy output and help to preserve the environment but will also earn them real ETH rewards.”
OKEx is already a pioneer in supporting the development of the ETH ecosystem. For example, OKEx Pool, the fifth-largest mining pool in the industry, is collaborating with Prysmatic Labs and has committed to the growth of Ethereum 2.0 by becoming one of the first validators on its Topaz testnet.
With the advent of Ethereum 2.0 and increased interest in DeFi, particularly in the area of yield farming, the total value locked in DeFi protocols has exploded — with over $6.5 billion locked in, as of the time of writing.
While much of the value is locked up in the DeFi apps Maker ( MKR) and Compound ( COMP), Jay Hao noted that DeFi token Chainlink (LINK), another major altcoin, also saw big price gains in August, saying:
“By managing to scale with partnerships and integration, decentralized oracles such as Chainlink and OKEx Oracle, which work with Compound’s open price feed, have provided data for DApps to handle more users and increase their consumer viability.”
While the price of LINK has increased over 1,000% in 2020, in August alone, its price has shot up from just over $6 at the beginning of the month to over $16 in mid-August — registering a gain of over 165%. On OKEx, the LINK/USDT trading pair has a 24-hour volume of almost $25 million, as of the time of writing.
Much of the DeFi market sentiment is similarly bullish, as the price of Aave (LEND), another major token, has increased from $0.30 to $0.50 from early to mid-August, which is also a gain of over 165%.
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was originally published in OKEx Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
