Over the past month, Layer 1 blockchain Canto has seen a significant 35% slump in total value locked (TVL), reflecting the liquidity challenges currently faced by the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. Canto’s launch in August was followed by a typical hype cycle, with its TVL skyrocketing from under $1 million to above $110 million. Since then, the blockchain has faced multiple 60% corrections and consolidation periods.
Alongside Canto’s TVL troubles, its native token, CANTO, has also taken a hit, experiencing a drop of over 55% within the last six weeks, reaching a value of $0.16, as per Cryptowatch data. DeFi services like lending, staking, and liquidity provision are at the core of Canto’s design. The blockchain has seen a total of $591 million bridged from Ethereum’s mainnet thus far. However, that figure has come to a standstill in the past month, with daily inflows struggling to surpass $3 million, compared to over $20 million earlier this year, according to Dune Analytics.
The challenges facing Canto may not be directly tied to its products and services – in fact, it boasts a competent decentralized exchange (DEX) and several decentralized apps (dapps) that can generate a yield. The true issue may lie in the volatile preferences of crypto investors – as hype fades, so does user interest.
Since April 15, the overall total value locked in DeFi protocols has contracted from $53 billion to $48 billion, as indicated by DefiLlama. Concurrently, liquidity is being drawn away by various meme coin rug pulls and derivatives markets. As observed during the DeFi Summer a few years ago, innovation will be crucial for the DeFi sector to bounce back.
A recent scarcity of innovation has led to the emergence of numerous copycat lending protocols that differ only in branding and user interface. With the narrative of traditional finance (TradFi) utilizing DeFi to generate a yield waning, DeFi developers must start thinking outside the box and create unique offerings. This could potentially attract fragile crypto liquidity back from “get rich quick” schemes like meme coins.
Source: Coindesk
