Cointelegraph Consulting: DeFi projects launch on Polygon, usage skyrockets

Published at: May 24, 2021

In the midst of the hectic crypto market, the gas fees in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector have skyrocketed, once again highlighting the value of layer-two scaling solutions. Cointelegraph Consulting teamed up with Covalent to discover the numbers behind Polygon, the network that is onboarding an increasing number of decentralized applications, from SushiSwap to bZx.

Aave, DeFi’s lending giant, launched on Polygon this April and has already lured away about 66,000 unique users to the layer-two version. Nearly $12 billion has been deposited since the launch, and over $7 billion has been borrowed. Though what is important is that only $158 has been spent on gas across the entire Aave’s Polygon version.

Notably, the major fraction of borrows involves stablecoins, with USD Coin (USDC), Dai and Tether (USDT) making up roughly 60% of borrowings on Aave’s Polygon version. In fact, the breakdown of the borrowings reveals that Aave managed to execute its strategy that prevents users from risky borrowing against volatile assets, which in turn usually leads to liquidations.

Hot off the heels of 1inch Network’s launch on Polygon on May 12, we take a look at its usage as well. 1inch on Polygon has reached almost $18 million in daily swaps by dollar value, with the most swaps denominated in USDT, Wrapped Ether (WETH), USDC or DAI. 

There have been nearly 10,000 swaps facilitated thus far. The platform has already facilitated $43 million in swaps, but only $25 of gas was used to swap this amount.

Amid Ethereum network congestion and rising costs, Polygon is gaining momentum due to its astonishingly low transaction fees. With more DeFi projects pursuing multichain strategies, Polygon could onboard more projects in the near future.

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