DeFi sector tokens offer shelter as Bitcoin falls below $48.5K

The cryptocurrency market slid lower on Dec. 28 as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) lost nearly $4,000 in value in a matter of hours with bulls now looking to secure support at $48,500 to prevent further losses. 

In the midst of the market-wide drawdown, the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector of the crypto ecosystem has offered some traders shelter from the storm, with several tokens seeing gains in excess of 30%.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24 hours were Harvest Finance (FARM), QuickSwap (QUICK) and Aragon (ANT).

Harvest Finance moves towards full decentralization

Harvest Finance is a DeFi protocol designed to automatically farm the highest yields available from across the ecosystem and optimize the yields users receive through implementing the latest farming techniques.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for FARM on Dec. 25, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for FARM climbed into the green zone on Dec. 25 and reached a high of 75 around two hours before the price increased 207% over the next three days.

The boost in the price of FARM comes as the project continues to move towards full decentralization including the ability for community members, known as “builders,” to deploy new farming strategies and update the user interface as needed.

QuickSwap adds support for Harmony

QucikSwap is a decentralized exchange and automated market maker that operates on the Polygon network.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after trading at a low of $235 on Dec. 22, the price of QUICK catapulted 143% to reach an daily high at $570.50 on Dec. 28 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked 1,240% to $166.6 million.

The sudden surge in QUICK price followed the release of a relay chain between the Harmony (ONE) protocol and Polygon, which allowed for the creation of a MATIC/ONE liquidity provider pool on QuickSwap.

Related: Ethereum whales dumping ETH as price slides below $4K, data shows

Aragon focuses on digital self-sovereignty

Aragon is a protocol on the Ethereum (ETH) network that supports the creation of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as a way to help develop governance structures that encourage community engagement.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for ANT on Dec. 25, prior to the recent price rise.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for ANT began to pick up on Dec. 25 and reached a high of 73 around 45 hours before its price increased 55% over the next day.

The price appreciation for ANT comes as the concept of Web 3.0 has been gaining momentum heading into 2022, which has helped the team at Aragon make strides towards its goal of supporting "organizational forms that defend self-sovereignty."

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.276 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 40.2%.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.