Compound’s COMP token had an incredible first day, beating MakerDao’s MKR token to the top of the DeFi chart
DeFi, or decentralised finance, is a broad term for describing projects like cryptocurrencies that are not centralised in one place.
In a new challenge to the DeFi space, Compound, a protocol based on the Ethereum network, released their new coin, COMP, on Monday and made some impressive waves. The coin aims to offer investors a form of decentralised passive interest income, allowing users to purchase coins and then lend them out to borrowers to earn interest.
In one day of trading, COMP overtook MKR — the current market leaders — to become the largest DeFi coin in terms of marketcap, where it still resides according to defimarketcap.io. In fact, so large is COMP’s marketcap that it has actually broken into the top 20 list of cryptocurrencies; an incredible achievement for its first-day of trading. While it is not yet listed on Coinmarketcap, COMP’s market cap is larger than that of USDC which holds the 20th spot.
It should be noted that MKR still remains ahead of COMP in terms of assets under management. This reflects that despite yesterday’s high volume for COMP, the majority of buyers have yet to actually put their tokens to work. This was to be expected as MKR is a well established DeFi token but also because there simply will not be enough borrowers looking for COMP on its very first day in existence.
COMP’s meteoric first day of trading has come on the back of an equally impressive rise in the DeFi market as a whole this year. DeFi’s total market cap reached $1 billion in April and as of yesterday, it surpassed $3 billion. DeFi’s exponential levels of growth are something to be marvelled at, however it’s hardly surprising when tokens like COMP can put in such a performance on their first day.
