Genesis Report Highlights ‘Emerging Role’ of Ethereum and Defi in Q2 2021
Genesis Digital, a leading cryptocurrency trading, lending, and custody desk, released its Q2 reports, where it confirms what it calls the “emerging role” that Ethereum and defi have in the industry. The report also confirms that institutional interest in crypto is still rising despite the crash in prices the market experienced in Q2 2021.
Genesis Confirms Ethereum and Defi Market Rise
Genesis, a big cryptocurrency lending and trading desk, has confirmed that emergent currencies like Ethereum and defi tokens have taken a relevant part of the market, according to its Q2 2021 Market Observations Report. Genesis saw these currencies take a big part of the interest from bitcoin, which has been traditionally the go-to cryptocurrency for institutional investors. Regarding this, Matt Ballensweig, Head of Institutional Lending at Genesis stated:
Bitcoin’s dominance in terms of market cap declined from over 70% at the end of 2020 to under 45% at the end of Q2, as Ether and most of the main decentralized finance tokens more than doubled in price from the beginning of the year.
According to the Genesis report, bitcoin trading accounted for almost 47% of the total trading done on its platform. However, this number marks a sharp decline from the 80% share bitcoin commanded during Q2 2020. Most of the market share lost by bitcoin migrated to ethereum, which accounted for 25% of the volume traded in the same period.
However, what’s more interesting is that institutions also showed demand for defi tokens like uni, sushi, aave, and other Ethereum-based defi protocols. Furthermore, there was a rise in interest for the so-called “Ethereum Killer” tokens like Solana and Binance token, as investors searched for cheaper opportunities to earn yield.
Demand for Crypto Products Keeps Growing
Genesis reported a marked increase in lending activity, too. The company had an increase in loan originations of 700% YoY and 60% quarter-on-quarter, even with the deceleration of prices the market experienced during that period. The quarter is the thirteenth consecutive quarter of growth for the company, which signals the incredible development the market has sustained.
Michael Moro, Genesis’ CEO, believes that there are still significant problems for institutions trying to embrace the cryptocurrency space, but that these will be ironed out in time. Moro stressed:
Some barriers to entry still exist for institutional investors, which is likely why we’re seeing such increased demand for Genesis’s more accessible single point of access for the maturing digital asset market.
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