More than 70% of all tokenized Bitcoin, worth over $4.3 billion, have been transferred to Ethereum, according to data from Cryptoflows.
This migration highlights a growing trend of utilizing Bitcoin within Ethereum’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem and other interesting areas.
Billions Of Bitcoin Being Tokenized
Out of the $5.75 billion worth of BTC exported from Bitcoin, over $1.44 billion found its way to the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) with more BTC tokens flowing to Avalanche, Fantom, and Solana.
Just like Ethereum, BSC, Avalanche, and other ecosystems where tokenized BTC found its way to, support smart contracting. Therein, holders can engage in DeFi, possibly earning income.
Bitcoin doesn’t support smart contracts; explaining why some holders are tokenizing their assets. Still, while there appears to be growing demand for DeFi, reading from this outflow of BTC to smart contracting platforms, total value locked (TVL) and decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes have been low and even stagnant.
Data from DefiLlama.com, a DeFi analytics platform, shows that TVL is flat and below $50 billion.
Meanwhile, DEX trading volumes have been relatively low in recent months. This phase of decreased activity could suggest a temporary slowdown in decentralized trading, mirroring the general trend of crypto prices in recent months.
With less than $2 billion of registered DEX trading volumes on May 17, there has been a notable slump in activity over the last months, especially from early 2022.
In November 2021, at the peak of the last bull cycle, DEX trading volumes, on average, stood at over $7 billion.
BTC Prices Suppressed But Coin Is A Safe Haven
While users port their BTC to smart contracting platforms, Bitcoin prices remain under pressure partly due to regulatory decisions across the world, mainly in the United States and Europe.
On May 16, the European Union (EU) approved comprehensive crypto regulations which aim to bring transparency and oversight to the crypto industry, addressing concerns such as money laundering and investor protection.
Even in this bearish environment, Geoff Kendrick, the head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, recently opined that Bitcoin prices could rally by as much as 70%, adding $20,000, should the United States default on its debt.
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Although Kendrick said the probability of this default is a “low-probability, high-impact event”, his prediction has generated significant interest within the crypto and Bitcoin communities as some begin to theorize the potential impact of the world’s superpower defaulting on its debt obligations on the broader financial landscape.
Any such event would result in economic turmoil and an inevitable loss of faith in traditional financial systems that would most likely drive investors towards alternative assets, mostly cryptocurrencies.
Considering Bitcoin’s stature and setup as a safe haven, the coin, in Kendrick’s view, could benefit, subsequently posting significant gains.