DeFi TVL in 5 different segments on the Ethereum blockchain 2022
Crypto lending/borrowing was the largest single segment of DeFi in 2021, according to a website that lists the primary activity of several online platforms. Decentralized finance lending and borrowing - sometimes also referred to as money market protocols - made up roughly half of the overall value locked in DeFi. One example of these money market protocols is a platform called Compound: users access this protocol with a digital wallet and either deposit cryptocurrencies for compound interest or withdraw crypto by way of a loan. The system is both decentralized, meaning it has no supervision from a central bank or financial watchdog, and powered by a cryptocurrency - Compound uses the the Compound (COMP) token, for example.