5 Blockchains With Sizzling TVL, Including Arbitrum, Aptos

Funds Flowing Into Arbitrum DeFi Protocols

A key metric for cryptocurrency investors is Total Value Locked (TVL), which is the amount of funds deposited into a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocol. When TVL is increasing, it means that protocol -- or collectively, an entire blockchain -- is attracting more funds and can be a sign of user confidence and general bullishness.

In the past month, the TVL of hegemonic DeFi market leader Ethereum has essentially been flat. Here are five blockchains whose TVL has increased significantly during that time by as much as 36%.

1. Arbitrum

Ethereum layer-two blockchain Arbitrum is one of the hottest ecosystems in crypto right now. Led by GMX and other DeFi protocols, the total TVL in the Arbitrum blockchain has increased by 31% in the past 30 days, according to DefiLlama.

Arbitrum, which uses Optimistic Rollup technology, now accounts for more than half of all TVL among layer-two protocols, according to L2BEAT.

The recent rise of Arbitrum is even more impressive, considering its TVL of $1.77 billion is by far the most among the blockchains we are highlighting in this story.

2. Fantom

Fantom is the next-largest DeFi ecosystem on our list, with a total TVL of $660 million. Leading Fantom DeFi protocols include Geist Finance and SpookySwap.

In the past 30 days, Fantom’s TVL has increased by 11%. That’s the lowest on our list, but still outpaces the ~1% increase on Ethereum during that time.

3. Thorchain

Thorchain, which is designed to facilitate DeFi interactions among the major blockchains, has posted an impressive TVL increase of 23% in the past 30 days.

All of its $226 million in TVL is attributed to its Thorchain swap and exchange protocol.

4. Ultron

Similarly, the Ultron blockchain is also focused on giving users access to DeFi options across major blockchains. Ultron is the biggest winner on our list, posting a 36% increase in TVL in the past month.

Ultron has $187 million in TVL in its staking and swap protocols.

5. Aptos

One of the newest kids on the blockchain, Aptos has increased its TVL by 21% in the past 30 days. Aptos is the first blockchain-based on Facebook’s Move programming language and scrapped stablecoin project, Diem.

Launching two months ago, Aptos has nearly $50 million in TVL, with the top protocol being the AUX Exchange with $19 million in TVL. However, familiar face PancakeSwap is hot on AUX’s heels, increasing its TVL by 38% in the past seven days to stand at $15 million.