IntoTheBlock analysts revealed that the number of Ethereum coins blocked in DeFi protocols reduced allegedly due to the launch of the deposit smart contract created for Ethereum 2.0.

Currently, 6.14% of all issued ETH coins in circulation are blocked in DeFi projects. In quantitative terms, this equals to 6.98 million ETH. In November 2020, this indicator fell by 1.68%, analysts at IntoTheBlock calculated. As of November 14, 7.98% of all ETH coins in circulation, or 8.87 million ETH in quantitative terms, were blocked in the DeFi protocols. According to IntoTheBlock analysts, this is due to the fact that a number of investors preferred to withdraw coins from decentralized finance protocols and send them to the deposit smart contract launched for the zero phase of Ethereum 2.0.

Currently, the total cost of blocked in DeFi protocols exceeds $14.5 billion. The growth is due not only to the increasing popularity of decentralized finance sector but also to the rise of cryptocurrency prices, in particular prices of coins most often blocked in DeFi protocols, ETH and bitcoins. The DeFi protocols Uniswap, WBTC, Compound, Aave and MakerDAO were the largest in terms of blocked digital assets. The volume of frozen assets in the Uniswap protocol has sharply decreased by more than 100% due to the termination of the program of distribution of management tokens.

The volume of bitcoins blocked in DeFi protocols also decreased over the month, but not as significantly as in the case of Ethereum. In mid-November, 0.91% of the total emission of bitcoins, or 168.83 thousand BTC, were frozen in DeFi projects. By mid-December, this figure dropped to 0.83%, or 153.91 thousand BTC.

The Beacon Chain was launched on December 1 as part of the phase 0 Ethereum 2.0 update, which is designed to significantly increase the throughput of the Ethereum blockchain through a number of technological innovations such as sharding and the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm.