On the weekend of March 11, the cryptocurrency community experienced a wave of panic as the stablecoin USDC suffered a heavy depeg due to the impact of Silicon Valley Bank and associated risks in other areas. Users fled from crypto assets to safer assets, leading to a surge in on-chain activity and contributing to the record trading volumes seen on many DeFi platforms.
The leading DEX in the market, Uniswap, recorded the highest daily trading volume in its history, reaching $11.84 billion. This figure is almost double the previous record of $6.67 billion.
Yesterday had the highest daily USD volume ever on the @Uniswap Protocol!
$11.84b, almost double the second place day.@DuneAnalytics: https://t.co/KMQxfmlIlo pic.twitter.com/pn9X9yBNHq
— Austin Adams (@AustinAdams10) March 12, 2023
Curve also saw its daily trading volume reach a peak of $8 billion. The project’s Twitter account congratulated this milestone.
— Curve Finance (@CurveFinance) March 11, 2023
March 11 was also a day of peak activity on DEX platforms, with a significant increase in total trading volume, as shown in the visual chart below:
This growth in volume directly reflects on the revenue of the platforms. Since most DEX platforms make money based on user transaction fees, a surge in volume means an increase in revenue from fees.
On March 11, Ethereum’s daily revenue reached a peak of $13.4 million, more than twice the previous day’s revenue of $4.7 million. However, on-chain asset movements do not always go smoothly. As reported by AZCoin News, an investor swapped 2 million USDC but only received 0.05 USDT due to a stuck MEV transaction. KyberSwap explained the issue and sought ways to fix it.
During the period of USDC depegging, Lookonchain reported that a large investor, commonly referred to as a whale, purchased 17.05 million USDC by using 16 million USDT. The investor then went on to repay their USDC debt on Aave. This move proved to be lucrative as the investor made over $1.05 million in profits.
A whale bought 17.05M $USDC with 16M $USDT during #USDC depegging and repaid the $USDC debt on #Aave.
The whale made more than $1.05M!
Did you guys buy $USDC at a low price during the $USDC depegging to repay the debt?https://t.co/R4GTob3vVM pic.twitter.com/QJYAr9lHcA
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 13, 2023
The depeg of USDC has caused concern among investors, and many have started to move their assets to safer places. However, this has resulted in record trading volumes on DeFi platforms, leading to increased revenue for these platforms. This situation highlights the interconnected nature of the cryptocurrency market and the importance of monitoring risks and associated effects.
Read more:
- Smart Trader Earn $4.14M Within 48 Hours During USDC Depegging Event
- Lookonchain Reveals Crypto Trader’s Quick $50K Profit From LQTY And SYN Tokens