Ethereum continues to be a leader in DeFi activities

• More than $22 billion worth of cryptos were locked in the Ethereum network at press time.
•  Ethereum saw a sharp jump in DEX volumes.

Ethereum [ETH] maintained its position as the numero uno smart contracts’ network during last week, according to an X (formerly Twitter) post by blockchain analytics protocol 0xScope.

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Ethereum leads in DeFi

The proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain was the growth driver of crypto total value locked (TVL), attracting over 75% of all funds deposited for various decentralized finance (DeFi)-related activities.

Note that Ethereum already boasts of a well-developed ecosystem for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. In fact, it was the first protocol to use smart contracts ever.

According to DeFiLlama, more than $22 billion worth of cryptos were locked in Ethereum as of this writing, higher than the combined value of funds locked within next 10 networks on the list.

Similarly, Ethereum recorded a sharp jump in decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes. Last week, over $9 billion in deals were settled on the network, the largest in a single week since mid-June.

Source: DeFiLlama

Network traffic jumps

The heightened activity on the Ethereum chain was further evidenced by the dramatic rise in users during last week. On average, roughly 320k users accessed the network in the last seven days.

Moreover, with the rapid influx of users, the transaction count rose, in turn driving the transaction fees. More than $6 million in fees were collected on the network on 25 October, the highest in nearly two months.

Source: DeFiLlama

Whales bullish on ETH?

Meanwhile, a crypto whale showed big appetite for ETH coins. According to data by Lookonchain, the whale with address czsamsunsb.eth borrowed 100 Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC] from leading lending protocol Aave [AAVE]. This amount was then exchanged for 1526 in ETH.

Moreover, they extracted 2374 ETH from crypto exchange Binance. Soon after, they deposited 16,313 ETH, or nearly $29 million at going market prices, on top lending protocols to earn interest.

Read Ethereum’s [ETH] Price Prediction 2023-24

These moved suggested that the influential whale was betting big on ETH’s next moves.

At the time of publication, the second-largest crypto exchanged hands at $1785.62, having mopped weekly profits of 5.63%. While not as big as Bitcoin [BTC], these gains were held tightly by Ethereum.