The native token of decentralized borrowing protocol Liquity, LQTY, has recently gained significant attention in the aftermath of the turmoil caused by Circle’s USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, being depegged.
In the previous 24 hours, the price of LQTY, the secondary token for the decentralized borrowing protocol Liquity, increased by about 20%, ranking it among the top-performing cryptocurrencies. In addition, LQTY has increased about 500% since the beginning of the year and was trading near $3.33 at the time of publication.
The latest price movement occurred when investors dismissed Circle’s USDC stablecoin. Liquity, a decentralized platform for obtaining loans denominated in the protocol’s core token, LUSD, has benefited from the loss of the dollar-pegged crypto, whose weekend troubles arose from $3.3 billion in inaccessible bank balances at Silicon Valley Bank.
According to Andrew Thurman, the head of research for data company Nansen, Liquity’s LUSD gained significant attention during the USDC depeg panic, causing investors to take a closer look at LQTY. Thurman noted that LUSD’s success likely contributed to LQTY’s increased interest among investors.
While LUSD is intended to maintain its dollar peg, the secondary token LUSD has surged. According to CoinGecko, LQTY, which has a total supply of 100 million and a market cap of $314 million, captures the fee revenue created by the Liquity protocol, which is subsequently distributed to stakers.
Since March 6, Nansen data indicates a 10% increase in wallets holding the LUSD stablecoin, indicative of a new stablecoin narrative following the depegging of USDC.
Liquity enables users to deposit ether (ETH) into the system as collateral and borrow U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin LUSD without fluctuating interest rates. Instead of using variable interest rates, Liquity imposes a single fee on users for availing the loan, which remains interest-free at 0%.
According to data aggregator DeFiLlama, with a total value locked (TVL) of $680 million, Liquity has generated $30 million in lifetime income. A public dashboard developed by a Liquity developer reveals that as of 11 March, users had borrowed about $4.5 billion LUSD.
Data from blockchain explorer Etherscan, more than 52 million LQTY worth around $184 million, has been staked, representing 52% of the entire supply of LQTY. Also, data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen, Binance controls around 11.57% of the total LQTY supply. On February 28, Binance launched spot trade pairings LQTY/BTC and LQTY/USDT.
