The decentralized finance (DeFi) industry reported historic revenues in 2024, surpassing levels reached in 2021.
Collateralized lending protocols on decentralized platforms experienced significant growth, a sign of user confidence in these financing alternatives.
Established protocols like Aave and MakerDAO led this growth, while new platforms in the Solana ecosystem gained relevance in the market.
Aave, a protocol specialized in collateralized loans, posted revenue of $11 million in December 2024, an increase of 175% compared to the 4 million obtained in December 2021, according to data from DeFiLlama.
MakerDAO, another of the main players in the sector, achieved revenues of $28 million in the same period, doubling the $12.8 million recorded at its all-time high in May 2021, as reflected by DeFiLlama.
This growth of MakerDAO was driven, in part, by its foray into real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, as reported by NoticiasVE.
These strategies diversified the DAO’s income and reinforced their position as one of the most profitable protocols in the DeFi ecosystem.
Solana got a boost thanks to memecoins
The Solana ecosystem also stood out, with new projects like Pump.fun generating significant revenue.
This platform, aimed at the creation of memecoins, reported profits of $79 million in December 2024slightly below the 95 million reached in November.
The data reflects renewed interest in DeFi platforms as an alternative within the financial market. Rising revenues in established and emerging protocols suggest increasing user confidence and broadening adoption of these technologies.
This resurgence places the sector in a position of relevance within the cryptocurrency ecosystem by 2025.