Origin Ether, a new yield farming application, has successfully amassed over $12 million in Total Value Locked (TVL) merely two weeks post its official launch, as reported by blockchain analytics firm, DefiLlama. TVL is a financial metric that quantifies the dollar value of assets securely stored in a particular app’s smart contracts.
Unveiled to the public on May 16, Origin Ether was reported to have $793,000 already locked within its contracts even before the official debut, potentially provided by team members or early associates.
Rapid Post-Launch Accumulation
With the public launch on May 16, Origin Ether (OETH) experienced a swift surge in deposits, achieving a TVL of more than $13 million by May 30. This suggests a remarkable increase of around $12.6 million over 14 days.
As delineated in the app’s formal documentation, Origin Ether creates yield from Ether by depositing it into an array of liquid staking and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. Specifically, the app optimizes returns by implementing an algorithmic market operations strategy on Curve and Convex. Before depositing to Curve and Convex, a fraction of the ETH is transmuted into liquid staking derivatives, including Lido Staked Ether (stETH), Rocket Pool Ether (rETH), and Frax Staked Ether (sfrxETH). According to the protocol’s guidelines, this mechanism enables users to procure additional farming rewards from these providers.
Ether Staking: The New DeFi Favorite
Ether liquid staking protocols, enabling ETH holders to stake their coins with a network of providers in return for tokens representing these deposits, have increased in popularity with Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake consensus and enabled withdrawals.
DefiLlama revealed on May 1 that liquid staking protocols have ascended to the top spot in the DeFi category, surpassing the TVL of decentralized exchanges. As of May 30, LayerZero, a cross-chain bridging protocol, partnered with the Tenet network to enhance the application of liquid staking in the Cosmos ecosystem.