DeFi-Yield-Hunting Token YFI Explodes to $11K From $32 in One Month

The governance token for yEarn.finance (YFI) has shot up over 32,000% since mid-July as investors have poured hundreds of millions into its protocol, which identifies and exploits some of the best opportunities in the white-hot decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

• CoinGecko data shows YFI tokens shot up to nearly $11,250 on Tuesday before giving back some gains: they were just $32 when they started trading on July 18.
• As the graph below shows, YFI soared past $1,000 the day after launching and was already worth $4,000 by the start of August.
• Investors have poured hundreds of millions into yEarn since it launched mid-May. On July 18, the protocol had $9.3 million in total value locked; at press time there were over $600 million, according to DeFi Pulse.
• After a relative lull, the token doubled from $5,500 on Sunday to over $11,000 earlier Tuesday before dropping over $1,500 to $9,800 as this article was going to press.
• In yEarn, investors deposit digital assets into the protocol which identifies and executes various DeFi trading strategies, offering ROIs of up to 95% on their holdings – the platform taking 5% of total yield as fees.
• As a governance token, users can stake YFI in order to determine the overall direction of the protocol along with other token holders.
• Helping drive demand is the scarcity of the tokens. There are only 30,000 YFI tokens – a $300 million market cap – with the vast majority already circulating in the ecosystem.
• yEarn founder Andre Cronje told CoinDesk the price rise likely came from a combination of scarcity and the fact traders were using YFI in some of the other DeFi protocols.
• Many big holders, such as Framework Ventures, are now hoarding YFI tokens for the staking rewards – increasing supply pressures still further, he said.

See also: YAM’s Market Cap Falls From $60M to Zero in 35 Minutes