Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols continue to make waves, with a new crypto asset skyrocketing more than 2,400% just a few days after it launched.
In a new tweet, Messari researcher Ryan Watkins highlights the fact that early investors of the DeFi token Meta (MTA) were up big within minutes after going live.
“MTA now trading at 16x its $0.15 seed price. The dynamics around the offering were much more fair, but still the FOMO drove the price up far higher than any other IDO so far. I wonder if most people would’ve ended up paying less in the original offering at this point.”
MTA is the native token of mStable, an Ethereum-based protocol that targets stablecoin investors. It’s designed to allow people to swap their crypto assets with low slippage or earn interest through lending. MTA holders get incentives by participating in decentralizing the governance of the DeFi protocol.
According to CoinGecko, MTA soared as high as $3.88 on Monday, representing a surge of 2,486% since its initial decentralized exchange offering (IDO).
At time of writing, MTA is trading at $3.71, according to CoinGecko.
The DeFi movement is designed to offer a digital alternative to traditional financial services by automating and removing middlemen from the process of borrowing and lending, derivatives trading, margin trading and more.
It has taken the crypto markets by storm in 2020, with the amount of Ethereum and Bitcoin locked in DeFi reaching an all-time high of nearly $3 billion, according to DeFi Pulse.
But the movement has its fair share of critics. The high profile crypto whale known in the industry as Joe007 recently said he believes DeFi is a gimmick designed purely to create market FOMO and leave unsuspecting traders holding the bag.
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