Decentralized finance — of DeFi — lending protocol dYdX has produced more than than $one billion in loans since launching ane year ago.

The milestone was driven by consecutive monthly all-time highs during February and March of more than $250 one thousand thousand and $400 million respectively. Well-nigh 317,000 transactions have been generated across the lending platform.

The lending platform currently comprises the 7th-largest DeFi protocol with $22.7 million in locked assets according to DeFi Pulse. DYdX represents nearly 3% of all value locked in decentralized finance.

DYdX also notes that its native market has produced more than than $530 million in book over seven months of operating.

DeFi faces significant tests

Despite dYdX's $ane billion milestone, the nascent DeFI sector has faced several significant tests in recent weeks.

While dYdX saw the value of its assets drop by 30% amid the March 12–13 crypto market implosion — with MarkerDao, the largest DeFi protocol, entered into a debt crunch every bit loans became uncollateralized.

Despite fears that the crisis could precipitate a possible failure of Maker, the protocol was able to re-collateralize through inflating the supply of Maker (MKR).

Merely every bit Maker'south recovery was being touted as testify of DeFi's resilience, Cathay's largest DeFi protocol dForce lost 99.95% of managed funds in an attack on April 19.

The attack is believed to have exploited a vulnerability in the ERC-777 token standard through targeting tokenized Bitcoin (BTC) protocol imBTC, draining the platform of virtually $25 one thousand thousand.

Chicago firms launch DeFi Brotherhood

In light of the recent challenges facing the DeFi sector, dYdX co-founded the Chicago DeFi Brotherhood alongside TD Ameritrade, Cumberland DRW, DV Trading, Arca, CM Digital, VOlt Capital and Compound Finance on Apr 7.

The alliance will support all-phase startups operating in decentralized finance.