Crypto loans and loan platform Euler Finance just itched back from Defi Wilderness.
The protocol this week noted new high altitudes in the total value Locked (tvl) and total loan-to-central activity metrics for a deficable lender.
Euler’s hundreds of millions of crypto-dollars now under administration may leave it well shortly after the lending ability of the Ethereum world, just like the Multibillion Dollar-Aave. But it is nevertheless remarkable for a protocol that almost went kaput after a $ 200 million hack just two years ago.
“A lot of people wrote us out and said it would have been perfectly normal for us to finish the project right there,” said Michael Bentley, CEO of Euler Labs. But his team decided to stick to it and rebuild Euler – from scratch.
Their new vision was a very customizable loan hub where people could tailor their pools risk, yield and asset parameters. This was a big difference from the original Euler, which Bentley described as “a specific product: a lending market.”
“There’s just not a size that suits everyone when it comes to lending and borrowing,” Bentley said.
The comeback was hardly secured: While victims of hack had their money back, Bentley and his team questioned whether the market had an appetite on a protocol with a spotted reputation.
It didn’t help that Euler basically missed out on large parts of 2024’s defi Surge while sitting in pre-launch security reviews. Euler finally debuted his V2 in September 2024, almost a year and a half after going dark.
The protocol helped juice its return with a relatively modest incentive budget: a “few million” dollars-worthy of Eul-tokens to woo people back, at a time he claims competitors offer tens of thousands of millions of dollars more., Bentley said, attributing most of the growth to “product marketing.”
Even now, as Ether – a critical security active for lending platforms across Ethereum Defi – continues spiral in price, Euler continues to grow. It is one of only two loan protocols in the top 10 to see growth in active loans over the past month.
If this ends up being a bear market, I’m still confident considering success with Euler V2 so far that Euler will still grow compared to some of the other options out there, ”Bentley said.
