The previous major stablecoin depeg involving UST resulted in massive contagion and fear. The DeFi world experienced a slowdown in activity after that. The volume surge on 1inch highlights a different and more favorable outcome.1inch’s 24-hour active addresses metric registered volumes within the normal range between 10 and 11 March. Active addresses peaked just above 600. A far cry from the 9,509 highest number of active addresses achieved in February.
The lack of strong address activity despite the heavy volume suggests a strong presence of whale or institutional activity. Indeed, the supply held by top addresses did increase by a sizable margin despite the market turmoil last week.Furthermore, 1INCH’s MVRV ratio pivoted on 9 March, confirming that there was incoming buying pressure.
Note that the uptick in the MVRV ratio occurred within the same time as the volume surge was observed. We also saw a resurgence of velocity shortly after, with the velocity metric’s pivot coming in on Saturday.One of the likely reasons why network growth tanked despite opposing observations in the other metrics could be low retail activity. Regardless, the whale accumulation was enough to soften 1INCH’s fall and trigger a bit of a pivot.