DeFi tokens up 30% as users switch to DAI stablecoin after Terra crash

While crypto markets recovered on Friday morning, MakerDAO governance token MKR rose 30% as investors bet on its DAI stablecoin amid the ongoing collapse of Terra.

MKR was the eighth largest DeFi (decentralized finance) token earlier Friday with a market cap of $1.4 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, DAI, with a market cap of $6.47 billion, has risen to the fourth-largest stablecoin.

According to DeFi Llama, the rise in interest was enough to push MKR to become the second largest DeFi token, accounting for 7% of the $146 billion total value as of Friday locking in the decentralized protocol, surpassing Curve, SushiSwap and Lido in the process.

DAI's market cap has also climbed nearly 2% over the past 24 hours, from $6.34 billion to $6.47 billion. This slight uptick indicates that consumers have recently turned to Maker to mint additional DAI.

As Terra continues its meteoric rise, interest in MKR and its DAI stablecoin has intensified.

The Terra verifier shut down the blockchain for about two hours yesterday, restarted transaction verification, and then shut down again a few hours later.