• Chainlink establishes itself as a price oracle leader in DeFi, crucial for protocols such as Aave and Compound.

• Chainlink develops a DeFi Yield Index, aggregating lending rates on cryptoassets, improving capital efficiency.

In today’s digital economy, DeFi protocols are radically transforming the way assets are handled, relying on accurate pricing information. If a user wants to borrow or invest assets, the protocol must accurately price the debt and collateral.

Chainlink’s Pricing Sources play an essential role in DeFi lending. Protocols require reliable pricing to evaluate collateral, settle loans, set interest rates, and manage risk along with capital efficiency.

The focus on data quality and security of the oracle infrastructure has made Chainlink’s Pricing Sources a prominent solution in the DeFi economy, cementing it as a leading choice for DeFi protocols. Large lending protocols, such as Aave and Compound, rely on Chainlink Pricing Sources for their operations.

Unlike traditional finance, which has indices that reflect macroeconomic activity, DeFi has not yet established such aggregate data sources. In traditional markets, one rate such as the federal funds rate affects all other rates, but at DeFi, there is no one rate that impacts in the same way.

It is also complicated to aggregate DeFi’s returns. Protocols are constantly changing and the variety of protocol categories means that performance strategies and their factors vary.

Creating a DeFi yield index requires an understanding of the factors that drive the rates in the protocols and experience in aggregating rates in a way that is accurate and reflective of the lending market.

With a track record of security and reliability in any market and network environment, Chainlink is uniquely qualified to build an aggregated DeFi loan performance index . Chainlink is integrated into DeFi, and its decentralized data aggregation methods have proven to be accurate and robust.

Chainlink DeFi Yield Index (CDY Index)

The Chainlink CDY Index aims to aggregate DeFi loan yields using Chainlink’s industry standard pricing oracles . This index will seek to facilitate the discovery of chainlink performance opportunities in lending protocols, driving capital efficiency in DeFi lending.

Chainlink’s CDY Index can provide advantages for a variety of market participants:

Capital allocators will be able to identify performance opportunities they may not have considered before. The CDY Index will provide financial institutions with insight into DeFi and help them explore new ways to earn yield, manage risk and allocate capital more efficiently.

Lending protocols will benefit from increased inflows facilitated by the CDY Index. More assets available for lending mean higher fee income for protocols, which can be reinvested to improve the protocol, security measures and user experience.

The Chainlink CDY Index will initially be calculated for the largest and most liquid crypto markets, including USDC, USDT, Wrapped BTC (WBTC) and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH). For example, the CDY Index calculated for USDC borrowing rates will show USDC borrowing rates on individual protocols and the average CDY Index for USDC.

Users will enjoy greater liquidity as new inflows will result in deeper liquidity pools, decreasing slippage and granting better access to loans or the ability to close positions more efficiently.

These benefits may attract more borrowers, leading to higher protocol revenues and potentially higher returns for liquidity providers.