DeFi Tokens BAND, LINK, Outpace Bitcoin Price by Gaining 100% in 10 Days

Two of the most notable performers are Band Protocol and Chainlink as both surged by 348% and 88% in the past ten days.

Since the start of August, BAND price rose from $3.9 to as high as $17.78 and in the same period, LINK surged from $7.6 to $14.45 at its peak on Aug 10.BAND and LINK performances side by side.

What's behind the DeFi token pump?The primary factor behind the strong rally is the explosive growth of the DeFi sector.

"Oracles allow for off-chain data to be integrated with the smart contract parameters that exist on public blockchains. In the figure below, we compare price gains between ChainLink and Band Protocol over the past three months."

Data from Defi Pulse shows that since June 1, the total value locked in DeFi apps surged from $1.048 billion to $4.76 billion.

The main difference between Band Protocol and Chainlink is that the former is based on Cosmos, and the latter operates on top of the Ethereum network.

Currently, LINK is valued at over $4 billion, whereas, BAND is valued at $308 million despite its 348% gain.

"BAND has recently taken a page straight out of the LINK handbook with a slew of partnership and integration announcements, including a Coinbase Pro listing. Up over 32x on the year, its relative valuation play and anchor to LINK has worked so far."

"Despite BAND's significant re-rating YTD, it is worth noting that its circulating market cap is still only 5% of LINK's while FD market cap is 10%. This is fair currently given BAND's nascent stage but I expect the valuation gap will continue to close in the next 12 months as BAND scales."

Since BAND and LINK are based on differing blockchain networks, they will also likely support separate DeFi ecosystems based on Ethereum and Cosmos.