Recently, I have been paying attention to the Compound project and feel it’s necessary to share my observations with everyone.

Speaking of comp, many people may not be very familiar with it. In simple terms, Compound is a decentralized lending platform running on Ethereum, founded in 2017. Its concept is quite similar to traditional banking loans, but completely eliminates intermediaries. Users can deposit crypto assets to earn interest, borrowers pay interest with their assets, and the entire process is automatically executed through smart contracts, offering much higher transparency than traditional finance.

In 2020, the Compound team launched a “lending mining” mechanism, where any operation on the platform—borrowing, lending, repaying—can earn native token COMP rewards. This strategy indeed attracted a large influx of users. The total supply of COMP is 10 million tokens, with 50% allocated to users, 24% to shareholders, and 26% to the team. Currently, the circulating supply has reached over 9.66 million, with a circulation rate of over 96%, indicating that the selling pressure in later stages is relatively manageable.

In terms of team strength, founders Robert Leshner and Geoffrey Hayes are alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, with solid backgrounds. The project also secured smooth funding, raising over $70 million across three rounds, with investors including big names like a16z and Coinbase. Partners include exchanges, market makers, hedge funds, and others, making the ecosystem quite comprehensive.

Regarding market performance, I noticed that Compound still holds a strong position in the DeFi space. The platform’s TVL has reached $1.14 billion, ranking second among all DeFi applications, just behind Uniswap. This demonstrates the market’s recognition of this project. Currently, COMP is priced around $22.86, with a market cap of $221 million, ranking 99th globally.

Looking back at the price trend, COMP was first listed in June 2020 at $58, then steadily surged. During the 2021 bull market, it even hit a record high of $900, with an astonishing increase. But afterward, it entered a long downward cycle, and in June 2022, it even fell below the initial listing price. However, from the current perspective, the price has repeatedly confirmed a bottom in the $22–$80 range, making a significant drop less likely.

Personally, I believe that DeFi, as an important direction for future finance, still holds long-term investment value for Compound, as a leading project in this sector. Moreover, COMP is no longer limited to Ethereum; it has expanded to multiple blockchains like Arbitrum and Polygon, with an ever-growing ecosystem. If you’re interested in DeFi projects, COMP is definitely worth paying attention to. Recently, I also saw its market activity on Gate.io, so if you’re interested, you can check it out yourself.