DeFi users may be significantly less mercenary than the industry has long assumed, according to new proprietary data from Sentora.
Sentora analysed address-level behaviour across the USDC strategies behind Kraken DeFi Earn, which holds close to $1 billion, and found that 66.6% of addresses depositing into the Advanced strategy still held a balance after 90 days. Some 76% remained after 30 days and 86.9% after seven days.
Median holding periods were also above 100 days across all three USDC strategies, at 107 days for Advanced, 103 days for Boosted and 144 days for Balanced.
The findings challenge the long-standing perception of DeFi capital as “hot money” that moves rapidly between protocols in search of marginally higher APYs. Sentora argues the data instead suggests that product design, risk management and risk-return positioning can matter as much as headline yield in keeping capital onchain. Advanced cohorts retained 47.6% of cumulative deposited capital after 90 days, compared with 19.2% for Boosted and 10.3% for Balanced.
The behaviour is emerging at meaningful scale. Kraken DeFi Earn has grown to more than $800 million in deposits and 100,000 depositors since launching in January.
Sentora also argues that the GENIUS Act could reinforce the trend. By preventing permitted stablecoin issuers from paying yield directly, regulation is not removing demand for digital-dollar yield but pushing it into products built on top of stablecoins, including tokenised money-market funds and curated DeFi vaults.
Anthony DeMartino, CEO of Sentora to be interviewed or provide further comments on the report.
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