The reverberations of the downfall of crypto exchange FTX are felt across crypto. One immediate aftereffect is that crypto investors have been moving their stash from exchanges to cold storage. The other is the rising popularity of Decentralized Finance. 

Statistics from cryptoquant.com indicate that more than $3.4 billion in Bitcoin has been removed from exchanges in the seven days following November 7. An additional 3 billion worth of altcoins have been removed. 

Meanwhile, hardware wallet companies have posted record sales. Hardware wallets are physical devices that are considered one of the safest ways of taking self-custody of your crypto. A hardware wallet stores your private keys and keeps them physically separate from any computer or smartphone. 

Dexes doing great

Not all the coins from centralized exchanges like Binance have moved to cold storage, though. Decentralized exchanges (dexes) are doing well. Dominant dex Uniswap’s (UNI) 24-hour ETH trading volume hit $900 billion on one day in the post-FTX week. That is more volume than Coinbase. New users of Uniswap's web app reached 2022 highs. 

The gains of DeFi usage wasn't limited to Uniswap. Also, lending platforms like Aave and stablecoin dex Curve (CRV) have done well, seeing their volumes and users spike roughly 100% compared to the week prior. Aave, a decentralized lender, saw users grow by 70%.   

Conclusion

Even though the crypto industry is K.O. after this (self-inflicted) blow, hopefully, something good will come out of it. Sure, many mainstream media outlets won't be able to tell the difference between a bankrupt exchange and a chain Ethereum or a DeFi protocol. But many crypto users can. Still, DeFi has a lot of work to do regarding user-friendliness if it wants to onboard the masses. 

In the meantime, centralized exchanges also have their work cut out for them. They are all looking into ways to regain or grow trust, for example, by implementing "proof of reserves" or professional external audits