The amount of Ethereum locked in DeFi is up almost 30% in a month

This trend may be pivotal for ETH's bull case moving forward, say a number of analysts who believe DeFi will be pivotal for Ethereum's long-term bull case.

According to DeFi Pulse data shared by crypto commentator "DCInvestor.eth," the number of ETH locked in decentralized finance protocols has gained nearly 30 percent in the past 30 days.

DeFi protocols experiencing the biggest Ethereum inflows over the past day include dYdX, Nexus Mutual, Bancor, and Aave.

dYdX and Aave are decentralized lending protocols, meaning an uptick in the Ethereum they hold may suggest investors are using their ETH to gain leveraged exposure to either more Ethereum or supported altcoins.

Bullish for ETH. Analysts say that this trend of rapid, even parabolic growth in the DeFi space is boosting the long-term case for owning Ethereum.

ICOs in 2017 and 2018 almost solely raised ETH, leading to persistent selling pressure throughout the past two years.

DeFi has the potential to change this, as more and more Ethereum will get locked into DeFi smart contracts over time, reducing the amount of ETH that can be sold on the market.

According to the hosts of the "Bankless" podcast - David Hoffman of tokenized real estate platform RealT and Ryan Sean Adams of crypto fund Mythos Capital - this should cause ETH to appreciate in the long run.

The optimism about DeFi's effect on the ETH price has been echoed by Raoul Pal, a former head of hedge fund sales at Goldman Sachs.

"I am getting increasingly bullish on Ethereum. ETH is the silver to Bitcoin's gold. It has more industry uses and less store of value uses ETH is all about adoption rates and usage. Basically, it's all down to something called DeFi."