The most noteworthy DeFi projects in 2020 (Part 1)

Ethereum’s market capitalization has reached its highest point since August 2019, breaking through $40 billion. So, what is propelling Ethereum to such highs again? It is the DeFi market. Today, the market value of DeFi has exceeded 8 billion U.S. dollars, and smart contracts have locked more than 6 billion U.S. dollars. In the past month alone, the value locked in smart contracts has increased by 400%.

The popularity of DeFi protocols among members of the crypto community is at an all-time high. It rides on the momentum based on Yield Farming. Yield Farming provides incentives for users to deposit their crypto assets into it. Now, you must be wondering how Ethereum benefits from the growth of DeFi. This is because most DeFi projects are based on the Ethereum blockchain. Therefore, Ethereum ushered in such a boom.

The impact of DeFi is being felt across the entire cryptocurrency market cap. In case you haven’t noticed, the current cryptocurrency market cap is $340 billion. That's almost three times the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies in mid-March of this year. The cryptocurrency market cap has collapsed to $122 billion after the global pandemic spread. Therefore, the DeFi boom has once again pushed up the cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Decentralized options Lyra released its 2022 roadmap and launched a new version of Avalon: On December 21, according to official news, decentralized options Lyra released a 2022 roadmap and will release a new version of Avalon in the first quarter of next year. The new version will provide a 12-week rotation cycle, partial collateralization of short positions, and the ability for LPs to enter/exit liquidity pools freely.

Additionally, the new roadmap reveals that xLYRA staking will be introduced, designed to provide trading and market-making rewards. Meanwhile, Lyra Vault, a structured product with on-chain algorithmic selection and execution, is in the final stages of development and is expected to launch after the Avalon launch. [2021/12/22 7:56:33]

Let’s take an in-depth look at the DeFi projects to watch in 2020.

1. Compound

Compound is one of the leading DeFi projects today. It’s riding the “Yield Farming” wave, and Compound’s native token, Comp, was the first crypto token this year to seed today’s Yield Farming frenzy.

Uniswap 2020 Airdrop Tokens Now Worth $12K: Uniswap airdropped 400 UNI tokens to everyone using Uniswap in 2020, when the price was between $2 and $4, UNI is now worth about $30 , those holding airdropped tokens can redeem $12,000 in cash. (CryptoPotato) [2021/2/21 17:37:27]

Its COMP token saw a massive price increase shortly after it was made available to Compound users. But then there was a price correction and as a result, it dropped to the current level. Compound allows its users to earn interest on crypto assets and also to borrow assets by collateralizing their crypto holdings.

Users can immediately start earning interest on their crypto assets by donating to Compound’s liquidity pool. Interest rates fluctuate based on the supply and demand of individual cryptocurrencies. As of August 2, 2020, $782.3 million worth of crypto assets are locked under the Compound protocol. That's a big jump because on June 1, 2020, the figure was $100 million.

Zhongan Technology was selected as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's 2020 "100 Group Standard Application Demonstration Projects": Recently, the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued an announcement that two group standards "Blockchain Privacy Protection Specification" and "Blockchain Smart Contract Implementation Specification" were included In 2020, ZhongAn Technology was selected as one of the "100 Group Standard Application Demonstration Projects". "100 Group Standards Application Demonstration Project" is a group standard demonstration project organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Standards, support the promotion and application of advanced group standards, and lead the innovation and development of related industries.

It is reported that at the beginning of the year, the "Blockchain Smart Contract Implementation Specification" led by ZhongAn Technology has been approved as a national standard. In addition, ZhongAn Technology has participated in the formulation of standards many times under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. [2020/11/6 11:49:18]

2. MakerDAO

MakerDAO holds the largest market share in the DeFi space. In terms of assets, Maker has a huge presence in the DeFi space, as it holds a 31.4% market dominance. Maker currently has over $1 billion in assets. MakerDAO is the most recognized player in the DeFi market. Users who know DeFi should also have heard of MakerDAO. It is a fully decentralized credit platform.

Nearly 532 Bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex were transferred to unknown wallets\u2028: Jinse Finance, Whale Alert data shows that from 00:40 on July 28, Beijing time, about 531.94 Bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex in 2016 were divided into four Pens were transferred to four different unknown wallet addresses. [2020/7/28]

DAI is the native token of the MakerDAO platform. It is a stablecoin and currently one of the most used stablecoins in the market. The value of DAI is pegged to the U.S. dollar. Any user can open a vault on MakerDAO. Once a user locks up crypto collateral with MakerDAO, the user receives DAI corresponding to the amount of collateral.

3. Uniswap

Uniswap is one of the pioneers in the DeFi space. Currently, it is quite popular among DeFi supporters. It is a fully decentralized exchange. However, it differs from other decentralized exchanges because Uniswap utilizes liquidity pools. Hayden Adams is the man behind the Uniswap exchange. He created Uniswap because he was inspired to create the protocol after reading an article by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.

News | FinNexus 2020 roadmap: XRP Ledger will be used for tokenized asset issuance: According to the FinNexus 2020 roadmap, the open financial protocol FinNexus intends to use XRP Ledger to tokenize assets in terms of protocol development. The roadmap states, “We can turn to several networks to create a Asset Payment Protocol Group (PCAP) that can connect different digital currencies, including Ripple and XRP. We will therefore try to create payment channels for FNX using Interledger.” As As part of a plan to connect at least two public chains this year, FinNexus claims that while Wanchain will be used for the Blockchain Interaction Protocol (BIP), the XRP Ledger will be used for tokenized asset issuance. (AMBCrypto)[2020/1/19]

Uniswap users are rewarded for providing liquidity to the Uniswap protocol. They are rewarded with a portion of the fees earned by Uniswap after each trade. So far, Uniswap users have locked up more than $100 million in Uniswap liquidity pools. Also see hundreds of new listings every week.

4. Bancor

Bancor is a non-custodial DeFi platform. It provides users with a way to exchange cryptocurrencies without the need for a centralized exchange service. All of Bancor's crypto assets are held in the form of Ethereum smart contracts. They made this arrangement to bring more transparency to their process.

DeFi platforms also offer smart tokens to users. Bancor is offering Smart Tokens because it wants to increase the liquidity of the protocol. This is because increased liquidity benefits traders. To date, Bancor has amassed over $11 million in cryptocurrencies.

5. Aave

Aave is a UK-based company that started operations in September 2018. Its name is of Finnish origin, as Aave means "ghost" in Finnish. Aave saw a successful ICO as its ETHLend token raised $16.2 million. Shortly after the ICO, ETHLend's executive team joined Aave as ETHLend became a subsidiary of Aave. However, ETHLend has been inactive since January of this year. It is currently active-ethexc only to facilitate the closing of existing loans that ETHLend has provided in the past.

The Aave team hopes that Aave can fill the market needs that large financial technology companies such as PayPal and Coinbase cannot fill. Their Aave protocol runs on the Ethereum blockchain. It is a protocol that is both non-custodial and open source. Currently Aave has $482.1 million worth of assets locked under its smart contracts.

6. Curve Finance

Curve Finance started operations in the early months of 2020. It is a DeFi platform that allows users to trade stablecoins. Curve Finance's algorithm only charges the lowest fees to trade stablecoins. Its users also find the low slippage when trading stablecoins on Curve Finance very attractive. Curve is one of the first few DeFi players to offer Yield Farming to users.

Currently, Curve Finance offers seven funding pools to its user community. Users can earn rewards by staking their stablecoins in these pools. One of the most attractive rewards offered by Curve are new cryptocurrencies. As of now, Curve smart contracts hold $255 million worth of assets. In comparison, on June 1, 2020, the total value of Curve smart contracts was only $15 million. This means that the value locked under Curve Finance has seen a 1700% increase in two months.

7. InstaDapp

InstaDapp is one of the newcomers in the DeFi world. Yet its impact is already being felt. The InstaDapp team is currently positioning its platform as a trustless smart wallet built specifically for the DeFi space. InstaDapp allows its users to manage their holdings, take positions, and transfer their crypto assets to different protocols. Therefore, users can get the best benefits with InstaDapp.

The platform that InstaDapp provides to its community is a user-centric platform. It aims to provide multiple DeFi protocols, such as Maker, Uniswap, Compound, Aave, etc. Thus, DeFi users will be able to access top DeFi protocols in one place. Currently, it is still adding many DeFi protocols to the InstaDapp platform. Currently, the total value of assets locked in the InstaDapp protocol is $323 million.

There is no doubt that the DeFi space has achieved great success. A bright future for the DeFi market is almost guaranteed. Currently, the decentralized finance market is flooded with many interesting projects. These certainly include the items listed above. But those listed aren't the only projects with the most potential.

Many DeFi protocols have not received the attention they deserve. This is because the DeFi market is still in its infancy and many new players are waiting to enter the market this year. A long list of promising DeFi projects are vying for a significant presence in the DeFi space. Therefore, we believe that the crypto community will be the real winner of this DeFi race.

NOWNodes Author

Li Hanbo translation

Lily editor

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