Top 10 Defi Coin of The World: Latest Picks

cdLast Updated: March 7, 2024

4 minutes read

DeFi, or Decentralized Finance, is one of the fastest-growing sectors within Web3. From staking to market making, here you’ll find the best DeFi tokens to invest in.

All DeFi protocols operate under open-source blockchain technology. Ethereum is the primary blockchain for DeFi, making any DeFi investment portfolio incomplete without Ethereum (ETH).

To determine the weighting of your DeFi token portfolio, understanding the various DeFi markets and their sizes (measured by total value locked) will be helpful.

Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap is the largest existing decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX) protocol, offering liquidity for hundreds of different ERC-20 cryptocurrencies through automated market makers. Launched in 2018, Uniswap was the first DEX to gain widespread adoption. According to DefiLlama, UNI is currently the seventh-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol by total value locked.

“UNI” is the native token that powers the Uniswap ecosystem.

Protocol: Uniswap (V1, V2, and V3)
Token Symbol: UNI
Market Cap: $6.47 billion
Total Value Locked (TVL): $3.6 billion
Chain: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Celo

Lido (LIDO)

Lido protocol, besides being the most popular cryptocurrency staking dApp, is also one of the most popular protocols existing. Its impressive $9.19 billion TVL far exceeds its staking competitors. Lido allows any investor to stake cryptocurrencies through investing in staking “pools.” Lido’s staking pools are “liquid,” meaning investors can unstake their tokens at any time.

The “LIDO” governance token allows investors to participate in the governance of the protocol, voting on issues such as staking rewards.

Protocol: Lido (V1, V2, V3, and Arc)
Token Symbol: LIDO
Market Cap: $3.05 billion
Total Value Locked (TVL): $18 billion
Chain: Ethereum, Solana, Moonbeam, Moonriver, TerraClassic

Aave (AAVE)

Aave is the world’s fourth-largest DeFi protocol and the largest dApp in the lending domain. Any crypto participant can earn interest by depositing cryptocurrencies into Aave liquidity pools. Borrowers can use these same pools of funds to borrow cryptocurrencies at very favorable rates.

“AAVE” is the native cryptocurrency of the Aave network. This ERC-20 token allows its owners to vote on network changes.

Protocol: Aave (V1, V2, V3, and Arc)
Token Symbol: AAVE
Market Cap: $1.56 billion
Total Value Locked (TVL): $5.7 billion
Chain: Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum, Fantom, Harmony

Curve Finance (CRV)

Launched in 2010, Curve Finance is the second-largest DEX protocol in 2023. Like Uniswap, Curve uses smart contracts (automated market makers) and liquidity pools to provide liquidity for hundreds of cryptocurrency pairs. Although Curve has a smaller market share than Uniswap, the protocol can interoperate with about 12 different blockchain networks, whereas Uniswap supports only 4.

The Curve DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) is controlled by the owners of the “CRV” governance token.

Protocol: Curve Finance
Token Symbol: CRV
Market Cap: $697 million
Total Value Locked (TVL): $2 billion
Chain: Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Binance Smart Chain, Fantom, Harmony, Optimism, Polygon, Aurora, Celo, Gnosis, Moonbeam, Kava

PancakeSwap (CAKE)

PancakeSwap is the largest and most widely used DEX on the Binance blockchain (BSC). Like the other DEXs on our list, PancakeSwap provides liquidity through automated markets. Besides BSC, PancakeSwap is also compatible with Aptos and Ethereum. The fees offered to users on PancakeSwap are slightly lower than Uniswap.

“CAKE” is the native token of PancakeSwap. In addition to being a governance token, CAKE is also used as an incentive for liquidity providers to become market makers on the Pancake Swap DEX.

Protocol: PancakeSwap (AMM, AMM1, and StableSwap)
Token Symbol: CAKE
Market Cap: $759 million
Total Value Locked (TVL): $1.48 billion
Chain: Binance (BSC), Aptos, Ethereum

Compound (COMP)

Compound is an Ethereum lending platform, much like Aave. However, unlike Aave, Compound has yet to expand to other Layer 1 and Layer 2s.

“COMP” serves as both the utility token and the governance token for Compound.

Protocol: Compound (V3)
Token Symbol: COMP
Market Cap: $711 million
Total Value Locked (TVL): $1.16 billion
Chain: Ethereum

Rocket Pool (RPL)

Rocket Pool is the second-largest staking protocol. Currently, the only token you can stake with Rocket Pool is Ether (ETH). While Lido owns a small portion of node permissions (those nodes that actually do the verifying), Rocket Pool allows anyone to become a node, helping to decentralize node risk. However, compared to Lido, Rocket Pool currently pays a lower annual interest rate on ETH staking.

“RPL” is an ERC-20 utility token issued by Rocket Pool, allowing its owners to vote on changes to the protocol.

Protocol: Rocket Pool
Token Symbol: RPL
Market Cap: $644 million
Total Value Locked (TVL): $2.3 billion
Chain: Ethereum

GMX (GMX)

GMX was one of the few protocols to turn a profit in 2022. This DeFi protocol, only available on the Avalanche and Arbitrum blockchains, is a decentralized spot and perpetual exchange. It’s also the largest existing derivatives protocol. When you connect your self-custody wallet to GMX, you can speculate on the price of BTC, ETH, and AVAX with up to 50x leverage.

“GMX” acts both as the utility token for the GMX protocol and as a governance token.

Protocol: GMX
Token Symbol: GMX
Market Cap: $494 million
Total Value Locked (TVL): $540 million
Chain: Avalanche, Arbitrum

Just (JST)

Just is the preferred lending protocol of the Tron blockchain network. Considered to be a dual-token protocol, its ecosystem is built around JST and USDJ (JustStable), the latter being a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.

The “JST” token has multiple uses, including voting on protocol changes and paying interest.

Protocol: JustLend, JustStables
Token Symbol: JST
Market Cap: $310 million
Total Value Locked (TVL): $590 million
Chain: Tron

Balancer (BAL)

Balancer is a DEX that offers investors access to non-standardized liquidity pools. Most DEXs have liquidity pools containing only 2 cryptocurrencies; Balancer’s pools allow for up to eight cryptocurrency tokens. Other than that, Balancer is almost identical to Uniswap.

Balancer (BAL) is the ERC-20 token that runs the Balancer ecosystem.