DeFi has steadily grown in prominence over the past year, in large part due to the strong foundations put in place by decentralized exchanges (DEX) that allow easy access to the latest tokens and projects.
While there were earlier iterations of DEX user interfaces such as IDEX or Etherdelta, it wasn’t until the launch of Uniswap that trading with the DeFi network really picked up speed and made the launch of financial tokens easier.
Here are six of the top performing tokens in the decentralized financial sector.
UNI / USDT
Uniswap has grown from humble beginnings of a simple user interface that enabled token swaps between two ERC-20 tokens to a rapidly evolving DeFi core that now has an average daily trading volume of $ 1 billion and liquidity of 3.95 billion US dollars, the protocol shows.
Uniswap liquidity and 24-hour volume. Source: Uniswap
Originally, the Uniswap platform was operated without a native token, and the fees charged flowed into a liquidity reserve. However, after the rival SushiSwap (SUSHI) platform launched, which offered the same interface as the platform users and liquidity providers, the project was surprisingly surprised by Uniswap at the time, as was the SUSHI governance token.
Upon its release and subsequent listing on several top exchanges, UNI quickly surged above $ 7.00 before correcting to $ 1.93 on November 4th.
UNI / USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Since then, UNI’s price has continued to climb to a new all-time high of $ 32.50 on February 20th.
The excitement about the Uniswap v3 release and the ability for token holders to set their UNI and collect some of the fees continue to help drive demand and the token price.
SUSHI / USDT
SushiSwap has a controversial genesis, starting as a clone of Uniswap to the release of the tokens by the main developer in the market and the subsequent donation of all funds for the project development. Since then, SushiSwap has emerged as the top DEX in terms of community engagement and token price.
Governance and staking were early features that SUSHI owners benefited from, as well as increased incentives for early liquidity providers, what some referred to as a “vampire attack” on Uniswap.
After the listing, the SUSHI price rose from $ 1.16 on August 29th to $ 8.84 on September 1st, but the token dump of chief developer ‘Chef Nomi’ on the open market left SUSHI at 0.475 on November 4th USD falling.
SUSHI / USDT 4 hour chart. Source: TradingView
Since then, SUSHI price has soared more than 4,080% to a high of $ 19.77 on Feb.20, and SushiS is the sixth-place DeFi platform in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL). Currently, $ 3.56 billion is allocated to the protocol.
Cake / USD
PancakeSwap (CAKE) saw a significant price spike in the first two months of 2021 as the project emerged as a competitive DEX and the first billion dollar project on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
The skyrocketing fees on the Ethereum (ETH) network have opened the door for the BSC to draw liquidity and users away from their leading Ethereum-based competitors, and CAKE has stepped up to facilitate this process.
The protocol offers a growing list of staking pools, revenue management opportunities, a collectibles section, and an integrated lottery that, along with the DeFi platform, picks up on many of the “hot topic” trends in cryptocurrencies.
Prior to the end of January 2021, CAKE was generally trading below $ 0.70 with its all-time low of $ 0.194 on November 3, 2020. Price movements for the token began around the last week of January, around the same time r / Wallstreetbets traders worried the traditional markets for chaos.
CAKE / USD 1 hour chart. Source: CoinGecko
From its low of $ 0.194, CAKE exploded 11,000% to an all-time high of $ 20.33 on February 19, when the Binance Smart Chain became the top competitor to the Ethereum network thanks to the significant resources of the Binance ecosystem.
SRM / USDT
Serum (SRM) is a decentralized derivative exchange that operates on the Solana blockchain network. The DEX is a result of the collaboration between the Solana team and the operators of the FTX crypto derivatives exchange.
Solana was chosen to host the DEX because it can respond 710,000 transactions per second (tps) with a currently tested capacity of 50,000 tps. With the Ethereum network currently offering 15 tps and high fees due to network congestion, Solana and the Serum DEX could soon see increased usage by merchants looking for an environment with lower fees.
SRM offers token holders the option to wager their tokens for a return and use them to reduce trading fees on the exchange by up to 50%. The exchange offers cross-chain support that enables the trustless exchange of assets on different blockchains via a network with more than 100 validators.
SRM / USDT 4 hour chart. Source: TradingView
Following a price breakout after DeFi launched in the summer of 2020, SRM price hit a low of $ 0.78 on November 4th before finding support and rising higher. Since then, it has risen more than 944% to a new high of $ 8.13 on Feb.25 as options outside of Ethereum become increasingly important.
LINEN / USDT
Linear Finance (LINA) is a new addition to the DeFi scene that was recently launched on the Binance Smart Chain, having originally been released as an ERC-20 token.
In addition to the ability to lock tokens for Linear’s synthetic asset tokens known as “liquids,” the protocol allows users to access traditional assets such as forex and commodities by using dynamic price feeds and trading in the decentralized financial environment become.
Linear’s cross-chain approach enables users to benefit from reduced fees, and the built-in oracle solution helps combat the oracle frontruning problem that is currently occurring in Ethereum-based protocols.
Future plans for LINA also include the introduction of governance functions and the ability for community members to vote on the future direction of the project. This includes deciding on the cost of the transaction fees and the amount of the allocation to the insurance fund.
LINA / USDT 4 hour chart. Source: TradingView
Following its release in September 2020, LINA price fell to a low of $ 0.0047 on November 19, before rising 3300% to a high of 3300% on February 12 following its migration to the Binance Smart Chain and several announcements of partnerships and stock market listings rose from $ 0.112.
Waves Exchange and a growing suite of DeFi apps
Waves (WAVES) is a multipurpose blockchain that supports a wide variety of dapps and smart contracts, including decentralized exchanges.
One of the integral elements of the Waves ecosystem is the Waves Exchange, originally introduced as Waves DEX in 2017, offering fast, secure, and inexpensive trading and deployment for key cryptocurrency assets as well as tokens minted according to the Waves protocol.
While the Waves Exchange currently has an average 24-hour trading volume of $ 10 million, the recent price hikes on WAVES, along with a growing line of DeFi apps like Swop.fi, could lead to a surge in activity for the Waves ecosystem as a Fees on the Ethereum network appear to remain elevated until Eth2 is fully released.
