Decentralized finance (DeFi) is going from strength to strength at the moment, having overcome an incredibly difficult bear-market year. At present, there is around $43 billion USD equivalent locked in DeFi projects, with global blockchain spending on its way to reaching $19 billion each year.
This market is truly on the verge of eruption, with projects coming out with industry-changing news what seems like every single week. After a difficult year, projects are springing back into the spotlight and innovating what we thought we knew about DeFi.
Whether they’re making DeFi more accessible, expanding its offering, or helping to integrate Web 2 and Web 3 systems, the projects we’ve selected for this list represent the most promising DeFi projects of 2023. Without further ado, we’ll be covering the following Web 3 DeFi projects and platforms:
- Balancer – An Industry-Leading DeFi Liquidity and Passive Income Asset Management Platform
- Aura Finance – A Balancer-Built Liquidity Solution That Incentivices DeFi for All
- Affyn – Geolocation Gaming with a Blockchain Twist that Breaks the Mold
- Flare – Layer 1 Blockchain That Aims To Connect Everything
- Fluidity – A New Way of Using Capital in DeFi
- TideFi – An Accessible DEX System for Crypto Investors
- DeFiChain – Innovating Decentralized Finance for Bitcoin
- Snapmuse.io – Ushering in a New Era of Web 3 Media for Content Creators
- AAVE – Lending and Borrowing on DeFi Made Simple
- Ledger – A New Take on the World of CryptoWallets and Digital Security
Let’s dive right in.
Balancer – Industry-Leading DeFi Liquidity and Digital Asset Management Platform
Launched in 2018, Balancer is an automated portfolio manager that’s changing the way new blockchain projects are generating liquidity. As DeFi has continued to expand, traditional methods of raising liquidity for projects are becoming ineffective. To solve this, Balancer offers users a passive way of generating income by listing their portfolios on the platform.
Instead of paying an index manager to make decisions about funds and rebalance portfolios, DeFi projects that are partnered with Balancer can pay passive traders a commission fee to rebalance their portfolios in favor of arbitrage opportunities. For passive investors, Balancer aims to make them as much as possible without lifting a finger, cutting out the middle-man index managers that skim off the top of returns.
Balancer rewards investors for participating in liquidity pools. Not only does this generate passive income for investors, but it also provides a rapid way for new DeFi projects to gain liquidity and expand their offerings. Anyone participating on the platform can join and leave different liquidity pools, providing an accessible method for your average Joe to get exposure to decentralized finance.
To inspire competition amongst liquidity pools, the LP creator is the individual that may decide the fee structure for that pool. For Balancer users, this results in pools that continually lower their fees in order to pull in a higher percentage of users. There are also smart-LPs, which is a communal pool where users can collectively vote on the fees of said pool.
Perhaps the most revolutionary feature of Balancer, and the one that draws most media attention, is the fact that every liquidity pool on the platform can include up to eight different assets. This feature increases the accessibility of new projects to a wider audience, while also giving Balancer users the unique ability to become early adopters of tomorrow’s cryptocurrencies.
Balancer regularly hosts AMA speaker roll calls with other major projects in the blockchain space. Most recently, the community leaders hosted a live conversation with Polygon, where both sides dove into the future of DeFi, and expanded upon how their offering will change the world.
If you’re looking for a project that’s set to completely change the trajectory of the DeFi industry, you won’t be able to do much better than Balancer.
Aura Finance – A Balancer-Based Liquidity Solution That Incentivizes DeFi for All
Flowing directly on from Balancer, we have Aura Finance, a protocol that is built on and for Balancer itself. Aura gives users an easy way of providing liquidity on Balancer by giving access to both liquidity pools and staking. While Balancer already has liquidity pools in place, Aura pushes them even further, introducing a convex style of tokenomics in order to expand what Balancer can achieve.
At its core, Aura Finance is a method of radically boosting the incentives for all participants to get involved with liquidity on the Balancer platform. Of course, as Balancer equally moves from stride to stride, Aura is uniquely positioned to benefit from their symbiotic success.
What has made Aura the go-to choice for those looking to generate liquidity or to earn passive income is the fact that onboarding to this system is incredibly easy. Balancer, despite its many successes, is still very knowledge-heavy, especially for the general public that doesn’t know much about cryptocurrency.
Aura simplifies the process by creating a tokenized wrapped token, called auraBAL. This token allows users to begin to receive rewards in both bbaUSD and BAL from staking on the platform. By doing this through Aura, users are set to receive double the benefits, generating passive returns in both BAL and AURA.
Once a user has decided that they don’t want to stake anymore on Balancer, they need to only convert their auraBAL tokens back to BAl before then cashing out. This simple system has become an instant success, as both users and liquidity providers are set to benefit from their platform.
Aura Finance is also a system that’s led by the community itself, with AURA tokens acting as governance tokens and their use guiding the future expansion of the project.
Over recent months, with the arrival of LSDs (Liquid Staking Derivatives), meta-protocols like Aura Finance have begun to receive even more attention. With the Shanghai Ethereum update on the horizon, stakers are in a much better position. Aura’s system, which allows users to lock in tokens via its parent protocol, Balancer, is perfectly equipped to facilitate LSD liquidity pools.
When Shanghai is launched, it will allow people to remove their funds from the ETH LPs. With this fall, LSD liquidity pools will become essential, with Aura being perfectly positioned to become the head of this charge.
Be sure to keep Google Alerts on for Aura Finance, as they’re set to have a truly explosive year.
Affyn – Geolocation Gaming with a Blockchain Twist that Breaks the Mold
The video game industry is one of the most dynamic there is, and one that has continually risen in value over the last few decades. At this point in time, the industry is worth around $200 billion, with this only being the beginning of future growth. Yet, despite the commercial success of this industry, players have continually run into one central problem: a lacking ability to trade assets outside of the game.
With digital assets that are only valuable in-game, the only thing that keeps them valuable is the supply and demand of the game itself. As that begins to fade, in-game assets lose their value and are eventually made obsolete. Affyn sets out to solve this issue by combining the world of gaming with the fundamental technology that blockchain can afford the space.
Affyn is a sustainable Play-and-Earn Metaverse game that allows players to earn NFT assets and cryptocurrency tokens as they play. The game is completely free to play and is based on the geolocation of the player. The world is split into many hexagon pieces, which the player can traverse depending on where they start in the game.
In Affyn, users will traverse the Nexus World, a digital layer that has been mapped and modeled on the real world. Depending on their location, they’ll have different challenges to overcome and situations to interact with. Through their travels, users can find and interact with NFT buddies, each being a collectible unit with distinct attributes and properties.
Users of the game are able to either trade, use, or sell these NFTs, collecting the game’s native token in return for their gameplay efforts. FYN tokens have real-world value, with users being able to pay with their currency in the real world.
Anyone that uses FYN tokens is able to access unique rewards. As a free experience that results in cryptocurrency with value, as well as a plethora of NFT collectibles, Affyn has developed a comprehensive ecosystem for players to enjoy.
Positioned as one of the only geolocation-dependent games currently active within Web 3 gaming, Affyn is rapidly gaining media attention. Most recently, the ability to transfer Buddies from Affyn to different games has sparked a number of articles, with this transcending the main problem that many P-&-E gamers find with blockchain systems.
We’re sure that Affyn is going to have an impressive year as they push further down their development roadmap.
Flare – Layer 1 Blockchain That Aims To Connect Everything
Since its inception, there have been a number of factors that have held blockchain back from mass expansion. Depending on the specific product, whether its NFTs or DeFI application, a distinct one of these limiting factors has been the cause. For example, the learning curve of blockchain, the slow TPS, high gas fees, or lack of real-world utility, could have all played a part.
Flare sets out to overcome these problems, with its sole goal being to make blockchain more useful across all use cases. It is a Layer 1 blockchain that allows people to build better DeFi applications through the interoperable connections it establishes across the world of blockchain and Web 2. With its innovations in place, Flare is set to innovate the world of blockchain and help developers unleash its true potential.
Flare focuses on improving the overall interoperability of blockchain, securely acquiring event data and time series data from other blockchains and Web 2 APIs. The protocols that Flare uses allow data to flow trustlessly, powered by an independent, decentralized system of nodes.
This is further developed in Flare’s State Connector, which is one of its central information-gathering systems that has received a lot of positive attention. The State Connector can gather information from external systems, like checking whether a certain transaction has been executed on a different chain. From there, it can set in place a series of further reactions, allowing developers to create complicated transaction pathways based on smart contracts.
With solutions like these in place, developers are able to use the Flare blockchain ecosystem to achieve a limitless number of useful applications.
Flare has recently announced its partnership with blockchain security company FYEO. Their work together shines a light on Flare as a company that is dedicated to the ongoing betterment of its network. The Co-Founder and CEO of Flare, Hugo Philion, stated that this connection “guarantees a safer outcome” for the network.
The Co-CEO of FYEO, Tammy Kahn, reiterates these comments, seeing the partnership of the companies as a way of “supporting adopting through user risk minimization.”
With this news coming out, Flare’s vision of becoming the leading blockchain provider for the development of applications is closer than ever. We expect big things over the next few months.
Fluidity – A New Way of Using Capital in DeFi
Fluidity Money is one of the most recent launches on this list, but one that has nevertheless made a huge splash in the world of decentralized finance. When a user signs up for Fluidity, they can 1:1 exchange their digital assets for wrapped assets. By doing this, Fluidity then invests the user’s funds, generating yield for the user based on the amount they convert into wrapped assets.
Beyond just generating funds, there is a drawing mechanism that Fluidity uses to create large dividend prizes for their users. At random, large prizes are paid out to users, helping to construct further gaining opportunities. What’s more, users are still able to use the Fluid Assets that they have in their possession.
Going beyond just decentralized exchanges and NFT purchasing, users can put their wrapped funds to use on any real-world purchase that they would like. From clothes and petrol to your weekly grocery shop, Fluidity allows those interested in decentralized finance to continue earning in DeFi without deviating from their typical spending habits.
Decentralized finance has long been seen as a stilted medium, often requiring users to put their currencies into liquidity pools or staking projects for extended periods of time. Fluidity overcomes this, revolutionizing the DeFi system by offering users a more flexible way of investing.
Fluidity has had an impressive start in this market, having been awarded grants from Solana, Polygon, Compound Protocol, Lido, and the RMIT Blockchain Innovation hub.
Most recently, Fluidity has made it into the press due to its full launch on the Ethereum network, as of late December 2022. As a leading blockchain network, releasing on Ethereum gives thousands of users access to Fluidity’s services. With that, they’re able to earn cryptocurrency and rewards as they use their wrapped assets, helping to push the bounds of what is possible for users to achieve with their money.
With upwards of 50-70% of transactions resulting in some form of yield, Fluidity is paving the way for a new user-focused financial system. And, with their recent launches, it’s going to be an incredible year for this DeFi project.
TideFi – An Accessible DEX System for Crypto Investors
TideFi makes decentralized finance as easy as possible, having created a DEX (decentralized exchange) that puts the needs of the user first. Their central mission is to empower the world, helping absolutely everyone take advantage of the opportunities that decentralized finance brings. With transparency and security at the core of their offering, their platform is a champion for accessibility.
TideFi is a community-driven project, using open-source technology and decentralized principles to ensure that its platform acts as an equal opportunity for all. Absolutely anyone can join their community, as TideFi uses a DAO (decentralized Autonomous Organization) governance system.
By acquiring TideFi tokens, users can make their voices heard, voting for different governance proposals and actively crafting the future of the project. Holding the token even extends into validation opportunities, as users can get involved in the growth, revenue, and validation of the TideFi network with these native tokens.
On the TideFi platform, users can also trade a number of digital assets with very low fees and even a rebate system on any fees paid. Although a lot of progress has been made in the last few years, that still doesn’t change the fact that 96% of Americans could not pass a basic crypto literacy exam.
Seeing this, TideFi set out to simplify the process and make sure that even those new to the world of blockchain can get involved in trading and staking digital currency. Built in Substrate, TideFi is able to offer users low and predictable fees, helping to mirror the experiences that investors would have previously had with centralized finance. This serves as a fantastic entry point into the world of DeFi.
In a recent interview with the CEO of TideFi, Daniel Elsawey, these claims are echoed, Elsawey stating that “Our main purpose in building this project was to make a secure, safe, and easy-to-use DEX built upon a blockchain Tidechain which could handle on-chain trading, allow us to create real-world tokenized assets, and make them usable for clients in their day-to-day lives.”
The vision of TideFi is extensive, and one that could bring DeFi to millions of users around the world. We can’t wait to see just what they achieve over the course of 2023.
DeFiChain – Innovating Decentralized Finance for Bitcoin
DeFiChain is currently the world’s leading Proof-of-Stake blockchain created as a hard fork of the Bitcoin Network. It offers developers and users an unmatched level of security, with Bitcoin’s defenses being legendary in the blockchain community.
As it’s connected to Bitcoin, DeFiChain brings DeFi services to the Bitcoin ecosystem, something that other blockchains like Ethereum have grown popular for. It has a number of features that make it exciting for users and developers alike.
Users have secure, transparent, and easy access to services like liquidity mining, staking, and decentralized loans. For users that want to progress further into decentralized finance, DeFiChain has created dAssets. These tokens are designed to give you price exposure, though not ownership, to the real-world stocks and ETFs without leaving the DeFi ecosystem. You can mint and trade them from anywhere in the world.
There are dozens of dAssets available on DeFiChain including dAAPL, dTSLA, and much more. The clever mirroring that DeFiChain uses gives users the best of both worlds, helping move people deeper into decentralized finance. This revolutionary idea is one of the shining examples of how rapidly DeFiChain is innovating the space.
Moreover, DeFiChain is now getting future-ready with its upcoming DeFi Meta Chain, which is an EVM-compatible blockchain that’s in parallel to the native DeFIChain. Alongside making DeFiChain EVM compatible, it will also ensure that DeFiChain has full Web 3 compatibility. This means that developers looking to create dApps are able to take advantage of the developer toolkit that DeFiChain provides, while also benefiting from the world-class security that Bitcoin offers.
With multi-chain capabilities, the interoperability that DeFi Meta Chain offers will allow DeFiChain developers and users to seamlessly interact with other EVM compatible blockchains. Developers familiar with the ETH ecosystem will be able to effortlessly build on DeFiChain, as they can now expect familiar programming languages for smart contracts, ERC-20 tokens, and ongoing support.
This radical step in DeFiChain’s development has further expanded the already impressive set of offerings that DeFiChain gives to the community. A recent news article echoes this sentiment, seeing DMC (Defi Meta Chain as “Pushing DeFiChain even further into the spotlight, helping to foster a world-class Web 3 experience for developers, and making this ecosystem the premier go-to chain for building new dApps.”
With an impressive foundation and revolutionary expansions happening regularly, DeFiChain is one of the most important DeFi projects currently taking place. Keep a sharp eye on this project as they continue to dominate the space.
Snapmuse.io – Ushering in a New Era of Web 3 Media for Content Creators
Snapmuse.io is the world’s first community-based Web 3 platform that focuses on the creator economy. The online creator economy has already soared over $100 billion, with this only being the beginning when we consider how quickly this space is growing. Snapmuse.io brings core blockchain concepts to this space, providing a new opportunity for creators to grow.
The main problem that creators run into with typical Web 2 content systems like YouTube is their inability to find finding. In order to grow, they need a fair share of funding and engagement to continue making content and have an audience to receive it. No matter the size of the YouTube channel, these two factors stay as constant.
However, when YouTubers want to find funding for their projects, they almost always run into issues with the centralized banking system. This is due to the fact that for most banks, the job title and varying income that being a YouTuber offers just don’t cut it. Instead of these loans, creators will have to sell their content rights to self-acquire funding.
Snapmuse.io wants to change that, providing video content creators a platform to mint their own NFT collections and offer them to fans. A portion of the YouTuber’s ad revenue is bound into these NFTs. That means that when a fan buys an NFT, they convert themselves from just a fan into a partner of their favorite content creators.
This benefits both audiences in a symbiotic system. The creators are able to generate funding for their future videos from the NFT sales, while fans are able to incorporate themselves into this ecosystem, support creators, and get a piece of the pie for themselves. This system where fans connect themselves to creators also helps creators grow their engagement, as users will now have more of a personal and financial connection to their ongoing success.
For creators, Snapmuse.io is a revolutionary project that will completely change the way that modern content creators run their businesses. And, for fans, Snapmuse.io provides them with the real-world advantage of being a content consumer. Using blockchain, Snapmuse.io has created a whole new creator system.
Bitcoinst sees Snapmuse.io as a turning point in the development of Web 2 to Web 3 in the media industry. Their platform offers something completely different, aligning with the current trends in the world of global media and offering everyone a new opportunity for development.
With the rising popularity of the creator economy, Snapmuse.io has come at seemingly the perfect time. We cannot wait to see just how far they can push this groundbreaking project. On behalf of all creators and fans, this Web 3 project is one that excites everyone.
AAVE – Lending and Borrowing on DeFi Made Simple
AAVE is a decentralized liquidity protocol project where users are able to enter the ecosystem as either depositors or borrowers. At its core, this is a system of money exchange, with users being able to lend and borrow while generating a passive return.
Depositors on the platform provide liquidity to the market, earning a passive income yield. On the other hand, borrowers are able to withdraw currency in either an undercollateralized or overcollateralized fashion, providing them with crypto for further investing. Anyone that wants to take out a loan in CeFi would typically have to visit a bank.
AAVE allows people to take out cryptocurrency loans, with the DeFi system providing instant access to funds. Especially for users that want to take advantage of an upcoming trade or position, the ability to take out these crypto loans provides a whole new world of possibilities.
What’s more, as a completely decentralized platform, AAVE allows users to borrow and lend without having to lose out due to intermediaries. They also offer flexibility when it comes to rate switching during your loan. You can move between fixed and floating interest rates, helping users to reduce the borrowing cost of taking out a crypto loan.
Most recently, the blockchain community has been discussing AAVE as they’ve just been deployed to Ethereum for the first time. AAVE V3 is the most flexible version of this system yet, with decentralized liquidity, improved capital efficiency, and reduced gas fees being the highlight of this new iteration.
As AAVE continues to carve out a unique spot in the world of Web 3, they’ll further expand its user base and bring new people into this world. And, with accessible decentralized loans at the core of their offering, they’re sure to have an explosive year.
Ledger – A New Take on the World of CryptoWallets and Digital Security
In the world of cryptocurrency, any currency you own is kept safe by your private keys. Yet, in the wake of crypto-hack after crypto-hack, the community is more on edge than ever before about losing access to their hard-earned currency. That’s where Ledger comes in, offering users a world-class security system for cryptocurrency wallets.
Their offering is split into three core parts:
- Ledger Devices – Ledger offers hardware wallets that store a user’s private keys offline. Completely isolated from the internet, these wallets will keep passwords and keys safe from hackers. When you want to access your funds, your ledger device will generate a private key on your device itself. This, combined with multi-factor authentication, ensures that your cryptocurrency is always safe and only accessible to you.
- Ledger Live App – Ledger offers an application that you can log into from your phone. From there, you can access a number of services, as well as check on the safety of your cryptocurrency. This app is secured by Ledger and free from the possibility of attack.
- Ledger Live – Finally, the Ledger ecosystem is completed by Ledger Live. This is a system of integrated apps that you can use within the Ledger ecosystem, helping you to see your transactions and understand smart contracts after translation into readable language.
Ledger is currently trusted by over 4 million customers, demonstrating the extent to which the crypto community has fallen in love with this platform. Beyond just security, users are able to buy new cryptocurrencies directly from the DeFi platform’s application, making this an all-in-one solution for crypto buying and storage.
Most recently, Coinbase has expanded support to Ledger, allowing their millions of users to get the best of both worlds and have an additional layer of protection on their funds. The backing of an industry-leading platform like Coinbase further shows how advanced the security that Ledger offers is.
If you’re worried about the security of your current assets, then Ledger is the platform you should be following closely.
Final Thoughts
Web 3 has never been in a more exciting period than it is right now. Across a year-long bear market, projects have been working behind the scenes to make 2023 the best year yet. The ten projects that we’ve selected for this list represent the best of the best, demonstrating the most exciting, revolutionary, and innovative projects that are currently on the market.
As we progress further into 2023, these projects are going to be making waves. Keep an eye on the news and watch out as each of these projects carves a unique place in the history of Web 3 development.
Source: Depositphotos