As 2021 draws to a close,
it can be easy to forget just how far the crypto space has come in the past 12 months.
And you know what?
It feels great.
Because after years out in the wilderness, crypto is having a Simba moment,
poised and ready to stake its claim as the future of finance.
Think about it.
It wasn't long ago they called us crazy.
Times have changed.
The world is waking up to what we've always known is inevitable.
One of the biggest shifts we've seen is the incredible rise of DeFi,
something that was only theoretically possible just a few years ago.
Today, it's worth a quarter of a trillion dollars.
And it's just getting started.
In this video, we'll be looking at some of the top DeFi projects you need to know about
to supercharge your gains in 2022.
Let's get it!
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First up is a crypto blue chip.
Aave
An open source and noncustodial liquidity protocol for earning interest on deposits and borrowing assets.
In DeFi years,
Aave is one of the grandfathers in the space.
In fact, it started off back in 2017 as something called ETHLend.
And this was back when DeFi didn't even exist.
It's the brainchild of Finnish wonder kid Stani Kulechov,
who is easily up there with some of the most prodigious minds in crypto.
Today, Aave is the No. 1 multichain DeFi protocol out there
with over $11 billion in total locked value.
It hasn't just stood the test of time.
Aave has aged like a fine mulled wine.
This pioneer of DeFi protocols allows users to borrow and lend in a range of about 30 crypto assets.
One of its flagship products is flash loans,
the first uncollateralized loan option in the DeFi space.
Designed for developers, flash loans allow users to borrow, you guessed it, in a flash
with zero collateral required
in only one condition.
That the liquidity is returned to the pool within one transaction block.
Failing that,
the entire transaction is reversed,
making Aave one of the safest and most secure protocols out there.
For anyone looking to begin their DeFi journey,
you really can't go wrong with this absolute giant of the space.
Next up, a stack of fluffy and delicious DeFi served up on the Binance Smart Chain,
our old friend and perfect way to start your day,
PancakeSwap.
PancakeSwap is the most delicious automated market maker, or AMM, in the game.
And with over $5 billion in TVL,
it is far and away the leading DEX on the Binance Smart Chain,
easily living up to its name by flipping the Binance DEX.
Its rise this year has been incredible.
And it's gone hand in hand with its deep liquidity and awesome features.
Things like Syrup Pools,
PancakeSwap's answer to staking, yield farms and IFOs, which are initial farm offerings.
Plus, it incentivizes liquidity with things like lotteries, prediction markets, as well as NFT collectibles.
PancakeSwap gamifies the process of making your crypto work for you.
And, wow!
Look at that sweet APY.
All in all, PancakeSwap is easily one of the most complete DeFi projects in the space
with one of the easiest to use user experiences around.
Its native governance token CAKE went on an insane rally early this year.
As protocol began its rapid rise in popularity, people went on a frenzy of yield farming.
Today, it's sitting beautifully in a zone of serious support.
If you aren't counting carbs
and looking for a high quality token that seems to have found a bottom,
well, you could do a lot worse than feasting on some CAKE in the new year.
No. 3
Raydium
an automated market maker (AMM) and liquidity provider
built on Solana for the Serum DEX
offering lightspeed swaps, next-level liquidity and frictionless yield.
For anyone who hasn't tried it out,
whoa, you've got a lot to look forward to.
There's no doubt about it.
Raydium is the best looking DeFI protocol out there.
The Clooney of crypto.
The swap feature is seamless.
And the interplay with Serum means you get best price swaps,
either within a liquidity pool or through the Serum order book.
Whatever is the best deal gets instantly executed.
Raydium's farming protocols covers a wide range of liquidity providers.
Because the AMM communicates with Serum central limit order book,
you can trade Solana native tokens
as if you were on your favorite centralized exchange.
It's even got a beautiful NFT marketplace for the SOL ecosystem.
Its native token RAY offers a series of perks to holders too,
including generous staking options,
as well as access to token launch events
and Raydium farms.
Raydium has grown as impressively as early backer Sam Bankman-Fried's glorious head of hair.
And let's face it.
Betting against SBF is one of the dumbest things an investor could do.
If you have not experienced the speed of DeFi on Solana,
well, treat yourself this year.
Raydium's sleek design and insane handling makes it one of the true Lambos of DeFi protocols.
Comment below with the exact make, model and color of the Lambo you got picked out
or maybe you already own.
I got a Huracán Performante.
And if you stay in crypto for four years or more,
you can show me your Lambo at the next BitBoy meetup.
Go ahead and smash that like and subscribe button to get the latest in crypto news and education.
If you need the finest of wines, avocados or chocolate-covered pretzels,
you go to Trader Joe's.
If you need to swap some tokens or want some choice DeFi,
you visit the one-stop shop for decentralized trading in the Avalanche ecosystem,
Trader Joe.
While the grocery store of the same name is basically just a cheap version of Whole Foods,
this DeFi play is the cream of the crop.
What's the second best Avalanche DeFi protocol?
There is no second best!
There's an Avalanche DeFi protocol.
It's called Trader Joe.
So, what do we mean by one-stop shop?
Well, Joe is not simply a DEX for swapping and trading.
It also offers a range of DeFi features
including staking, yield farming, lending and community governance.
Plus, it's got an awesome feature called Zap,
which allows users to convert tokens into LP tokens with a single click.
Relatively new kid on the block,
Joe has had an incredible rise in the past six months.
It was the 12th DEX launched on Avalanche,
but it quickly rose to the top.
From $20 million in TVL in August
to over $2 billion today.
That's 23% of the entire ecosystem,
an ecosystem that itself has exploded in recent months,
driving a huge amount of venture capital and a super loyal community.
Their lending service, Banker Joe, launched back in October
with an integration from, would you look at that,
Chainlink,
which allows users to earn on their assets by loaning out via noncustodial pools
or putting up collateral to borrow against.
As a weirdly named co-founder 0xMurloc put it,
"Banker Joe is an essential step toward our vision of turning Trader Joe
into a one-stop shop DeFi trading platform."
Why?
Well, this is super cool.
Banker Joe's lending protocol combines with the DEX to offer noncustodial leverage trading
because users can deposit their tokens as collateral to borrow more tokens of another class.
It's no surprise then that Joe has seen such an incredible rise in the past few months.
And with Avalanche fast becoming one of the top layer 1 blockchains around,
that only looks set to continue.
Finally,
one for the nerds.
Ocean Protocol!
Ocean helps users unlock the true value of their data by monetizing it through ERC-20 datatokens.
Datatokens, you ask?
Well, they effectively wrap a dataset into an ERC-20 standard
for third parties to use without the data itself ever leaving the hands of the publisher.
This means publishers can cash in on data in a private secure way,
allowing customers to gain access to datasets that were previously out of reach.
That's thanks to Ocean Market,
where datasets can be bought and sold.
Think of it as the OpenSea of data.
Crucially, none of it's stored on the network itself.
Buyers purchase an encrypted reference secured by smart contracts,
so it only unlocks when transactions are finalized.
Basically a DEX for data.
When you publish a dataset, you create an IDO,
initial data offering,
complete with its own unique ERC-20.
The publisher can set the price or let it be auto-discovered
using Ocean's Balancer-powered AMM.
Meanwhile, OCEAN stakers can provide liquidity to pools
as well as earn a portion of the transaction fee.
So you can earn by staking, selling, as well as launching your own marketplace.
Seriously impressive stuff.
The beginning of a new kind of decentralized data economy
that levels the playing field between giant corporations and your everyday developer.
Something that sits at the heart of what blockchain and Web3 is all about.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Ocean is set to make serious waves.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.