Top 5 DeFi Protocols Shaking Up the Crypto Industry

Fortune has debuted the first-ever Fortune Crypto 40 benchmark ranking, identifying the top five crypto companies in eight categories.

The eight categories are CeFi, TradFi, VC, NFTs, Data, Infrastructure, DeFi, and Protocols. 

This list has been compiled based on a variety of empirical metrics and surveys of more than 200 financial executives conducted by Researchscape. With the assistance of economist and long-time crypto journalist Rob Stevens, Fortune developed a methodology for identifying the industry's top companies, DAOs, and nonprofits. 

Fortune describes the Crypto 40 as a “definitive list of the most important crypto companies.” Lets look at the five Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols named among the Crypto 40:

5. Curve:

The Curve protocol simplifies the process of exchanging ERC-20 tokens and offers support for swapping Bitcoin tokens based on Ethereum and stablecoins like DAI. In addition, curve reportedly offers users the best exchange rates and low slippage rates and fees for token exchange.

4. Aave:

Aave is a decentralized crypto lending platform that allows users to borrow and lend crypto. Aave specializes in overcollateralized loans that require users to deposit crypto worth more than their loan amount.

3. Maker DAO:

MakerDAO develops Ethereum blockchain technology for borrowing, saving, and a stable cryptocurrency. Through the DAI stablecoin, anyone with an ETH wallet and a MetaMask wallet can lend themselves money. The more ETH, a user, locks up in MakerDAO's smart contracts, the more DAI they can create. 

2. Lido:

Lido is an ETH 2.0 liquid staking solution backed by some leading blockchain stake providers. 

Through the stETH token, Lido allows users to stake any amount of ETH - without having to maintain complex infrastructure. Furthermore, it enables users to stake their ETH while engaging in on-chain activities of their choice, such as lending and yield farming.

1. Uniswap:

Uniswap is a decentralized exchange with peer-to-peer market-making capabilities. Uniswap is based on the Ethereum platform and is governed by holders of UNI tokens. Uniswap is open source, which means anyone can view and contribute to its code.

Apart from the DeFi sector, Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase took the top spots in CeFi, PayPal led TradFi, and OpenSea topped the NFT sector.

However, Bitcoin fell behind Ethereum in the protocol rankings, with Polygon taking third place ahead of Solana. Meanwhile, Bitmain came in third in the infrastructure race, behind Ledger and Genesis Digital Assets.