Which DeFi protocols are still worth paying attention to and interacting with amid the sector's downturn?
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Which DeFi protocols are still worth paying attention to and interacting with amid the sector's downturn?
What's new happening in the DeFi world?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Ignas
Compiled by: TechFlow
What’s new in the DeFi world? Every month I follow the money to find out. Unfortunately, the past two months have been the worst for crypto fundraising in two years, but these five top DeFi projects still managed to hit their targets.
According to reports, there were 50 public sales in October, down 68% compared to the same period last year. Web3 and infrastructure sectors saw the most funding rounds, while DeFi accounted for only nine of them.
November was the toughest month for crypto fundraising in two years, and December was even worse. Total funds raised amounted to just $660 million, a 21.5% drop from November. With capital so tight, it's become extremely difficult for projects to raise cash.
This is exactly why we should pay close attention to early-stage projects. Early projects that manage to raise funds during bear markets often have the potential to surge strongly when bull markets return. Here are several promising DeFi projects I’ve discovered.
1. Panoptic
Panoptic is building an oracle-free perpetual options protocol. It will allow permissionless deployment of options markets on any asset, and users will be able to lend their capital to options traders as liquidity providers to earn yield.
Options may be the most complex part of DeFi, and Panoptic is no exception. But with Panoptic, even retail users can trade options or join option vaults to execute put, call, or delta-neutral strategies. The team has raised $4.5 million from Uniswap, Coinbase, Gumi, and Avalanche.
2. Perennial Labs
Perennial Labs is a cash-settled leveraged trading protocol where all trades are settled in $USDC. It promises zero price slippage, no MEV, and low trading fees.
The team has raised $12 million from Polygon, Polychain, Variant, Coinbase, and Robot Ventures.
3. Pods
Pods is building easy-to-use structured strategies.
Currently, its unique stETHvv strategy allows accumulating more $ETH through volatility without risking your principal. If this strategy had been used since 2015, it would have generated twice as much ETH.
The stETHvv strategy relies on Lido’s base yield. By using call and put options, the strategy benefits from ETH volatility regardless of price direction.
Pods has raised $5.6 million from IOSG, Republic, Framework, 4RC, and others.
4. Concordex
Concordex raised $1.7 million to build a derivatives DEX on the Concordium blockchain.
Concordium itself raised funds at a $1.5 billion valuation two years ago but now trades at a market cap of $47 million. The narrative around copycat L1s may be over, but due to continued ecosystem investment, I’ll keep an eye on it.
5. Liqwid Labs
Here’s another controversial pick: Liqwid Labs — a liquid staking and lending protocol for $ADA.
Three reasons I’m watching it closely:
• Cardano DeFi moves slowly, but liquid staking and lending could play a key role;
• A strong $ADA community;
• Animoca and Altonomy are among the backers in its $2.7 million funding round.
Keep in mind, none of these projects have launched tokens yet, so testing them now might give you a chance to qualify for future airdrops.
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Ignas | DeFi Research
