DeFi Coins by Market Cap and Volume

Decentralized finance (DeFi) refers to various blockchain-based applications that offer open access to financial services such as lending, borrowing, trading and even insurance. Currently, the most popular blockchain platform for DeFi applications is Ethereum, and DeFi apps on Ethereum can benefit from other DeFi apps built on the platform – for example, a DeFi app on Ethereum can use Uniswap as a source for pricing cryptocurrencies.

Everyone can get involved in DeFi, as long as they have an Ethereum wallet and some ETH to start off with. You could start off by minting some DAI stablecoins on Maker, swap between different tokens on Uniswap, or lend out your cryptocurrency on Compound to earn an interest on your holdings. Alternatively, you could try to earn some tokens by “yield farming”.

The main benefits of DeFi are also a double-edged sword. Since blockchain transactions are permanent and irreversible, you could be at risk of losing your funds permanently if there is a fatal flaw in the code of the smart contract you’re interacting with. While responsible projects will usually commission multiple security audits before launching, there is still a possibility that an unknown vulnerability could cause issues down the line. DeFi protocols also tend to be quite complex, so make sure you understand what you’re getting into before putting your hard-earned crypto into a DeFi protocol.