Top-5 best known DeFi protocols

Over the 8 years of DeFi's marketplace, the list of leading protocols has changed significantly. The protocols that best suit the current needs of crypto investors, especially large ones, have come to the forefront.

1. Lido

The market-leading DeFi protocol in terms of total blockchain value (TVL) is $17.7 billion as of March 2025 — that's about 19.5% of the liquidity of the entire decentralized finance market.

Lido or Lido Finance is a liquid steaking protocol that allows Ethereum cryptocurrency to be deposited into steaking via a special smart contract and earn passive income. At the same time, the minimum amount of Ethereum staking is 32 ETH or about $62,000 at the exchange rate at the time of writing — such an amount is not available to everyone.

The Lido protocol is an intermediary between users and the ETH staking contract in the Ethereum blockchain. But the main feature of the Lido DeFi protocol is that in addition to income from staking, liquidity providers receive LST tokens stETH — a stablecoin that tracks the rate of the original ETH cryptocurrency. This was one of the main reasons for the protocol's popularity, given the large number of ETH cryptocurrency holders.

You can do everything with LST tokens that you can do with regular tokens:

• Exchange them on decentralized exchanges (DEXes) or become liquidity providers and generate revenue;
• Lend them out or use them as a collateral asset;
• Steak in other DeFi protocols.

In this way, users of the Lido platform generate revenue from ETH staking and can, among other things, generate additional revenue using stETH LST tokens. In addition to Ethereum, the Lido protocol also supports Solana, Moonbeam, and Moonriver networks.

The protocol's token is Lido DAO (LDO), which was one of the top 100 cryptocurrencies in capitalization at $845 million as of March 2025. LDO serves as a governance token and empowers its holders to participate in decision-making regarding the development of the Lido ecosystem.

2. Aave

Aave is the largest lending protocol on the DeFi marketplace, allowing for cryptocurrency-backed loans, lending to other users, and revenue generation. In terms of TVL, which is $17.5 billion, Aave holds the second position in the DeFi sector, just behind the Lido protocol. In addition, Aave is one of the oldest and most reliable DeFi protocols on the market.

The Aave lending platform is a multichain protocol supporting 15 blockchain networks, including:

• Ethereum,
• Arbitrum,
• Avalanche,
• BNB Smart Chain,
• Base,
• Polygon,
• OP Mainnet (former Optimism) and several others.

Depending on the asset selected, liquidity providers who are lenders on the Aave platform can earn up to 4.35% per annum for providing their tokens to a pool of borrowers.

In 2020, the Aave team also released a token of the same name, which:

• serves to manage Aave's DeFi protocol;
• is a collateral asset when borrowing on its platform with a bonus in the form of commission discounts;
• is used for staking with rewards in the form of AAVE tokens;

While Aave's platform doesn't boast the high returns that less liquid platforms offer, it remains one of the most reliable in the DeFi market, which is best suited for whales with a lot of capital. In addition, the low funding rates also make loans cheap, which is another reason for Aave's popularity.

3. EigenLayer

EigenLayer is the leading restacking protocol in the DeFi market, built on the Ethereum blockchain platform. In 2024, restacking became a new trend in the crypto industry and enabled the reuse of stacked digital assets such as Ethereum.

Despite only launching in April 2024, EigenLayer is among the top three leading protocols in the DeFi market regarding total blockchain assets: this figure equals $8.3 billion as of March 2025. Regarding TVL, the EigenLayer platform surpasses well-known decentralized protocols such as Uniswap and Maker.

Although EigenLayer resembles platforms such as Lido and Rocket Pool in its mechanics, it differs from them in its working principle. The developers' main focus is on improving security and creating innovative DeFi products.

The native token of the EIGEN platform was launched at the end of April 2024, a little while after the launch of the EigenLayer protocol. The EIGEN token has features such as staking and rewards/fines for EigenLayer protocol operators.

Due to the reuse of staked ETH, which allows for additional income even from capital locked in an Ethereum contract, the EigenLayer protocol is very popular among holders of the leading altcoin in the crypto market.

4. Pendle

Launched in June 2021, the Pendle protocol was a new milestone for the DeFi market. It quickly gained popularity and became the leading protocol in the RWA (real-world assets) sector. According to the DeFi Llama platform, Pendle ranks sixth in the decentralized finance market regarding total blockchain value, which exceeds $6.4 billion as of March 2025.

The Pendle platform has provided two features unique in the DeFi market:

1. Tokenization of future returns. This feature is similar in principle to liquidity staking, but with the difference that it is possible to tokenize a variety of assets, including traditional assets (RWAs);
2. Hedging of DeFi positions, allowing users to insure their assets for the period of corrections in the crypto market.

The Pendle protocol is available on eight blockchain networks such as:

• Ethereum,
• Base,
• BNB Smart Chain,
• Arbitrum,
• Sonic,
• Mantle,
• Avalanche,
• OP Mainnet.

The protocol team also released its own token, PENDLE, in May 2021. As of March 2025, it is one of the top 20 assets in the RWA sector, with a capitalization of $373 million.

The PENDLE token is endowed with many features, ranging from farming (Yield Farming) to hedging DeFi positions and mining.

RWA has become one of the main narratives of the crypto market in 2024-2025 and the fastest-growing sector, with capitalization already exceeding $48 billion. This is why protocols like Pendle have become in high demand and significantly improved their position in the DeFi market.

5. Uniswap

Despite losing ground to new DeFi protocols to TVL, Uniswap remains the leading decentralized exchange on the market. It is also the leader in the number of supported networks, reaching 34, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, and even Bitcoin scaling sidechain Rootstock. According to DeFi Llama's March 2025 data, the total value of assets blocked on Uniswap's DEX exchange is $3.9 billion.

Uniswap is one of the first DeFi protocols in the crypto industry and the first decentralized exchange to issue its own UNI token, whose distribution in 2020 was one of the most sensational airdrops. The UNI token is one of the top 30 digital assets by market capitalization, which is $3.7 billion as of March 2025.

The UNI token is endowed with a large number of features:

• staking;
• adding the asset to liquidity pools on Uniswap as well as other decentralized exchanges;
• participation in ecosystem management;
• distribution of commission revenue among UNI token holders.

The main reasons for Uniswap's popularity are its high liquidity, a large number of supported networks for crypto asset exchanges, and high reliability. Uniswap has become so popular that it even attracted the attention of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in mid-2024.