How to simplify working with DeFi: tools and services
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) represents a set of financial instruments that allow users to earn income from digital assets within a blockchain environment:
- Liquidity mining and farming;
- Trading;
- Lending;
- Staking and its various forms (liquid staking, restaking);
- NFT flipping (short-term trading of non-fungible tokens);
- Participation in launchpools and launchpads (buying new tokens);
- Retrodrops (participation in early-stage projects to receive free tokens for activity).
However, the DeFi market is quite complex, especially for beginners. To simplify interaction with DeFi applications and improve efficiency, it is recommended to use special tools.
1. Portfolio tracker
One of the most useful features is the ability to track your crypto assets and DeFi investments. There are special portfolio trackers for this purpose: the user adds the addresses of their wallets, and the system shows how the value of the assets changes — both for each wallet separately and for all of them together.
One of the most advanced tools for monitoring crypto portfolios is Kubera, which allows tracking all wallets across multiple blockchains in one interface.
Some wallets also support portfolio tracking features, such as Zerion. MetaMask, in addition to being a wallet, offers a separate service called MetaMask Portfolio with a built-in token swap function and a cross-chain bridge (allowing the transfer of digital assets between different blockchain networks).
In addition to Kubera, Zerion, and MetaMask Portfolio, there are several other advanced portfolio trackers, some of which also allow tracking NFT tokens:
- CoinStats;
- CoinMarketCap Portfolio Tracker;
- CoinGecko Portfolio Tracker.
2. Analytics and monitoring
No less important is the ability to monitor the dynamics of decentralized applications and find profitable liquidity pools to generate income.
Special DeFi aggregators, such as DeFi Llama, can help with this. The monitoring service DeFi Llama allows tracking in real-time the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols, as well as other key indicators. The service enables sorting DeFi protocols by various blockchain networks and categories such as decentralized exchanges (DEXes), lending platforms, real-world assets (RWA), and others.
There are also alternative analytics services that are useful for experienced DeFi users:
- Glassnode;
- Dune Analytics;
- CryptoQuant;
3. Custom dashboards for on-chain data collection
It is worth highlighting Dune Analytics, as it allows users to create custom dashboards.
A user can gather in one place the data they need on specific blockchains, metrics, and DeFi applications, removing all the unnecessary elements. Then, they only need to update individual components of the dashboard as required.
In Dune, you can configure everything from scratch or use ready-made templates provided by other users.
4. DeFi wallets
There are cryptocurrency wallets specifically designed for working with DeFi applications and equipped with advanced features that significantly simplify interacting with decentralized protocols.
Here is a list of popular DeFi wallets:
- MetaMask. Has a built-in swap function and an integrated DApp browser that allows interacting with decentralized applications directly in the wallet interface;
- Trust Wallet. A user-friendly wallet with a built-in DApp browser and token swap function, as well as the ability to manage dozens of different wallets;
- Zerion. A convenient wallet with built-in DApp discovery and the ability to manage DeFi positions in the interface. Allows managing multiple addresses and shows aggregated statistics across all wallets;
It is safest to use hardware wallets for interacting with DeFi applications, as they are less vulnerable to hacker attacks. It is worth keeping in mind that the more popular a crypto wallet is, the higher the chances of becoming a target of phishing and other types of attacks.