Staying ahead of the curve in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space can be a challenge, given the pace of progress and the number of promising platforms popping up every week.
Nevertheless, failing to keep abreast of developments in the sector can mean missing out on opportunities and realizing sub-optimal gains when investing. To help you stay in the loop, we take a look at three little-known platforms that offer great value to users.
Layer2.finance
If you’re a Curve, Aave or Compound user, you may already be familiar with the difficulties involved in moving your money between each of these platforms to maximize your returns.
Not only is it time-consuming, it can also be costly – due to Ethereum’s often high transaction fees and congestion. This presents a major challenge for those looking to make the most of their capital, as moving their funds from one platform to another to get the best return inevitably means losing a significant portion of the currency in fees.
But Layer2.finance, a promising application created by Celer, offers an attractive solution to this problem by enabling users to interact with popular Ethereum DeFi applications with negligible fees. As a second-layer solution, Layer2.finance is built on top of Ethereum, and uses a technology known as rollups to aggregate transactions on its Layer 2 chain, before settling them on Ethereum’s Layer 1 chain in a single transaction.
This enables a large number of users to aggregate their DeFi transactions safely and securely using the Layer2.finance platform while moving their funds into supported applications.
The team behind Layer2.finance is ready to add further DeFi strategies to the platform in the future, as well as integrating Celer’s cBridge solution to further reduce complications for the end-user.
FarmHero
A large number of DeFi users have contributed liquidity to one or more automated market makers (AMMs) – such as Uniswap, PancakeSwap and Curve. This enables users to generate a return in the form of pool fees, which are charged every time a trader extracts liquidity from the pool.
But while many users are already happy with the returns they get from providing liquidity, they may not be aware that it’s possible to unlock additional returns by placing their LP tokens on one of the myriad existing return farms. These platforms essentially allow users to earn additional tokens on top of their LP returns through a process known as farming.
FarmHero is a striking example. As a fully Certik-audited platform, it provides a secure place where users can wager a range of LP tokens, including CAKE-BNB, BNB-USDT, USDC-BUSD, and almost a dozen others to earn returns in the form of ‘HERO’ tokens.
Nexus Mutual
If you’re like us, then you’re constantly looking for ways to minimize risk when interacting with DeFi platforms. Whether through careful research or appropriate risk management, doing what you can to keep your assets safe while investing is paramount to long-term success.
But what if there was a way to virtually eliminate all forms of risk when investing on the platform of your choice? A way to unequivocally secure your assets against a myriad of potential threats, while retaining full control of your assets?
Well, it exists, and it’s called decentralized insurance. Just like the ordinary insurance you’re used to, it’s possible to insure against virtually any risk, but it comes at a cost.
Nexus Mutual is by far the most popular decentralized insurance platform, offering coverage for dozens of the most widely used DeFi platforms. These include Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Compound, Yearn Finance and others. The cost of coverage for each of these platforms can vary considerably, but can be as low as 2.6% per annum. Similarly, the range of events covered can also vary, so it’s important to examine the terms and conditions carefully to find out what’s covered.
