The Breakthrough of DeFi, Its Top Players and DeFi Marketing

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

The traditional finance world is plagued with issues that have made more people embrace the decentralized finance realm. A crucial factor is inflation, which forces the funds kept in bank accounts to lose value. Centralization comes with other issues like bureaucracy, abrupt changes of rules, the middleman factor, and so on. With the coming of decentralization, several of these issues are handled effortlessly. It is common to hear people ask questions like, ‘What is DeFi?’ ‘How does it change the traditional finance world and how to stand out by being a DeFi project?’ 

Well, we are about to find out, because thanks to DeFi, users can now effortlessly participate in borrowing and lending markets, as well as earn interest on the cryptocurrency they hold.

Popular DeFi Coins and Projects

• Maker

This is one of the top DeFi coins in existence, and it is MakerDao's utility token. When it came into existence in 2017, it ushered in automated cryptocurrency-lending features, thereby improving DeFi functionalities. It is one of the first DeFi coins that used DAI.  

• Compound

The list of best DeFi coins will not be complete if Compound does not grace it. This decentralized protocol for developers incorporates innovative lending and borrowing functionalities to the ecosystem. Users earn interest when they deposit their crypto in any of the several Compound pools.

• PancakeSwap

There is hardly a soul in the decentralized finance realm that has not heard of this DeFi ecosystem. CAKE token is one of the best DeFi crypto in existence because of the effectiveness of its underlying decentralized exchange, PancakeSwap. PancakeSwap is built on Binance Smart Chain, which allows it to offer fast and cheaper transactions compared to decentralized exchanges hosted on Ethereum. 

• UniSwap

Uniswap is to Ethereum as PancakeSwap is to Binance Smart Chain. Uniswap is a decentralized finance AMM protocol that runs on the Ethereum chain. It allows users to easily swap their crypto for another by leveraging user-generated liquidity pools. Its native token is UNI, and it is currently ranked as one of the best DeFi coins in existence. 

• Aave

It is a notable Ethereum-based money market that permits users to easily lend and borrow a myriad of crypto from the altcoins to the stablecoins. The AAVE token is the ecosystem's utility coin, and it is currently in the league of top DeFi coins. 

• Chainlink

LINK is one of the top DeFi coins that is changing the way things are done in the decentralized finance world. Its blockchain offers a bridge between real-world data and smart contracts.

The blockchain software company ConsenSys just released the first-quarter report on DeFi on Ethereum, showing a growing market for loans (ConsenSys Q1 2021 Defi Report, by permission). 

How Marketing For DeFi Projects is Done?

Yearly, hundreds of new DeFi projects are birthed, and many do not see the light of the day, not minding how innovative they are. Marketing is an important aspect of DeFi, and it is one of the reasons why DeFi coins listed above are popular. 

Decentralized Finance is about trust. People tend to utilize DeFi ecosystems they trust, and a great way for a DeFi project to earn trust is to become a household name. Such a high level of brand awareness can be achieved with display ads, executed via a crypto ad network like Bitmedia. We spoke to the network’s specialists on how a DeFi project can build a solid following and this is what they recommend...

“Brand awareness is achieved with CPM marketing, which helps projects become recognised. Once brand awareness is reached, it is a good practice to switch to a more direct CPC campaign and turn those who already know of your project into real users. Whilst display ads do wonders when it comes to user acquisition, building a community around your brand is incremental to retaining these users and switching them to returning, loyal audience base” 

Matvey Dyadkov, CEO at Bitmedia.io

DeFi Solutions To Global Economy And Crypto World

DeFi has reached a $128 billion market cap, which is not surprising because of the amazing solutions that it offers in the finance world... 

• In a centralized organization, the firm has access to the funds that the user deposited. The organization such as a bank can decide to freeze the user account without notice, force the user to close their account or carry out other actions that are not in the interest of the user. This is not the case with a decentralized platform because there is no single authority that can decide to shut your account without notice. 
• Centralization gives the government the authority to print as much money as it wants, without thinking of the repercussions. When there is excess supply of money, inflation becomes a thing.  In a decentralized finance ecosystem, the number of DeFi coins minted or created is pegged at an amount. Sometimes, these DeFi universes purchase their DeFi coins from the open market and burn them, in a bid to reduce the supply of their crypto. 
• Centralization offers a government the authority to devalue their currency, which may translate to hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is one of the worst economic scenarios that can occur, as it wipes out savings and creates several social problems. DeFi pokes holes into this issue. 

Conclusion

DeFi is here to stay because it is altering the way people have access to financial instruments like lending, borrowing, earning interest, while their holdings are safely backed by other crypto assets. As a result, we will see even more DeFi projects spring in a bid to alter the conventional banking sector and the use of finance.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.