5 DeFi Project to Watch for March

In the last year, the decentralized finance (DeFi) space has absolutely exploded with innovation, and the rate at which new DeFi applications and platforms are launching makes it difficult to stay on top of the market.

While many of these can be considered vaporware or overhyped, some promising projects have been operating under the radar, and are gearing up to take the spotlight in the coming months. Here, we take a look at five projects that are still flying below most people’s radar — for now.

Metaverse

When it comes to DeFi, Metaverse is definitely the elephant in the room.

Though there have been literally dozens of blockchains that claim to pose a real threat to Ethereum's dominance as a hub for DeFi applications and decentralized applications — Metaverse is arguably one of the few that can be taken seriously.

This is because it's an entirely new interoperable blockchain built on the Substrate framework — the same technology popularized by Polkadot. The upcoming Metaverse mainnet, aptly named ‘Hyperspace’ leverages a hybrid consensus (POW + POS) mechanism to maximize security while enabling a transaction throughput that hasn’t been seen in competing platforms.

Meanwhile, the Metaverse Virtual Machine (MVM) is completely compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine — meaning developers can easily migrate their dApps to Metaverse with minimal changes. Upon doing so, they’ll find gas costs practically eliminated, while still benefiting from the same robust capabilities needed for powerful DeFi apps.

https://twitter.com/mvs_org/status/1362540347008708616

With the Metaverse Hyperspace mainnet now just weeks away from launch, now is the time to start paying attention.

EasyFi

Open lending platforms are an incredibly popular DeFi use case, and now represent three of the ten most popular DeFi apps on the Ethereum blockchain.

But while hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency holders use these lending platforms to securely gain interest on their assets and take out low APR loans, Ethereum’s high fees have made many of these platforms extremely costly for small-scale lenders and borrowers.

This issue is what EasyFi looks to resolve with its Polygon-powered peer-to-peer lending solution, which allows users to earn interest on their deposits, and receive low APR loans with almost negligible transaction fees.

But what really makes EasyFi stand out is its TrustScore integration. By leveraging KoinFox’s TrustScore technology, EasyFi is one of the few DeFi lending platforms to support undercollateralized loans — meaning users can get loans by putting up less than 100% of its value as collateral.

This has the potential to expand DeFi loans to a whole new audience, while dramatically boosting returns for lenders.

NewsCrypto

The cryptocurrency industry is growing at an incredible rate, both in terms of value and the number of users — with around 100 million joining the crypto space in 2020 alone, many of which go on to become DeFi users and traders.

But the industry remains a highly complex place, with a breakneck pace of development that can be difficult to get to grips with for the uninitiated. That is, until NewsCrypto came along.

As a platform built around the concept of making cryptocurrencies more accessible, approachable, and profitable, NewsCrypto has launched what can only be described as an onslaught of products in the last year — including a comprehensive education platform, a trading simulator, numerous indicators, and a powerful mobile application.

All of which makes the industry a simpler, safer place for both new and experienced users.

https://twitter.com/NwcPublic/status/1357403345980428292

On top of this, NewsCrypto is one of the few cryptocurrencies that are available on both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain — giving users access to two of the most diverse DeFi landscapes there is.

KIRA

KIRA’s goal is a simple, but extremely important one. It wants to unlock the liquidity of tens of trillions of dollars worth of both digital and real-world assets through a novel process known as liquid staking.

It's set to achieve this through its novel Multi-bonded Proof-of-Stake (MBPoS) consensus mechanism, which allows users to stake assets from different blockchains, as well as tokenized real-world assets and derivatives to help secure the KIRA blockchain.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Each asset locked on the KIRA blockchain generates rewards for users, and leads to the creation of an equivalent derivative token, which can be freely used, sold, and traded. This is means users can unlock the liquidity of their cryptocurrencies, real-estate, NFTs, and practically anything — while earning rewards for doing so.

Beyond this, with incredible scaling potential and the capacity to handle thousands of transactions per second, KIRA is becoming a hot pick for DeFi developers looking to build powerful DeFi applications on — and definitely not one to sleep on.

BXTB

Stablecoins. They’ve made the cryptocurrency industry a safer, less volatile place, and given both users and traders a secure way to store their value.

But the stablecoin formula has remained mostly unchanged since the first stablecoin (BitUSD) launched in 2014 — they’re all typically a simple cryptocurrency backed by a unit of roughly stable value, such as a fiat currency.

But with the advent of decentralized finance, users have begun demanding a stable alternative to volatile assets that still net a safe yield.

They want a so-called ‘yield generating’ stablecoin. And now, they finally have one.

It’s called ‘CHIP’, and it’s a stablecoin produced by the BXTB Foundation , which uses novel DeFi principles to produce arguably the only stablecoin that can generate a stable profit for holders.

CHIP stablecoins are minted by pairing the BXTB token with a supported stablecoin like Tether (USDT) or True USD (TUSD) to produce yBXTB and CHIP stablecoins. These CHIP stablecoins can be used or spent just like any other regular stablecoin, but here’s where the magic happens — the yBXTB tokens generate a yield for holders from the transaction fees on CHIP transfers.

With the industry’s renewed focus on safe investments, BXTB and CHIP are definitely worth keeping tabs on.