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The crypto industry has many hot trends in the last decades: Privacy coins, mixing services, ICOs, staking/ masternode coins, cold-staking, IEOs, and now we have a DeFi trend. It is interesting to see its appearance.

As a basic rule, a new trend brings both opportunities and risks to investors. Only investors who are knowledgeable and readily to learn as well as have ability to control their investing activities can win and earn profits from their capital. Most of them end with losses, indeed.

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Let's begin with some articles on DeFi

What is DeFi?
Decentralized Finance (or simply DeFi) refers to an ecosystem of financial applications that are built on top of blockchain networks. ^{[1 (https://academy.binance.com/blockchain/the-complete-beginners-guide-to-decentralized-finance-defi)]}

[1] https://academy.binance.com/blockchain/the-complete-beginners-guide-to-decentralized-finance-defi
[2] https://blockgeeks.com/guides/demystifying-defi-ultimate-guide/
[3] https://www.exodus.io/blog/what-is-defi/
[4] https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-decentralized-finance-defi-574c68ff43c4
[5] https://www.coindesk.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-defi-flash-loan-attack
[6] https://defiwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

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There are some websites on which you can track DeFi's protocols, tokens, and dapps. Let's take a quick overview on some of them.
[1] defimarketcap.io (https://defimarketcap.io/)
On the site, at its home page, you can see overal statistics for total tokens, total DeFi-marketcap.
- Tokens: 685
- Market Cap: $5,047,884,336
If you click on All protocol, besides the Search box, you will be directed to the page: https://defimarketcap.io/protocols
The site has its weakness: Does not have feature to help sorting out tokens by each indicator (change (24h) for example)

[2] dapp.com (https://www.dapp.com/)
You can visit three main pages: ranking, market and community.

Ranking
https://www.dapp.com/ranking
There are options to sort out : 24hr users, 24hr transactions, 24hr volume, Dapps.com score - I don't recommend it because it is subjective ranking score.

You can also sort those DeFi tokens out by categories: Game, Gambling, Exchange, Finance, Social, etc.
Furthermore, options to choose different periods: 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days; All, New, Token. Please see the image below for visual clarifications.

Market
https://www.dapp.com/market
The site gives you some nice graphics for Overview, Market dominance by category, Market dominance by blokchain.

Community
https://www.dapp.com/community
You can get news, bounties, promotions, giveaways, anniversary, etc.

[3] analytics.dapp.review (https://analytics.dapp.review/)
Overview

Comparison of chains

Graphs for chosen chain
You can choose one chain, and get some overview graphs of dapps on that chain with 7 days or 30 days period.

In addition, you can see dapp rankings, by Users 24h or Volume 24h.

Visit its explorer page for more details. Remember that you can modify it with many options: New, Card/ Table, Indicators (24h users, 24h volume, 24h Tx, 7D users, 7D volume, 7D Tx, Balance, Score); sort them by categories: All, Game, Social, Casino, Finance, Exchange, etc., and by Chains.


[4] defipulse.com (https://defipulse.com/)
There are options for you to modify the table: All, Lending, Dexes, Derivatives, Payments, Asssets.
They have pages for: DeFi list (https://defipulse.com/defi-list) and Token list (https://defipulse.com/token-list)


[5] dappradar.com (https://dappradar.com/)
The site gives you overview over categories, chains, Editors picks, DeFi picks, and Recommended dapps

Not to be a total killjoy here, but is it just me or is it like "DeFi" is the 2020 version of the "blockchain technology" hype? Most of the "DeFi" platforms simply has some serious flaws for them to work well in the long term. Yea I seem like a total snob but I'm still not convinced that anything but bitcoin will work for now.

These platforms are broken piece of shit jokes. How anyone can take them seriously is beyond me. It would be pure suicide to attempt to run your actual life through junk like this.

There've been numerous hacks of these now, often to the tune of many millions of dollars. Luckily one of them was covered by 'decentralised insurance', less luckily and even less surprisingly it chose not to pay out.

Like the ICOs it will grow a lot, millions will be made and lost, and then it will go away and something new will come.

The very few good projects will survive.

There is a bunch of guys that need to come with new schemes, ICOs have been played out, IEOs have been a total flop now we need something new, and this is the best. People just don't understand that not everything in this world needs a token, a blockchain, or a smart contract.

But in a way, it's normal, not only in cryptos we have thousands of things being produced, launched and retired because nobody is actually interested in them. The DeFi story will continue for a few years, hunting those 1 out of 5 unbanked people like a mirage till they realize that you can't develop a business by loaning money to people who have little to no money.
Another fad that will go away pretty soon and we're on our way to the new "revolutionary" thing.

Defi is over-hyped and as everything new in the crypto market investors are going crazy about it. Give them a year and two and you will hear Defi investors cursing it. It is always good to wait and watch first if you do not want to incur losses.

Yep, DEfI is when a bunch of shitcoins and tokens gathered together and decided to create some sort of brand. A lot of these products are not as interesting as it sounds. Collaterized crypto loans will never replace fiat credit and loans. Flash loans are useless to anyone except some traders. And when hacks occur, suddenly the devs are able to intervene in a completely centralized manner with their master keys, totally undoing the "De" in DeFi. Now ask yourself what will happen if the government knocks on their doors and ask them to give them the copy of their keys.

Why are you so serious guys? I meant if you are not fomo, and patient enough, you will be able to take advantage of the trend? Who care how many tokens will build up a truly DeFi platform?

Forget it. If you look at it as pump and dump and can take advantage of the movement, you will be able to earn profit. DeFi or not, it is only a term. Pump and dump are real. Don't buy and wait for pumps, indeed do the opposite.

Trade with it, not invest.

You saying that it's a pump and dump as if it's actually a good thing. I'm 100% totally and completely fine with people creating interesting projects, but it gets bad real quick when the meth-heads on social media are spreading that these "DeFi" tokens are good investments and shilling them like there's no tomorrow.

I warned most of them will end with losses in OP. Does it makes sense? A trend is a trend. Fork was a trend, ICO was a trend, IEO was a trend, Masternodes/ stake coin was a trend, cold staking was a trend. No one can deny it.

You love it, you hate it, the trend is here.

Generally, trade and get profits if you can. If you can not, stay away of anything relates to DeFi. Bitcoin is King!

Where is the most excellent profitings?

All I can see are a bunch of losses waiting to happen. If whatever tradeable shittoken doesn't collapse and eat your money, whatever money you're insane enough to actually put into one of these schemes will vapourise rapidly too.

Momentum and volume. That's it.

As I said, don't invest, trade instead. Invest will cause losses because it is for long term. Such a trend does not usually last for too long.

Trade if you can find a good entry point.

Hey, thanks for the cool piece of information! Btw, there is a repository of knowledge about DeFi: https://defiwiki.org/. It could help to educate the community about decentralized finance as well.

You left HEX off your list ( first blockchain certificate of deposit) CD. It is rank #20 on top cryptos and one of the highest volume trading pairs on uniswap. I know a lot of people call this a shitcoin but over $2billion dollars of bitcoin claimed their hex, so I wouldn't just count it out.

Nothing 'hot' about Defi for me...
It is all bunch of pump and dump crap that are running on Uniswap exchange, and excluding only few exceptions.
I also think this topic is not in correct place Beginners & Help and should be moved to Altcoins or tokens sections.

Check here the Q2 blockchain dapp report by dapp.com, it clearly shows that Jun is the Month of DeFi. And it starts from $COMP.

https://www.dapp.com/article/q2-2020-dapp-market-report

Very good review and thanks for the effort you put in. Nevertheless one can not deny that defi is an upcoming trend. Personally I can not see the fact why defi is so popular at the moment-

After reading so many comments I have no choice but to ask the audience that what or which project in crypto space that isn't based on hype? Everyone keeps saying DeFi is another hyped projects, everything about crypto is hyped that's my fact, either DeFi will survive or not I can't say, for me it's not what I need.

I'm fine with exchanges tokens and payment projects, anything different from these two use case is not for me, I believe that not all use cases are good for blockchain, some will only survive for a while and their Hypes will die

A lot of new defi will appear but at the same time, there must be some defi that will die caused by this trend too. In my opinion if everything based on the hype and there will be only a few services from defi who can still survive for the long term.

Decentralized Finance or Defi is the talk of the crypto industry in recent months, the hype was real, and because of that trend, many so-called Defi projects are sprouting elsewhere like a mushroom. thats why be careful of dealing with some of them, I'm sure many of those projects are bogus, and just using the Defi popularity to victimized people, scammers are everywhere and always waiting the right time to devour its potential victim. check thoroughly those new Defi projects if it's legit or not before investing with them. 

I think that DeFi projects are like ICo and IEO, mostly an exaggeration to attract investors. There will be very few DeFi projects in existence and success, probably only pumping and dumping.

I have been following one thing in the crypto market for some time now, what will be the next trend that will start the crypto bull market again. Because the most important thing for starting a crypto bull market is a hot trend.

And at the moment it seems to me that DeFi is the hottest trending. This is good for the market, it will see some changes in the market. But for this DeFi trend, a lot of pump dumps group will start playing in the market.

Defi is not kind of crowdfunding.  ;D

Its a platform where like DEX but different because it does have something sBTC and iBTC. These are for SHORTING and going LONG much like if you wanna try margin trading in the DEX. There are different types of Defi projects though there are for lending like AAVE which was formerly LEND, this is like Compound I guess.

An interesting development in crypto actually. Its more than just Decentralization as its all non-custodial.

DeFi is a really dominating trend in the market right now i was holding some synthetix tokens too from the ico and regret selling them at around $1 each and now price has already pumped around $2.50 per snx and seems like bulls are still in control.

All things can happen in the cryptocurrency market, but DeFi's ability to bring the market boom like 2017 is almost impossible. Investors were too bored with the hype and they were not easily fooled again.

These days, many new project are springing up, calling themselves DEFi and get listed on Uniswap, after investors must have bought, they withdraw liquidity and scam.

This will be an investment trend which will certainly be very popular in the next few months. However, the risk can also occur because the Defi coins will usually be pumped very quickly in a short time, and when the profit is satisfied, they will panic sell to make a profit. This is a game that you need to be more careful and should be investors to join early because it will help you greatly reduce the big risks.

As long as bitcoin has not got a bad news and everything will be fine. Bitcoin is the main crypto that will determine the trend for the whole of cryptocurrencies and its DEFI. So the hype of defi will always there as long as it can keep the trust by community

DeFis are going to grow further in coming months and years, just consider these current versions as starters just keep an eye on them as they keep updating and upgrading .
I am hopeful and positive that in few years DeFi sector will be growing so much that it will be capable to compete with the traditional financial sector which is outdated and definitely needed something new so here we have it in shape of DeFi.

It is true that Defi is gaining the attention of all and sundry but even at that, one needs to be careful because overtime, it has been seen that when hype takes the lead, it opens ways for fraudsters to leverage on it to create their own projects thus carrying out their agenda. So what I am saying in essence is, no matter the hype and so on, let's not loose guard, due diligence should be embraced so that the best decisions can be made. ICO had their good times, IEO had their good times and now it is Defi, sooner than later another will come out to take over from it.

Yeah, DeFi is top trending topic right now. I have seen last a project was OIKOS Tron DeFi, most provably it’s a big successful project, they're a lot of legit investors. OKS were pump a several times to ico price. Now it’s trading is going a few quite good exchanges. I hope it will be hit Kucoin through people’s nominated.        

This is true, many crypto investors just buy into any coin tagged with DEFI without doing any research, hence its crystal clear that the DEFI hype has taken over and scammers keep launching tokens on daily basis. Its pretty easy now to scam with investors who fall into this category since the devs can list unofficially on uniswap and forkdelta to sell their tokens. Moreso, ICO is gradually creeping in since most developers launching new DEFI projects run token sale on their website. DEFI is a dope concept, but always look well before you leap.

The reason why Defi projects are hot trending is that people believe these projects have more realistic use than just adoption to merchants accepting cryptocurrencies in exchange for goods and services. Aave (LEND), for example, can provide you earnings for lending your tokens. Although this lending process is a double-edged sword that could backfire to a lender, adding more for your collateral will serve good before liquidation.

Synthetix (SXN) seems a serious use case for cryptocurrency when it comes to trading, the first in creating synthetic assets but OKS is just a clone but built for TRON network.

I hope the whole noise about DeFi wont end up as another wasted effort. Looking forward to the best anyways

Everyone also hopes that, but we as ordinary people or users of DeFi also should not be complacent and negligent in monitoring the development of this DeFi, so that when there are things that we do not want we can quickly find out.

Decentralized Finance has taken the industry by storm and the concept has continue to gain great momentum and recognition with a lot of projects springing up with the idea of #DeFi. Unfortunately, this is giving rise to a whole lot of scams and half baked projects. One must really be careful about investing in any cryptocurrency project claiming to be a decentralized Finance project.

At the end only those Defi projects that actually have real usage and more beneficial to the crypto community and non crypto community perhaps will stand the chance for survival, rest of them will probably disappear same as those other projects before,
the hype for Defi is high now because investors want to enjoy the profit while it last, at the same time, there are or there will be lots of fake defi soon, people should do well to be observant to be able to differentiate the legit from fake.

You can expect that soon because scmmers, though they have brilliant minds, they jsut can't stick to doing things fairly. I do hope those projects though will be seen by the users who are always watching for the scam projects. Hard to see them but I'm sure there will be many defi scams that will be caught. Having too good collateral ratio might just be a good indicator for scam Defi.

2020 is the year of Defi projects, after the hard experience from the pandemic, the market is slowly coming back so is the economic activities, eth is on the rise because of Defi projects according to some, this is just the beginning of what will come afterwards, it looks like this new trend will be the preferred concept by many developers, many Defi related projects will come but only few will be genuine hence it is very important to be vigilant.

DeFi is the next "rebranding" of scam ICOs and failed projects which have been unable to raise any money or even if they did they ran away leaving the investors hanging.

Every year we have some buzzwords and this year it is next to the pandemic I guess, some people just like to steal money from investors or those who are enthusiastic about investing. Just like ICO was renamed to STO and then ITO and so on Initial Blah blah more phrases similarly it is DeFi now. The scammers moved on from initial to completely using the word "decentralized" to poke more interest.

Put your money in bitcoin, this one is not different from the million other money wasters out there. ;)

Really true. All dead projects are resurrecting offering some defi shit when their original goal never got achieved. Any sane person can tell that they're just trying to grab more cash and then exit scam by saying "competition is too fierce" later on.

So now every new and old shit project will use the name defi with their project and try to grab the attention. There may be some real defi projects but most of these good ones will be lost among hundreds of fake projects.

I guess it's too late now to tell people to stay away from Defi, god knows I tried to warn my friends but nope, none of it's working. For not even 10% a year they're just dumping all their crypto in.

Now the only thing to do is to try and tell them to please at least choose legit decentralized ones using non custodial smart contract.

DeFi is the new buzz word in blockchain world and it's not just beginning now but the hype just attained crescendo. While it's true many wanna bees DeFi projects will creep in to profit from the hype but there are few projects which are truly creating innovative solutions and products which were hitherto unavailable to investors and traders in blockchain space except traditional finance sector.

hacks of this " excellent ", according to many opinions, DEFI for numerous millions of USD are already beginning, but unfortunately, when many realize that this is just another collection of money for scammers, it will be too late. Yes, as in ICO, there are worthy projects, but they are just as difficult to consider

who is mosheynikov ? inventor of defi ? i thought defi is just a term and not owned by someone else but its the defi project that can be created/owned  by someone else  . whether they are scammers or legit devs both can earn money thru it , especially now that defi is fresh and still on fire  .

but for defi ? i think its the same because its also hard to tell if the defi project can become succesful or not .

 
I'm sorry there was a mistake.


Yes, I mean that it's the same thing, but with different names just for the sake of attracting investors

DEFI is the hype in this year, which before the ICO in early 2018 and now in 2020 DEFI is basically in crypto it used to trigger price increases in trading even though the impact of DEFI itself is still vague.

https://www.coindesk.com/defi-meme-coin-yam-succumbs-to-fatal-rebase-bug

And this will happen lord knows how many more times before this particular trend burns out. ICOs attracted morons with a one page website and white paper but at least there wasn't much that could go wrong other than them raping you. This introduces an extra world of pain.

I have zero doubt a ton of money will be made. Anybody into this should make sure they secure that and then exit with a smile.

^
there's a lot of case like that. iirc there has been at least 3 projects having fatal bug that makes them lose all the money on the pool or print new tokens out of thin air continuously. this is why defi is still not reliable to get passive income. zero day bug can make you rekt instantly.

It is the first big scam accusation and was released after the crazy rise of SRM (almost reaches 20 times of increase from their IEO price). In OP, there are warnings at very early sentences and I wish people want to invest in any DeFi projects have to bear it in their minds.

pooya87 made an excellent warning and a summary on famous scam trends in crypto.

Very well list.
I encourage myself to trade in the defi project. if I have good trading skills then i don't have to worry about investing because trading is enough to make a profits every day. Anyway thanks for your list and I've been enjoying the last few months in the defi project, besides we can see some of its better.

And it does not help at all when you have news media like Coindesk covering it. YAM was not even a big project and I never heard about it until all the news put it out. Like so what, right? YAM died and people laughed and just said lol,,, let us make Yam 2.0 and all the guys will go right back into it. So silly!

If you are confident with your trading skills, Don't bother to try it since DeFi projects today are so hot and the hype is great, Surfing on waves for some profit is not bad. I just don't think DeFi projects will last long but it's really profitable today. This might be the trend that replaced ICO hype on way back 2017 which people got fair amount of profit from each project compared to what ICO became after the trend. I believe this can also happen in the DeFi trend.

I agree that the DeFi idea is the next generation of the ICO. but there are unique ideas of projects in the DeFi sector. I believe that some of the DeFi projects will become the next era of blockchain tech.

how many projects are create unique ideas? i bet you can count them on fingers. most defi are just lending pools and stable coin creation, so out of 10 projects that currently exist, i won't be surprised if 8 of them fails. let's see how long people can be this hyped buying the same thing over and over again.

And were ICOs very profitable for the investors?  ::)
Yes they were profitable for the teams who owned the project and the advisors, under-the-table private investors and so on. They managed to dump their shitcoin on the investors and silently exit the scene without saying a word and thus running a very nasty scam. It was a bubble and many people good fooled into investing in a number of ICOs, some used to say that they invest 100$ in every upcoming ICO - essentially a gamble.

Same is happening with DeFi. There were projects like BitRefill which are legit but not these hundreds of lending and stablecoins.

Yeah same as what the ICO buzz made people think. Keep dreaming before the reality is visible.

Today, the crypto world did have an interesting history. from before 2017 until now changes in various conditions adapted to the experience in the activities of the crypto world itself.  Since ICO, IEO, Launchpad and paradefi network.
So I believe the innovation of DeFi system is very good I think to be used in this era. I am sure that all people everywhere in the future will know all about this Decentralization Finance system.

Are they really decentralized exchanges and are they really decentralized entities?

You only talk about advantages, benefits from DeFi but you don't talk about disadvantages or flaws of them. Nowadays, you can not find a real decentralized project because team members are known publicly and governments can shut down those DeFi projects if they want.

They have power, laws and they can do it.