DeFi is a platform or website that provides non-centralized financial services such as investing, trading, borrowing, lending, tokenized real estate, and insurance. Financial institutions such as banks normally act as an intermediary between banks and users, with the aim of just managing the money during centralized financial interactions.

However, the blockchain has enabled financial transactions or interactions to be done on a peer-to-peer level via DeFi. A lot of people believe that decentralized finance may overthrow traditional finance. Below is a compiled list of the ten most famous DeFi platforms.
Maker (MKR)
MakeDAO is an Ethereum-supported decentralized finance platform. It is a noncentralized collateralized debt position platform, and it supports the DAI stablecoin, which is used to maintain its value ratio against the USD at 1:1. Individuals can create a CDP by locking up Ethereum or any other Ethereum-supported asset as collateral for a DAI debt that can be incurred against the locked token(s).
Started in: 2008
Blockchain: ETH
Service Provided: Lending and Borrowing of Stablecoin
Total Value Locked: $7,020,000,000
Community Following: 293,000
BMJ Rating: 4.0
Curve Finance (CRV)
Curve Finance is a non-centralized exchange project. Users can exchange as well as buy and sell Ethereum-supported assets. It also specializes in providing liquidity to markets using a market-creating program that trades assets gained from bids and asks for price spreads. This platform gives incentives to users when they provide funds for the lending pool.
Started in: 2020
Blockchain: Ethereum
Service Provided: Lending and Borrowing/Non-centralized Exchange
Total Value Locked: $4,960,000,000
Community Following: 365,000
BMJ Rating: 4.0
Uniswap (UNI)
This is a non-centralized crypto exchange that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Uniswap allows users to buy and sell ERC-20 tokens very quickly, whenever they wish. This platform does this via an algorithm that matches trades based on demand and supply in the liquidity pool. Consequently, this eliminates the need for intermediaries.
Started in 2018:
Blockchain on which it runs: Ethereum
Service Provided: Lending and Token Swap
Total Locked Value: $3,950,000,000
Community Population: 1,153,000
BMJ Rating: 4.0
InstaDApp (INST)
This protocol is mostly known as the “Decentralized Finance Smart Layer.” InstaDApp is a decentralized finance application that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. This platform is built to facilitate easy-to-use access points for interacting with various DeFi projects. In place of using 2–3 different applications for lending, borrowing, and staking, InstaDApp allows users to do all of these using just one platform.
Started in: 2019
Blockchain on which it runs: Ethereum
Service Provided: Decentralized Finance Tokens and Smart Accounts
Total Value Locked: $1,910,000,000
Community Population: 47,000
BMJ Rating: 4.0
Lido (LDO)
This protocol was created side by side with the ETH Beacon Chain to provide liquid staking solutions for proof-of-stake chains and Ethereum. Lido provides non-custodial staking services. This allows users to stake their digital assets without having to lock them up.
Started in: 2020
Blockchain on which it runs: Ethereum
Service Provided: Liquid Staking
Overall Value Locked: $9,150,000,000
Community Population: 134,000
BMJ Rating: 3.5
Compound (COMP)
This is another Ethereum-based protocol, and it allows people to borrow or lend against collateral. Any individual can take part in Compound’s liquidity pool and receive interest on their token holdings. The amount of interest users earn varies with demand and supply on the protocol. COMP supports various tokens, especially USDC, ETH, and DAI.
Started in: 2018
Blockchain: Ethereum
Service Provided: Lending and Borrowing of Stablecoins
Overall Locked Value: $1,450,000,000
Community Population: 253,000
BMJ Rating: 3.5
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