The 10 most noteworthy DeFi platforms in 2025

Written by: Alan Draper Translated by: Plain Language Blockchain

The financial world remained relatively stable until the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi), which brought significant changes. DeFi has already redefined finance by decentralizing lending and ownership, and has the potential to transform every aspect of daily life.

Today, we will explore leading DeFi platforms such as Aave, Lido, Compound, and Uniswap, analyzing their services, the fundamentals of DeFi, security, and how to choose the DeFi platform that best suits your needs.

Best DeFi Platform Review – An In-depth Look. In this section, we will briefly review each DeFi platform to help you understand their services and benefits. Our goal is to give you a better understanding of each platform’s features so you can better decide if it’s right for you.

1. Lido Finance – The best DeFi staking platform, connecting more than 100 applications

Lido Finance is a decentralized financial platform focused on staking, operated by a mission-driven decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), and all decisions are made by LDO (the platform's native Token) holders through public voting.

The platform is known for its high security and application of cutting-edge technology. Lido focuses on Ethereum staking, specifically stETH (Lido’s version of Ethereum), which is used to pay rewards to users who stake ETH. You can unstaked any stETH at any time and redeem it for ETH at a 1:1 ratio.

Lido now also allows users to stake MATIC under the same system through stMATIC. Staking ETH or MATIC does not require locked assets, and the entire service is completely non-custodial.

If you want to hold stETH, please note that Lido connects to over 100 applications and you can use it for borrowing, as collateral, and more. Recently, Lido is expanding its service scope, which may include other assets in addition to ETH staking, further enriching its staking ecosystem to attract more users.

DeFi services: Staking Total value locked: US$30.82 billion

2. Aave – the best DeFi lending platform with one of the longest operating records

Aave is one of the leaders in the DeFi field, providing cryptocurrency lending services. It also allows you to earn passive income by staking AAVE native tokens (4.60% annual interest), GHO (5.30% annual interest), and ABPT (11.70% annual interest).

In terms of lending services, Aave supports about 30 cryptocurrencies, including ETH, WBTC, wstETH, USDT, USDC, AAVE, DAI and LINK.

In addition, Aave is known for its innovation in the DeFi field. Since its launch in 2017, it has scaled significantly, becoming one of the longest-running DeFi platforms. Although Aave’s total value locked (TVL) is not the highest, its trading volume is the largest in the entire DeFi field.

Aave is completely non-custodial, open source, and community-governed. In addition, borrowers and lenders can determine and enforce loan terms on their own through smart contracts. At the end of 2024, Aave launched Aave V3 on the zkSync Era mainnet, improving transaction efficiency.

If you want to learn more, you can read our Aave usage guide.

DeFi services: lending, staking Total value locked: US$17.38 billion

3. Uniswap – the largest decentralized trading platform and the best DeFi trading platform

Uniswap is currently the largest decentralized trading platform (DEX) on the market and a top trading platform in the DeFi field, with more than 1,500 trading pairs.

More importantly, Uniswap's powerful DeFi platform provides multiple services, including token exchange, earning income by providing liquidity, and building dApps using the Uniswap protocol. It also integrates with over 300 applications such as wallets, dApps, and aggregators.

While Uniswap may not be the largest DeFi platform overall, it is unparalleled in the field of decentralized trading platforms (DEX). Users can conduct transactions on a completely transparent and decentralized platform without any intermediaries, and complete transactions through smart contracts. Recently, the platform has focused on improving liquidity provision and user experience, particularly through its V3 model, which allows for the use of centralized liquidity pools.

For a DEX, learning how to trade on Uniswap is relatively simple as the website has a user-friendly and simple design. Uniswap is known for constantly introducing new tokens, so if you’re interested in trading the latest cryptocurrencies, check out the popular newly listed tokens on Uniswap to add to your portfolio.

DeFi services: trading and lending Total value locked: US$5.69 billion

4. MakerDAO – a lending platform that provides DAI stablecoins

MakerDAO is a large decentralized collateralized debt position platform (CDP platform) based on Ethereum. In other words, it allows users to borrow cryptocurrencies. Users can initiate a CDP by using ETH or other Ethereum-based assets as collateral.

MakerDAO's main goal is to ensure that its stablecoin DAI - one of the most popular and widely used stablecoins in the world - can maintain its peg to the US dollar.

MKR is Maker's native Token, used to facilitate users' interest payments. Whenever a CDP on the platform is settled, the DAI and MKR paid are destroyed. The community actively discusses governance changes to improve risk management and staking strategies.

In addition to its secure and transparent operations, MakerDAO made it to this list because of its close connection with DAI and its long-term stability in the market. It has survived all the market fluctuations and still stands strong.

DeFi service: borrowing Total value locked: US$4.93 billion

5. Instadapp – easy access to DeFi protocols

Instadapp is an Ethereum-based decentralized financial application that aims to provide users with a convenient way to interact with other DeFi protocols.

Its DeFi smart layer enables users to use various DeFi platforms in one place. In other words, with Instadapp, you don’t need to download multiple separate apps for staking, lending, or any other activity.

Instadapp offers a comprehensive set of DeFi tools, including Instadapp Lite and Instadapp Pro, in addition to the Web3 Avocado smart wallet and Fluid lending platform. Although it may not sound intuitive, Instadapp Pro is actually completely free.

Nevertheless, the platform has failed to attract a broad base of DeFi users, but it is working to improve its user interface and functionality to simplify multi-protocol interactions. Its lower popularity may be the reason for its low TVL.

DeFi services: lending, staking Total value locked: US$2.85 billion

6. Compound - a lending platform with strong stablecoin support

Compound.finance is a decentralized cryptocurrency lending market. According to the latest data, it covers 16 markets, including cryptocurrencies such as ETH, USDT, USDC, OP, and MATIC.

With the addition of USDT and USDC, the platform clearly has excellent support for lending stablecoins.

Compound is based on Ethereum and fully supports borrowing or lending with collateral. Interest rates are generally very favorable, but are still subject to supply and demand. While the platform may not be as large as Curve or Maker, it provides considerable value to most crypto users.

Compound has a native Token (COMP) that users can hold and participate in the governance of the decentralized protocol. Change proposals will be published on the Compound official website, and users can participate in voting.

DeFi service: borrowing Total value locked: US$2.45 billion

7. Curve Finance – DEX focusing on stablecoin trading

Curve Finance is a decentralized financial platform that provides trading, borrowing and lending services. The DEX has quickly become one of the leaders in the DeFi space, with a focus on stablecoin trading that sets it apart from the competition. If you are looking for trading with low fees and low slippage, Curve is the ideal choice.

The Curve platform uses automated market makers (AMMs) to help maintain the stablecoin’s peg. This allows users to trade with little to no impact on prices. Curve maintains market liquidity by automatically buying and selling digital assets and profiting from the bid-ask spread.

The Curve platform currently has total deposits of over $1.78 billion and daily trading volume often exceeds $100 million. It remains the leading platform for stablecoin trading and has a significant TVL. For a platform that only launched in 2020, this is no small achievement.

Another unique selling point of this DeFi platform is its outstanding website design, which gives people the feel of an old-school website but at the same time has advanced Web3 functionalities.

DeFi services: lending, trading

Total value locked: US$1.84 billion

8. Balancer - DeFi and DEX platform that provides automated portfolio management

Balancer is an automated market maker (AMM) product suite, a decentralized exchange (DEX) that uses algorithms to facilitate Token transactions. Unlike trading with other traders, you can handle all your trades through AMM.

In addition, Balancer also allows users to earn passive income through the platform's profit pool. Currently, Balancer has more than 240,000 liquidity providers. Although this number is not huge, the DeFi platform is still growing rapidly.

Balancer creates and manages various liquidity pools, each of which consists of multiple tokens, thereby realizing portfolio management. Recently, the platform has focused on improving its automated market maker (AMM) capabilities and expanding liquidity incentives.

Similar to other DeFi platforms, Balancer also allows users to purchase and hold native TokenBAL to participate in the governance of the protocol.

DeFi services: automated portfolio management, trading, yield farming

Total value locked: US$890.51 million

9. PancakeSwap – All-in-one DEX, providing DeFi services including staking

PancakeSwap is one of the most unique DEXs you will encounter, standing out with its unique design and bright colors. But don’t let its weird appearance distract you, it is still one of the world’s leading multi-chain decentralized trading platforms.

PancakeSwap is an integrated DEX that provides services including trading, staking, yield farming, and even a game market (Game Marketplace) to be launched at the end of 2023.

PancakeSwap’s popularity is attributed to its operation on the BNB chain, which results in fast confirmation times and low user fees.

The earning potential is rich and varied, you can trade, stake the platform’s native TokenCAKE with an annualized yield of up to 25.63%, join liquidity pools and farming pools, and more, including gaming options through gaming marketplaces and NFTs.

Although PancakeSwap has not been on the market for long, it has already dominated the DEX market of BSC. Additionally, it is particularly ideal for BN users due to its connection to the BNB chain.

DeFi services: trading, yield farming, staking

Total value locked: US$876.21 million

10. Yearn Finance – Yield farming platform for automated strategies

Yearn Finance is a product suite focused on helping individuals and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) earn returns from digital assets. The service provided by this yield aggregator is designed to simplify yield farming and help you optimize your returns.

By taking advantage of the many options Yearn offers, you can maximize your interest rate. In addition, you can also participate in the platform's development and network governance by holding the native Token YFI.

The protocol can automatically adjust your assets and transfer them between various high-yield options to provide you with the best return on your assets. In other words, you don’t need to do much with your portfolio because the platform will take care of most of it. Additionally, the development team is working hard to create new vaults and strategies to optimize yield generation for users.

DeFi service: yield aggregator

Total value locked: US$221.97 million

11. What is the DeFi platform?

DeFi platforms use blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to provide financial services. Although this definition is broad, DeFi itself is comprehensive and effectively covers all aspects of decentralized finance.

DeFi platforms are typically decentralized cryptocurrency trading platforms, liquidity provision platforms, lending platforms, yield farming applications, prediction markets or NFT markets.

One ​​of the prerequisites of the DeFi platform is peer-to-peer financial transactions. They typically aim to provide:

• Wider access

• High interest rates

• Low fees

• Strong security

• Near or full transparency

• Complete autonomy from centralized institutions

While DeFi has many advantages, it is not without its disadvantages. The DeFi ecosystem is yet to be regulated, which has led to some bad actors entering the market. At the same time, programming vulnerabilities in DeFi applications can easily lead to hacking and scams.

DeFi platforms have not been around for long, but their popularity has been growing. The number of DeFi users has grown steadily in recent years. Research data from Statista shows that by 2028, the market is expected to have approximately 22.09 million users, which will be a huge leap compared to 7.5 million users at the end of 2021.

12. Types of DeFi platforms

As mentioned above, DeFi platforms come in many different forms. Below we explain the most common types we recommend.

1) Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs)

A decentralized exchange is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading market. Unlike centralized exchanges, which act as intermediaries themselves, DEXs are used only to facilitate exchanges between traders, who conduct transactions independently and are free to determine the terms of the transactions. The entire process is usually completed through smart contracts.

DEX facilitates cryptocurrency trading, so there is no fiat currency purchase option like centralized exchanges, and crypto assets cannot be exchanged for cash. To use a DEX, you need to have a crypto wallet containing digital assets.

2) Borrowing platforms

As the name suggests, these platforms allow users to borrow cryptocurrencies. People who want to lend cryptocurrencies can deposit their assets on the platform and earn interest by letting others borrow them. Borrowers need to provide collateral and pay a certain interest to borrow cryptocurrencies.

In some ways, this system is similar to a bank, but it is a completely decentralized peer-to-peer model. Moreover, the platform has no supervision and everything is handled by smart contracts, thus ensuring security and transparency.

3) Liquidity Mining Platform

This type of platform enables cryptocurrency holders to profit from holding digital assets through liquidity mining. They allow users to lend crypto assets to various decentralized applications (dApps) to provide liquidity and receive corresponding returns. These benefits are usually presented as an annual percentage return (APR) and are based on the borrower’s interest rate.

Liquidity mining is the key to the realization of decentralized finance (DeFi). Unlike staking, liquidity mining is about earning rewards by lending assets rather than participating in network governance. Many decentralized exchanges (DEX) offer liquidity mining services, but there are also dedicated liquidity aggregation platforms.

4) Stablecoins and synthetic assets

Stablecoins and synthetic assets are services of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, not the platforms themselves. Stablecoins occupy an important position in DeFi as they are widely used in decentralized exchanges (DEX), lending platforms, and liquidity mining platforms. In this guide, you’ve learned about MakerDAO — a platform focused on stablecoin trading.

Synthetic assets are crypto derivatives whose value comes from the value of other assets. Top DeFi platforms offer synthetic products like options, swaps, and futures. Investors can therefore gain the benefits of asset exposure, configurable risk and cash flow patterns from these products.

5) Asset management platform

The DeFi field is becoming more and more diversified. Traditional Web3 wallets can no longer effectively track various digital assets, whether they are tokens, currencies, NFTs or DeFi positions. This is where DeFi asset management platforms like Yearn Finance, Zerion, and Zapper come in handy.

These platforms have multi-chain compatibility, are able to detect DeFi positions, not just assets in crypto wallets, and most functions are automated. Using these platforms, you can track all your assets and positions from a single dashboard.

6) How to choose a DeFi platform - our criteria

To choose a suitable DeFi platform, whether it is a DeFi staking platform or other types of platforms, you need to carefully consider some important criteria. Let's look at these standards.

Clear your goals First, determine your goals on the DeFi platform (for example, the amount of money you hope to earn through the platform). Then, evaluate whether the platform can meet these goals. In this regard, you should check the platform’s annualized percentage yields (APYs).

Evaluate security measures Due to the lack of regulation in the DeFi space, it is important to check the security measures provided by the platform. If the platform’s security measures are not up to current standards, you could be at risk of potential cyber attacks. Check if the platform offers security safeguards such as multi-signature wallets, end-to-end encryption, and regular audits.

Check the platform reputation In addition to security, you also need to check the reputation of the platform. Security measures are of no use if the platform itself cannot be trusted. The DeFi space is rife with scams due to a lack of regulation, so it’s important to choose a proven, secure, and trustworthy platform.

Explore the platform’s functions and features After ensuring the platform is secure, you should focus on the most important content - the platform’s functions. If you are in it for yield farming, then the platform should offer diversified liquidity pools. If you want to make money through staking, the platform should provide good APY and a variety of token options. Additionally, the platform needs to be able to interoperate with other DeFi protocols, as you may want to use other decentralized applications (dApps) and DeFi platforms.

7) Is the DeFi platform safe for beginners?

DeFi is safe for beginners and advanced users alike if you are using a reputable platform with excellent security measures.

However, beginners need to understand what they are participating in and how DeFi services work. The DeFi space can be very risky for novice investors, mainly because cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and related products therefore have a high degree of uncertainty.

DeFi options like staking and lending can be very profitable. However, if you make some wrong decisions or buy underperforming tokens and enter failed projects, you may lose all your investment.

Most importantly, you must always maintain control of your private keys throughout the entire process. Finally, never let the opinions of the masses influence your decision making.

8) DeFi and CeFi platforms: Which is better?

As you might guess, decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi) are two opposing concepts. DeFi relies on decentralized networks, focuses on innovative and fully transparent financial services, and operates using smart contracts; while CeFi relies on traditional intermediaries. The platform complies with all regulations in this field and pays great attention to user experience.

To better understand the difference between the two and decide which financial platform is better, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each platform:

13. Conclusion

The DeFi field is dynamic and continues to develop, which is why you will encounter a variety of platforms that offer one or more DeFi products.

Given the sheer size of the market, it can be challenging to find the platform that best suits your needs. However, by following the steps in this guide and referring to our suggestions, the whole search process should become much easier.