Many new projects emerge every year, each offering an alternative solution to traditional financial institutions. Since DeFi is completely focused on decentralization and has no intermediaries between customers and platforms, they use another medium of exchange other than traditional currencies.
Each DeFi project issues a native cryptocurrency to power its ecosystem and conduct transactions across its network. Therefore, as the DeFi industry grows, the number of DeFi coins has also grown significantly. Some of these DeFi coins started out at a low price and experienced exponential growth after the project developed.
In this guide, we will look at the best DeFi coins to buy in 2024 that have huge growth potential in the future. We will also discuss the benefits and risks of investing in the DeFi space and discover the best platforms to buy DeFi coins so that you can buy them efficiently and quickly.
10+ Best DeFi Coins to Buy in 2024
Here are the top DeFi coins as of 2024:
Launchpad XYZ – New DeFi Coin to Build DEX and Enhance Your Trading Skills
yPredict – AI-based DeFi token providing crypto signals and predictions
Maker – Decentralized Crypto Lending Platform
Curve – A decentralized exchange focused on stablecoin trading
Aave – DeFi platform for lending and borrowing cryptocurrencies
Uniswap – A leading DEX with multiple features to earn money with cryptocurrencies
Compound - A decentralized money market protocol
Sushiswap – Native Token of the Popular Decentralized Exchange
DYDX – A decentralized exchange that supports perpetual trading
Synthetix – A decentralized platform for derivatives trading
Loopring - A Layer 2 DeFi Scaling Solution
Best DeFi Coins Reviewed – Full List
With hundreds of DeFi coins available for purchase, you might be confused about which coins to buy and which ones you should avoid in 2024. In this section of the guide, we analyze the 15 best DeFi coins selected by our experts that are considered excellent investments in 2024. Read on to find the most attractive projects to add to your DeFi portfolio.
Launchpad XYZ – New DeFi Coin to Build DEX and Enhance Your Trading Skills
If you are interested in DeFi trading and believe in the future of the DEX industry, Launchpad XYZ is a good choice to add to your portfolio. It is a new DeFi project that aims to improve users' trading skills and help them understand market dynamics.
The platform will make it easier to integrate with Web3 and provide various analyses and strategies to help beginner traders understand the market and improve their trading skills. Traders can also use its XYZ decentralized trading platform to execute trades at the best time.
LPX is the native token of the project and is now available for purchase via different altcoins including BNB, USDT, ETH, and ETH. As it is now in the pre-sale phase, you can invest in the token at a very low price of $0.035. The team plans to end the pre-sale in the third quarter of 2023 and list it on exchanges at a price of $0.07.
Buy Launchpad XYZ
yPredict – AI-based DeFi token providing crypto signals and predictions
yPredict is the first fully AI-based ecosystem that uses machine learning technology to provide free cryptocurrency price predictions and many other paid services to cryptocurrency traders, developers, and analysts. The project uses cutting-edge AI technology created by 1% AI developers in the world.
So, what can users get from the platform? Subscriptions include AI Signals, which provides real-time trading signals through AI-based algorithmic forecasts. Users will also get real-time sentiment analysis on all popular cryptocurrencies. Other services include technical analysis using AI technology and detection of more promising chart patterns in the user's chosen coin.
Users need to own the platform's native token, YPRED, to trade within the yPredict ecosystem. YPRED plays a very important role in the project's ecosystem, so when the project is successful in the future, the demand for this token will increase.
YPRED is currently in the 4th stage of pre-sale, the token price in this stage is $0.05, and at the official token launch, the price will increase to $0.12. You can buy YPRED using several alternative coins and bank cards. Buying YPRED during the pre-sale period will not only allow you to take advantage of discounts, but also allow you to use its underlying platform for free and receive staking rewards.
Buy yPredict
Maker – Decentralized Crypto Lending Platform
MakerDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that provides a DeFi lending platform. The project has issued two types of tokens - the stablecoin DAI and MKR for governance purposes.
Since DAI is a stablecoin, it is pegged to the US dollar and is always equal to $1. Anyone can use MakerDAO to open a vault, lock up cryptocurrency collateral, and generate stablecoin DAI as debt. Users can borrow DAI equivalent to the value of their collateral.
MakerDAO was founded in 2014 by President Rune Christensen, an American cryptocurrency entrepreneur based in California. Those who hold Maker’s native token, MKR, can vote on the future and operations of the decentralized credit platform to decide risk parameters.
The DeFi token MKR is a decentralized ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum platform. Anyone holding MKR tokens has voting rights and can contribute to the development of MakerDAO's smart contracts.
MKR is the first tradable DeFi token on the Ethereum network and a 10x coin in 2021, with its price rising from $600 to $6000. After the recent crash of the entire crypto market, the price of MKR has dropped to $660. Therefore, now is a good time to buy MKR tokens at a low price until the next bull cycle starts.
Maker’s DeFi Reddit community, r/MakerDao, has over 36,500 subscribers.
Buy MKR
Your capital is at risk.
Curve – A decentralized exchange focused on stablecoin trading
Curve Finance is a decentralized exchange built on the Ethereum blockchain that focuses on stablecoin trading with low slippage. Its decentralized exchange is called Curve.fi and uses an automated market maker system. The advantage of this exchange is that it focuses on making the exchange between tokens simpler and low-fee.
In addition to this, Curve DAO has also issued a governance token called CRV, which is designed to manage the Curve Finance ecosystem. Investors consider the Curve DAO token (CRV) to be popular because it can be used for staking to earn fees on Curve.fi.
Staking has become one of the largest emerging sectors in the cryptocurrency space, with annualized returns exceeding savings accounts and investment funds at most high street banks. Cryptocurrency staking rewards are a decentralized form of passive income to some extent, with a return on investment that is better than interest income from fiat currency and does not require reliance on banks.
CRV entered the market in 2020 with an initial price of over $10, but then the value of the token dropped as the market entered a deep bear market. DeFi investors are optimistic that it will have a bull run in the future, which will allow it to retest double-digit levels. CRV is closely related to another best DeFi token, Convex Finance (CVX), which allows stakers to earn transaction fees without locking up CRV.
Buy CRV
Your capital is at risk.
Aave – DeFi platform for lending and borrowing cryptocurrencies
Similar to Maker, Aave is also related to the decentralized finance lending sector and ranks among the top 5 DeFi tokens in terms of total locked value (TVL). The Aave DeFi protocol is an open-source, non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can borrow and provide crypto assets and earn returns when providing assets.
The protocol also enables users to conduct so-called flash loans based on the amount of collateral they provide. To manage its ecosystem, Aave launched a native token called AAVE. Those who own this governance token can vote on the future, changes, and upgrades of the Aave DeFi project.
AAVE's ICO was conducted in 2017, with each token priced at $52, raising $16 million. According to CoinMarketCap.com, AAVE currently has a market capitalization of over $926 billion, making it the 48th largest crypto asset by market capitalization.
Although popular coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), Solana, Polkadot, and various stablecoins (USDT, USDC, BUSD) and meme coins (Dogecoin, Shiba Inu) have a higher market cap than Aave, they are not considered DeFi coins.
Therefore, for DeFi coins and decentralized applications (Dapps) that disrupt business models, Aave is one of the larger and more mature projects and one of the best DeFi coins on Coinbase. Click "DeFi" in the menu of Coinmarketcap to filter out the best DeFi coins.
After reaching an all-time high of $629 in 2022, AAVE entered a bear market and the price fell below its listing price of $52. Although the value of the token recovered to $64 in 2023, some investors who prefer the “buy low, sell high” strategy consider it one of the best DeFi coins in 2023.
Aave’s DeFi Reddit community r/Aave_Official has over 16,400 subscribers.
Buy AAVE
Your capital is at risk.
Uniswap – A leading DEX with multiple features to earn money with cryptocurrencies
Uniswap is one of the earliest and most popular decentralized exchanges on the market. This DEX allows users to trade cryptocurrencies directly peer-to-peer (P2P) without the need for an intermediary. It was the first exchange to use automated market makers (AMMs) and smart contracts instead of order books in 2018.
Any user can instantly swap between ETH and other ERC-20 tokens, and the entire process happens on-chain, with no fees going to the platform owner, as would happen on a centralized cryptocurrency exchange. Uniswap has a native token called UNI, which has several uses and is used to provide liquidity to the platform and for governance.
Like AAVE, the UNI token has been in a bear market since late 2021. The token is currently trading at $5, more than 8 times lower than its all-time high in May 2021. However, many investors still believe in the future of decentralized exchanges and their potential to achieve mass adoption.
Decentralized exchanges are an important part of DeFi, so investing in the native tokens of DEXs makes sense, just like investing in the native tokens of other cryptocurrency exchanges. Uniswap is considered one of the best DeFi coins, with high TVL, popularity among DeFi enthusiasts, innovative solutions, etc.
The Uniswap protocol’s Reddit community, r/UniSwap, has over 68,200 readers.
Buy UNI
Your capital is at risk.
Compound - Decentralized Money Market Protocol
Compound is another popular DeFi platform, ranked 116th by market cap. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Compound provides a decentralized algorithmic money market protocol that helps users earn interest by lending and borrowing cryptocurrencies.
At the same time, users can borrow cryptocurrencies as loans based on their crypto assets as collateral. Compound supports a variety of popular cryptocurrencies, including Dai (DAI), Ethereum (ETH), USDC, Ox (ZRX), Tether (USDT), Wrapped BTC (WBTC), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Prediction Market (REP), and Sai (SAI).
Compound was founded by Compound Labs in 2017, received $8 million in funding, and currently has a market value of more than $272 million. Although the concept of Compound is not new in the DeFi industry, its innovative algorithm uses real-time adjustment of interest rates and the ability to create large liquidity pools to make it stand out and attract high attention including Coinbase and Polychain Capital.
Compound's native token is COMP, which is used to reward users for lending COMP tokens, borrowing, and repaying loans. Although the current COMP token price is $36.54, things may change when the cryptocurrency market enters the next bull run. Therefore, if you believe in the future of the project, now is a good time to buy COMP tokens.
For more information, visit our Compound price prediction.
Buy COMP
Your capital is at risk.
Sushiswap – Hot DeFi Coin in 2023
SushiSwap is a fork of Uniswap that emerged in September 2020. Similar to Uniswap, it is a fully decentralized exchange that relies on liquidity pools and automated market makers. Transactions are conducted only through code, meaning that no central authority or middleman is required to execute or track transactions.
The platform's native token is SUSHI, which is used for governance and utility purposes. Users holding SUSHI can vote on the development of Sushiswap. SUSHI is also used to reward DEX users who provide liquidity to Sushiswap's liquidity pool.
SUSHI once experienced a massive bull run, becoming one of the best DeFi coins in late 2020 and early 2021, with prices rising from less than $1 to more than $20. However, the price began to fall when Chef Nomi, one of the founders of the project, sold all of his shares in the company, worth $14 million in tokens.
Due to the wild price fluctuations, SUSHI was once called an exit scam and a pump and dump. Although Chef Nomi later returned the funds and resumed control of the Sushiswap project, the project changed its CEO. The current CEO of the project is Jared Grey, who recently announced that he is no longer "inspired" by the blow to cryptocurrencies.
Amid all this Sushiswap is happening, it remains one of the most popular DeFi projects and its native token SUSHI is considered a good long-term investment. The price of SUSHI is currently down below $1, so now is a good time to add some SUSHI tokens to your portfolio.
Buy SUSHI
Your capital is at risk.
DYDX – A decentralized exchange that supports perpetual trading
dYdX is a second-layer (L2) non-custodial DEX trading platform that provides a variety of trading tools for advanced traders. The platform supports perpetual futures trading, leveraged trading, and spot trading. It runs audited smart contracts on Ethereum, combining off-chain order books with on-chain settlement layers.
dYdX's fee structure is also very attractive. First, traders do not need to pay any gas fees when trading on the platform, as all trades are executed on the second layer. Trading fees (such as market maker and taker fees) are very low, and the minimum trade size is also low. dYdX enables traders to go long or short with 25x leverage on trading pairs such as BTC-USD, ETH-USD, LINK-USD, UNI-USD, AAVE-USD, etc.
The DeFi project also has a native token called DYDX. It is an ERC-20 governance token that helps manage the project. The DeFi coin DYDX was listed on exchanges at $13 in 2021, but experienced a big run during the bull run that year, reaching $26. The value of the token has fallen to $2.2 at the time of writing, correlating with the overall market's downward trend.
Since DYDX tokens can also be staked in the Binance Earn feature, DYDX is one of the best DeFi coins on Binance.
Buy DYDX
Your capital is at risk.
Synthetix – A decentralized platform for derivatives trading
Synthetix is another decentralized exchange platform that brings new ideas to the DeFi space. It supports the creation of synthetic assets for trading, which derivatives traders can use to profit from price fluctuations in commodities, stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies, and fiat currencies.
The main idea is not to actually own an asset, but to be able to speculate on its price movement through so-called synthetics. Users can deposit collateral in the form of Ethereum or Synthetix’s native token SNX into the platform and then create a synthetic of a certain asset.
Synthetix charges transaction fees for synthetic exchanges, and a portion of these fees are rewarded to SNX stakers. Therefore, SNX is used as collateral and can be staked to receive rewards for transaction fees. The SNX token was officially launched in 2018, but began to increase in value in 2019.
Taking advantage of the bull run, SNX reached an all-time high of $26.1 in 2021, according to CoinMarketCap. Currently, the value of the token has dropped to $2.2, so now is a good time to buy some SNX tokens to diversify your portfolio.
Synthetix was initially governed by a non-profit foundation, which was replaced by three decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) in 2020. SNX holders use these DAOs to vote on protocol changes and make decisions about the future of the protocol.
Buy SNX
Your capital is at risk.
Loopring - A Layer 2 DeFi Scaling Solution
The Loopring protocol has a unique position in the DeFi space. While other platforms have been established as decentralized exchanges or lending platforms, Loopring provides an opportunity to create these platforms. Therefore, developers can use its services to create their own DEX (decentralized exchange), while Loopring provides a system of interconnected trading platforms that traders can access from a single dashboard.
Loopring uses a second-layer scaling solution called Zk-rollups to provide faster transactions and reduce the gas fees that users have to pay. Loopring users deposit their assets into zkRollup smart contracts for high-throughput non-custodial DEX construction.
To power its ecosystem, Loopring has issued a native token called LRC. It is a utility token with many uses and can be used for voting, staking, liquidity, and insurance funds for the Loopring protocol. One benefit of the token is that it has a deflationary mechanism.
Deflationary tokens usually decrease over time because a certain amount of tokens are burned when transactions are made, thus reducing their circulating supply. From the law of supply and demand, this can be beneficial to the growth of the token because it will make the token supply scarce.
LRC's current circulating supply is 13,314,309,350 LRC tokens, with a market cap of over $349.5 million, making it the 90th-ranked crypto asset by market cap. The LRC token was officially launched in 2017 and has experienced two massive bull runs to date. The first time, the token's value rose from $0.1 to $1.4; the second time, it reached an all-time high of $3.3.
Buy LRC
Your capital is at risk.
What are DeFi coins and how do they work?
With the growth of Bitcoin and other decentralized currencies, a new financial sector has emerged called decentralized finance. Applications created as part of DeFi operate without intermediaries or middlemen, and everything is controlled by code.
Each DeFi project creates its own native cryptocurrency to power its network. Therefore, the tokens used to power DeFi projects are called DeFi coins. They have multiple uses in the project's ecosystem. DeFi coins can have utility or governance applications, such as being used to run transactions, distribute rewards, grant voting rights in DAOs, or stake and earn rewards.
DeFi Crypto Market Cap
According to calculations by the Trading View platform, the current market capitalization of DeFi cryptocurrencies exceeds $43 billion. As part of 2021 and 2022, the entire cryptocurrency market entered a deep bear market known as the "crypto winter"; during this period, prices fell sharply.
The DeFi cryptocurrency market ended 2022 with a total market value of $30 billion. However, since the beginning of 2023, DeFi coins have regained their value again, and the market value has rebounded by 50% since then. According to TradingView data, the total DeFi cryptocurrency market has reached $75 billion in recent days.
How We Ranked the Best 15 DeFi Coins
Our list of the best DeFi coins takes into account a number of metrics to help investors looking to diversify their portfolios:
Real-world use of DeFi applications
Part of DeFi is generating income outside of traditional centralized means. The projects we reviewed above offer ways to earn passive income.
Growth Potential
Most of these DeFi coins have not made it to the top 10 cryptocurrency list yet but have good growth potential in the future. Currently, the DeFi cryptocurrency market cap is in a correction phase and investors who buy the pullback can earn high returns if these coins recover in the next few years.
Pre-sale
Presales are also another great way to make money with DeFi tokens. The first tokens listed in our guide are still in the presale stage and you can buy these tokens at extremely low prices, which are very low compared to their listing prices. In fact, many of the DeFi coins on our list will be among the upcoming top cryptocurrency presales.
Passive Income
Some of the DeFi coins on our list can be staked. This means you can earn rewards by locking them in a specific liquidity pool, earning staking rewards when you’re not using them.
Past performance
We also considered the price performance of the tokens, and some of the DeFi coins in our list have survived 1 or 2 bear market cycles, so they can be good assets for portfolio diversification.
Why DeFi coins and tokens can be a good investment?
DeFi coins are the foundation of a new infrastructure called decentralized finance. Having proven that decentralized products can work, the question now is how to improve them. While Ethereum was once the only programmable blockchain with high gas fees and transaction delays, this has changed significantly.
Many new blockchains have been created for faster transactions and lower gas fees. Apart from this, DeFi coins are increasingly finding real-world use cases in innovative products that serve as alternatives to their traditional competitors.
If DeFi can provide solutions that make daily life easier, it can attract a large population and achieve mass adoption in the future. Many celebrities, billionaires, and investors are also investing in DeFi and encouraging the purchase of DeFi coins, including Mark Cuban and Jack Dorsey, while Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz called cryptocurrency "the next Internet" and linked DeFi with Web3.
Risks of buying DeFi coins
DeFi coins stand out with low market capitalizations, and their prices are controlled only by demand and supply factors. Therefore, highly volatile price swings can occur after a massive sell-off or buy-in. The higher the pump, the more likely they are to pull back completely because they have not established any support on the way up.
It is very important to monitor the market closely and understand all the factors that may affect the price of a certain DeFi coin as well as the overall market conditions. The next important thing is to be able to understand the correct buy and sell signals and not sell too early when the next crypto bull run comes.
Portfolio diversification is another important step in managing risk. For example, in May 2022, the entire DeFi market cap fell along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market when one DeFi coin, Terra (LUNA), fell from $90 to below $2 in 48 hours. Therefore, you must diversify your portfolio and avoid investing all your funds in one asset.
Where to buy DeFi coins
When it comes to finding the best broker to buy DeFi coins, eToro is undoubtedly our first choice. It is an FCA regulated brokerage platform with advanced security mechanisms, providing safe and efficient transactions.
The broker also offers a variety of trading instruments, one of which is the DeFi portfolio, which includes selected crypto assets that are part of the DeFi industry. This is an excellent choice for those who want to invest in the DeFi industry and diversify their portfolio instead of putting all their eggs in one basket.
Generally speaking, buying DeFi coins with eToro is a quick and easy process
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