Top Three DeFi Projects on BNB Chain to Keep an Eye On

Decentralized finance (DeFi) activity has slowed during the bear market. However, there is still a lot going on with protocols on leading ecosystems such as BNB Chain.

BNB Chain, formerly known as Binance Smart Chain, is the second-largest DeFi ecosystem after Ethereum.

BNB Chain has a total value locked of $7.7 billion, according to DeFiLlama. This is down 70% from its all-time high, however, which is in line with the wider bear market.

BNB Chain has several popular DeFi projects, here are the top three.

PancakeSwap (DEX)

The largest decentralized exchange on the BNB Chain network is PancakeSwap. It has a total value locked of $4.36 billion giving it a commanding market share of 56.6%. Additionally, it has a 24-hour trading volume of $302,665 according to DeFiLlama.

PancakeSwap boasts 1.9 million users and 55 million trades over the past 30 days. The DEX offers instant token swaps and a number of liquidity farms. It also has a lottery and plenty of giveaways.  

The DEX is powered by the native CAKE token that is farmed and staked. Furthermore, CAKE is used in Pottery, combining locked staking with lottery elements. This enables chances to win bigger yields on CAKE deposits.

Venus Protocol (Lending)

Venus is the second largest DeFi protocol on BNB Chain. It offers a decentralized money market for lending, borrowing, and earning crypto assets.

Venus has $933 million in total value locked, equating to 12% of the BNB Chain market share. The protocol is also a fork of the Ethereum lending platform Compound Finance.

It uses vTokens, which are tokenized versions of other assets that can be used as collateral. Various interest rates are offered on different tokens that can be lent or borrowed on the platform.

Additionally, the protocol is powered by the XVS token which is also used for farming and extra yields.

Venus suffered an $11 million loss earlier this year due to a problem with LUNA price oracles.

Alpaca Finance (Yield)

The third-largest DeFi protocol on BNB Chain is Alpaca Finance. It has around $367 million in total value locked. Alpaca is a lending protocol allowing leveraged yield farming in the Binance ecosystem.  

Furthermore, borrowers can get under-collateralized loans for leveraged yield farming positions. The protocol amplifies the liquidity layer of integrated exchanges, improving their capital efficiency by connecting liquidity providers.

Alpaca also has its own native token of the same name. If conducts regular buyback and burns to keep the supply deflationary.

Finally, these are just three of the most popular DeFi protocols on BNB Chain. Others include BiSwap, PinkSale, Wombat Exchange, and Coinwind.