The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) industry is a major pillar of the blockchain sector. It has done much better than the gaming, metaverse, and the non-fungible token (NFT) industries.
The total value locked (TVL) in all DeFi protocols has jumped to over $123 billion. That figure, however, does not tell the whole story as the Decentralized Exchange (DEX) industry is doing much better. For example, Solana DEX networks handled over $128 billion in the last seven days, while BSC and Ethereum handled $30.7 billion and $27 billion, respectively.
The number of DeFi protocols has jumped sharply in the past few months. So, here are some of the best blue-chip crypto tokens to buy and hold.
Lido (LDO0
Lido is the biggest blue-chip DeFi protocol in the crypto industry with over $30 billion in assets. The network allows users to liquid stake their Ether tokens and earn monthly rewards. Holders of staked Ethereum do that by buying stETH, which they can use in DeFi, while earning rewards.
Lido is a good DeFi crypto coin to buy because of its growing market share and the substantial fees it makes each year. According to TokenTerminal, Lido generated over $1 billion in fees in the last 365 days, making it the second most profitable network after Uniswap.
Uniswap (UNI)
Uniswap is another top blue-chip DeFi crypto to buy and hold. It is a leading player in the DEX industry, handling billions of dollars daily. According to DeFi Llama, Uniswap has handled over $1.63 trillion in volume, making it a juggernaut. It has handled over $32 billion in the last 7 days, a trend that may continue growing.
The next key catalyst for the Uniswap token will be the upcoming UniChain, a layer-2 network that will have a major impact on the network. UniChain aims to solve a key challenge where the 22 Uniswap chains don’t communicate. It also aims to reduce fees and make its transactions faster. The upcoming launch of Unichain may lead to a higher Uniswap price.
Raydium (RAY)
Raydium is another top blue-chip DeFi crypto coin to buy and hold. It has become the biggest alternative to Uniswap by being the largest player in the Solana ecosystem. Raydium has handled over $395 billion in crypto volume since its inception.
Most notably, $102 billion of this volume was processed in the last 30 days as the Solana network boomed because of the Trump meme coin launch. Raydium will likely continue doing well as the Solana ecosystem booms. In line with this, other blue-chip DeFi tokens on the Solana ecosystem that will do well are Orca, Jupiter, and Lifinity.
Read more: Raydium price forecast: flips Uniswap, boosts token buybacks
Ethena (ENA)
Ethena is another fast-growing DeFi token to buy and hold. It is a new and leading network that created the Ethena USDe stablecoin which pays a reward of about 10% annually. Over time, it has accumulated a market cap of almost $6 billion, making it one of the biggest stablecoins in the crypto industry.
Ethena is a high-risk, and high-reward platform because it has been compared with Terra Luna, which offered UST stablecoin. Terra crashed in 2022 after the stablecoin lost its peg. USDe, unlike other stablecoins, is not backed by fiat currencies, making it risky.
Morpho (MORPHO)
Morpho is a top DeFi crypto to buy and hold. It is an AAVE rival that exists on Ethereum and Base, the blockchain network launched by Coinbase. Morpho has over $3.9 billion in assets, a figure that will likely continue growing.
A key catalyst for the Morpho token is the recent announcement that Coinbase will start offering Bitcoin loans on the network.
Other blue-chip DeFi crypto coins to buy
The other top DeFi crypto coins to buy and hold are Jito (a Solana liquid staking network), JustLend (a lending protocol on Tron), EigenLayer (the biggest restaking network), and Maker.
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