2020 was without a doubt the year of decentralized finance (DeFi), which saw a monstrous growth throughout the year and the ranking of the most used projects has often changed.
Obviously, the top projects seen at the beginning of 2020 are not the ones we find now, and this is due to the entry of new protocols and projects but also to the TVL (Total Value Locked) of the projects themselves that have attracted capital.
The DeFi ranking in January 2020
Hence, last January there was a different ranking from the current one with a TVL of just under $700 million:
- First place, Maker with $342 million;
- Second place, Synthetix (SNX) with $171 million;
- Third place, Compound (COMP) with $95 million;
- Fourth place, Instadapp with $38 million;
- Fifth place, Uniswap (UNI) with $12 million;
February 2020
Nothing new this month: the ranking had not changed, only the TVL increased, reaching $1 billion.
March 2020
This month there was a new entry: Aave took the fourth position, replacing Instadapp, while all the other positions remained unchanged, although the TVL dropped below 700 million dollars.
April 2020
In April the March ranking was reconfirmed, while the TVL stood just above 700 million dollars, so the sector had already recovered from the previous month.
May 2020
In May Uniswap lost its fifth position and was undermined by Instadapp, while the TVL was just under a billion dollars. Over 200 million dollars had entered in one month.
June 2020
From June, however, the ranking began to change drastically: the first three positions remained the same while in fourth position there was Balancer (BAL) and in fifth place Aave. TVL was close to $2 billion, doubling volumes in just 1 month compared to the previous one.
July 2020
A big change for this month: July saw Maker in first place, Compound (COMP) in second, Synthetix (SNX) down one position, while the fourth position was stable for Aave, but in fifth position there was Curve finance (CRV). TVL was approaching $4 billion.
August 2020
This month the positions had reversed as Aave took first place, followed by Maker, Curve finance (CRV), Balancer and finally Yearn finance (YFI). TVL rose twofold compared to the previous month, touching $8 billion locked.
September 2020
Another month and another change in the ranking: in first place, there was Uniswap (UNI), followed by Maker, Aave, Curve finance (CRV) and in fifth position wBTC. TVL continued to climb past $11 billion.
October 2020
On Halloween, we saw Uniswap still in the lead, followed by Maker, while in third place wBTC with Compound and followed by Aave. This time the TVL suffered a reduction and stood at around $10 billion.
November 2020
wBTC continued to climb and in November it was behind Maker, while in third place there was Compound, in fourth Aave and immediately after there was Uniswap. Meanwhile, TVL increased to over $12 billion.
December 2020
Coming to the present day, we can see that the ranking has changed again and we find:
- First place, Maker with $2.6 billion
- Second place, Compound (COMP) with $1.84 billion
- Third place, Aave with $1.64 billion
- Fourth place, Uniswap (UNI) with $1.47 billion
- Fifth place, Synthetix (SNX) with $1.20 billion
As can be seen from the data for the whole year, this sector and the various protocols have increased more than a hundredfold in value and total funds managed: these are smart contracts that have been created to manage a practically infinite amount of funds, and this could lead to record figures in the coming years.Â
