The best DeFi projects of 2020

The Marketing Director of Set Protocol, Anthony Sassano, published a ranking compiled thanks to an experiment carried out by Camila Russo called “DeFi10 Portfolio” which identifies the best DeFi projects of 2020 in terms of profitability. 

The experiment consisted of investing 100 DAI on 10 DeFi projects in January and monitoring their profitability over the months. 

After three months, it was possible to start drawing the first figures. 

TokenSets from Set protocol took first place, with a return of 16.2%. 

In this case, unlike many of the other protocols tested, it is not a profit deriving from interest income on lending, but the purchase of positions on derivative assets, even complex ones called Sets, composed of a basket of other assets algorithmically adjusted according to automated logic on smart contract contracts. 

In second position there is Aave‘s aDai. It is a simple system for lending DAI and receiving in exchange a profit from the interests paid by those who borrow them. 

In three months the return was 2.7%, although in mid-March this was actually 6.5%. The subsequent collapse of the crypto market reduced the return to a more regular 2.7%. 

In third position, there is Fulcrum‘s iDai, which despite the problems with its basic protocol, bZx, still yielded 1.9%. 

This was followed by Compound‘s cDai, with 1.6%, MakerDAO‘s DSR with 1.3%, and Chai with 1.2%. 

In reality, there are also two that not only did not generate returns but actually produced a significant loss. These are the Unipool‘s MKR and SNX Zaps. 

The loss was so significant (between 15% and 22%) that the entire DeFi10 Portfolio experiment was at a loss. 

In fact, these two loss-making investments were enough to reduce the initial capital from 1,000 DAI to 988.6 DAI, despite the fact that eight out of 10 investments produced profits, with one that even produced a 16.2% return. 

The curious thing is that until March 11th, DeFi10 Portfolio was making a profit of 4.5%, even though the Zap SNX was already losing, but during the collapse of the crypto market from March 12th onwards, the DeFi10 Portfolio experienced a strong loss and then recovered a bit in the following days but not enough to return in profit.