

Aave offers a decentralized, non-custodial liquidity protocol for lending, borrowing, and earning interest on crypto assets. Its community-driven governance process involves AAVE, stkAAVE, and aAAVE token holders in decision-making. Ideas are discussed in the Aave Governance Forum, polled on Snapshot, and, if supported, become Aave Improvement Proposals (AIPs). AAVE tokens, capped at 16 million, are used for governance and protocol security.




Ironclad Finance sets itself apart as a decentralized, non-custodial liquidity market protocol, allowing users to engage as either depositors, who earn passive income by providing liquidity, or borrowers, who can borrow in either an overcollateralized or undercollateralized manner. While Ironclad has not yet issued its own token, it has introduced a points system, named Embers, to reward users for borrowing and lending, hinting at a future token introduction.



Polynomial Trade is an on-chain derivatives platform with a focus on perpetual futures, enhanced by the security of the Synthetix protocol and the Optimism Network. Its distinctive approach using polynomial functions for price prediction allows traders to make more dynamic market decisions. Although currently without a governance structure or a live token, the potential introduction of a token could benefit the platform by incentivizing user engagement and capturing value. Polynomial has raised two successful funding rounds, raising $1.10 million in a Pre-Seed round and securing further investment in a Seed round, with backing from several notable investors and capital firms.



Sparkfi is a DeFi platform in the Sky (ex-MakerDAO) ecosystem that focuses on moving large amounts of stablecoin liquidity where it earns the best risk-adjusted return. Its three live products are SparkLend (a DAI/USDS-centric money market), Spark Savings (a non-custodial savings vault that pays the Sky Savings Rate) and the Spark Liquidity Layer, which allocates stablecoins directly into other protocols and networks.



