Near DeFi Primer

During the first quarter of 2022, the Near ecosystem generated substantial hype while garnering a large influx of TVL. This surge coincided with the announcement of several fundraising rounds, such as a $350 million round for Near DeFi led by Tiger Global and a $9 million Series A round for lending protocol Bastion. Late last year’s announcement of a $350 million incentive rewards DAO for builders on Near also motivated the recent expansion in DeFi alternatives. Further, the Layer 1 recently introduced a native overcollateralized stablecoin, USN.

With more eyes on the ecosystem than ever before, we highlight a few key DeFi protocols that exist across Near’s native layer 1 and its Aurora EVM layer. We encourage you to read through the Near asset profile to gain a basic understanding of the protocol before diving into its DeFi ecosystem.

Since the beginning of 2022, Near EVM layer Aurora’s TVL increased 226% from $600 million to a peak of $1.36 billion, while Near’s native chain TVL increased 445% from $120 million to a high of $534 million. For now, Aurora dominates Near’s DeFi ecosystem, thanks to its plug-and-play compatibility for Ethereum Dapps. Together, Near and Aurora rank as 11th in TVL across all blockchains, which is impressive growth for a relatively new Layer 1.

Source: DefiLlama, June 2, 2022

A Snapshot of Near Dapps

Every chain, hoping to provide a complete user experience, needs a foundation comprising the DeFi primitives needed to efficiently trade cryptoassets: decentralized exchanges (DEXs), borrowing/lending (for shorting and for leverage), yields aggregators to manage incentive rewards, stablecoins, and seamless bridging for getting value to the chain. Stablecoins can be bridged (e.g. Wormhole’s USDC.e on Avalanche), standalone native (multi-chain USDT), or a result of borrowing/lending (e.g., MakerDAO’s DAI).