Over the eight years of the DeFi market’s existence, the list of leading protocols has changed significantly: protocols that best meet the current needs of crypto investors, especially large ones, have come to the fore.
Lido
The leading DeFi protocol in terms of total value locked (TVL), which as of March 2025 amounts to $17.7 billion — about 19.5% of the liquidity of the entire decentralized finance market.
Lido, or Lido Finance, is a liquid staking protocol that allows users to stake Ethereum cryptocurrency through a special smart contract and earn passive income. The minimum amount for staking Ethereum is 32 ETH, or about $62,000 at the time of writing — an amount that is not accessible to everyone.
The Lido protocol acts as an intermediary between users and the ETH staking contract on the Ethereum blockchain. But the main feature of the Lido DeFi protocol is that, in addition to income from staking, liquidity providers also receive stETH LST tokens — a stablecoin that tracks the price of the original ETH cryptocurrency. This has become one of the main reasons for the protocol’s popularity, given the large number of ETH cryptocurrency holders.
LST tokens can be used in the same way as regular tokens:
- Exchange them on decentralized exchanges (DEXes) or become liquidity providers and earn income;
- Provide them as collateral or use them as collateral assets;
- Stake them in other DeFi protocols.
Thus, Lido platform users earn income from staking ETH and can simultaneously use stETH LST tokens, including to earn additional profits. In addition to Ethereum, the Lido protocol also supports the Solana, Moonbeam, and Moonriver networks.
The protocol has its own token, Lido DAO (LDO), which is among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, amounting to $845 million as of March 2025. LDO serves as a governance token and gives its holders the right to participate in decisions regarding the development of the Lido ecosystem.
Aave
The largest lending protocol in the DeFi market, allowing users to obtain loans secured by cryptocurrency, as well as provide loans to other users and earn income. With a TVL of $17.5 billion, Aave ranks second in the DeFi sector, just slightly behind the Lido protocol. In addition, Aave is one of the oldest and most reliable DeFi protocols on the market.
The Aave lending platform is a multi-chain protocol that supports 15 blockchain networks, including:
- Ethereum,
- Arbitrum,
- Avalanche,
- BNB Smart Chain,
- Base,
- Polygon,
- OP Mainnet (formerly Optimism), and a number of others.
Depending on the selected asset, liquidity providers, who are lenders on the Aave platform, can earn up to 4.35% per annum for providing their tokens to the borrower pool.
In 2020, the Aave team also released a token of the same name, which:
- serves to manage the Aave DeFi protocol;
- is a collateral asset when obtaining loans on its own platform with a bonus in the form of commission discounts;
- is used for staking with rewards in the form of AAVE tokens.
Although the Aave platform cannot boast the high returns offered by less liquid platforms, it remains one of the most reliable in the DeFi market, which is best suited for whales with large capital. In addition, due to low financing rates, loans are also cheap, which is another reason for Aave’s popularity.
EigenLayer
EigenLayer is the leading restaking protocol in the DeFi market, built on the Ethereum blockchain platform. In 2024, restaking became a new trend in the crypto industry and allowed for the reuse of staked digital assets such as Ethereum.
Despite the fact that EigenLayer was only launched in April 2024, it is one of the top three protocols in the DeFi market in terms of total locked assets: as of March 2025, this figure stands at $8.3 billion. In terms of TVL, the EigenLayer platform surpasses even such well-known decentralized protocols as Uniswap and Maker.
Although EigenLayer is similar in mechanics to platforms such as Lido and Rocket Pool, it differs from them in its operating principle, with developers focusing on staking security and the creation of innovative DeFi products.
The platform’s native token, EIGEN, appeared shortly after the launch of the EigenLayer protocol at the end of April 2024. The EIGEN token has features such as staking and rewards/penalties for EigenLayer protocol operators.
By reusing staked ETH, which allows for additional income even from capital locked in an Ethereum contract, the EigenLayer protocol is very popular among holders of the leading altcoin on the crypto market.