Top DeFi tokens For 2025 – Aave, Hype and 2 More

DeFi is making a comeback. Part of this comeback is the shift to DeFi 3.0. This offers a better user experience. For example, with card payment options. Adding fiat options is a great improvement for DeFi. DeFi tokens also all have, per definition, utility.

Currently, the memecoin casino is under scrutiny. As a result, the Altcoin Buzz team and I, see a return to utility tokens. This rotation from the memecoin casino to utility tokens is imminent. Mark my words. So, that’s why today I look at some of the top DeFi tokens out there.

Aave ($AAVE)

Aave ($AAVE) is a lending and borrowing protocol. It also has one of the OG DeFi tokens. Its current Aave V3 is a top-notch platform. For example, Trump’s DeFi platform, World Liberty Financial, plans to use Aave V3. WLFI invested $6.71 million in $AAVE tokens. Other platforms can use Aave V3, since it’s open source. 

Aave is also one of the biggest DeFi protocols around. It ranks in second spot for TVL from all platforms. Its TVL is no less than $20 billion. Only Lido, the liquid staking platform, has more TVL.

It was launched in 2019 on Ethereum. However, currently, it’s available on 14 chains. This includes Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, and more. It has its own $GHO stablecoin. As a user, you can mint it, and you need to over-collateralize it. It pegs 1:1 to the $USD.

Currently, the easiest to way to take part in Aave is by lending assets. The current highest APY is 6.67% for lending $GHO on Arbitrum. However, Aave also offers three staking options. 

1. $AAVE with a 4.55% APY
2. $GHO with a 6.92% APY
3. $ABPT on Aave V2 with a 19.58% APR. This token represents a share in a Balancer pool. These are pools designed to maximize liquidity provider (LP) returns.

The current $AAVE price is $261 with a $3.9 billion market cap. Out of the 16 million max token supply, 15 million circulate.

Uniswap ($UNI)

Uniswap ($UNI) is another one of the top DeFi tokens. It also started out on Ethereum. That was in 2018. However, currently it’s available on 31 EVM compatible chains. It’s also a top 10 platform, measured by TVL, which stands at $4.88 billion. Uniswap is an AMM or an Automated Market Maker. AMMs use liquidity pools instead of order books, like on a CEX. 

So, on Uniswap you can swap ERC-20 tokens. It also has its own Uniswap wallet. This is available on Chrome, iOS, and Android. So, besides swapping, you can also earn rewards by adding assets to its liquidity pools.

The safest and easiest way is to supply tokens to a stablecoin pool. However, the APR is low for these pools, below 1%. The big advantage now is that you won’t have to deal with IL (Impermanent Loss). Impermanent loss is when you add liquidity to a pool of equal amounts in 2 assets, and the price of one of the assets changes. Find out more on IL in our dedicated article IL article. 

Currently, the best APR is in the $MOVE/$ETH pool, with 67.63%. Uniswap offers other pools with good APR, ranging between 10% and 20%. For instance, 

• $AAVE/$ETH 12.04%
• $ETH/$SOL 10.59%
• $LDO/$ETH 20.33%

And a few more. However, with all these pools, you have the chance of IL. 

The current $UNI price is $9.32 with a $5.58 billion market cap. Out of the 1 billion $UNI tokens, 600 million circulate.

If you’re looking to buy one of today’s DeFi tokens, look no further. BYDFi is one of the easiest places to find these DeFi tokens. You can trade spot markets without KYC. Give BYDFi a try today and get some bonuses for opening an account.

Hyperliquid ($HYPE)

Hyperliquid ($HYPE) set the DeFi world on its head with its recent airdrop in late November 2024. These ranged from $300 to $30k. It really set a new standard for airdrops. Ever since its TGE, the token only has gone up and is now going sideways in the $20 to $25 range. Very few of the airdrop receivers sold their allocation. That’s impressive. 

Hyperliquid has its own chain. A disadvantage is that you can only bridge $USDC from Arbitrum to Hyperliquid. It has been around since 2020 and is currently ranked as 14th chain measured by TVL. Its TVL is $653 million. Hyperliquid is a DEX, but it uses an orderbook.

It’s a Layer 1 app chain, and it is very fast. It can handle 20k tasks per second. This includes the best of what a DEX or CEX needs. For instance, orders, cancellations, or liquidations. It offers perps and vaults, and it’s built from the ground up. Its current flagship is a perps DEX. These perps DEXes always seem to be popular. 

Hyperliquid is also 100% self-funded. This can be one of the reasons that its $HYPE token price remains so strong. There was and is no real selling pressure. You can use its vaults, which offer 22.59% in the protocol vault. However, in user vaults you can earn up to 800% APR. These have higher risk, though. You can also stake $HYPE at around 2.07% to 2.27% APY.

The current $HYPE price is $25 with an $8.3 billion market cap. Out of the 1 billion tokens, 334 million circulate.

Raydium ($RAY)

Raydium ($RAY) is one of the most popular DEXes on Solana. It ranks 28th among all DEXes with a $1.5 billion TVL. Like Uniswap, it’s an AMM and works with liquidity pools. However, it also uses an orderbook by integrating OpenBook. This is a decentralized order book protocol.

It calls itself lightning-fast and offers permissionless pool creation. It has been around since 2021 and was the first AMM on Solana. 

As you may know, Solana fees are cheap. So, that’s an advantage Solana DeFi has over Ethereum DeFi. Besides adding liquidity, you can also trade perps. Be aware though, just like Hyperliquid, trading in perps is risky. You can use leverage and thus increase your gains. However, your losses are equally high. Before you use leverage, understand what you’re getting into. 

You can earn great APR rates by using its pools. Some $SOL and stablecoin pools offer up to 92% APR. Since everyone can create permissionless pools, you can find pools with the same pairs. Be careful, if the APR sounds too high, like 1000% or higher, it’s probably also very high risk. Check the liquidity and the volume of these pools. It’s also possible to stake $RAY with a 5.5% APR. 

The current $RAY price is $3.06 with a $900 million market cap. Out of the 555 million $RAY tokens, 290 million circulate. 8A That’s a 29% price drop, due to a surprise event over the weekend. It seems that Pump.fun has plans to launch its own AMM. This would sideline Raydium.

Have you ever used one of these DEXes? If so, which is your favorite one, or did I miss that one? Let me know in the comments and join our discussion on Discord and X.

Disclaimer

The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers, and their risk tolerance may be different from yours.

We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments, so please do your due diligence.

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