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1. GMX (GMX)
GMX is a decentralized exchange that allows users to trade popular cryptocurrencies directly from their crypto wallets. It offers spot swaps and trade perpetual futures up to 50x leverage. Unlike centralized exchanges, GMX allows users to keep custody of their assets by using a cryptocurrency wallet. GMX's native multi-asset pool, GLP, earns fees for liquidity providers, and it uses Chainlink Oracles for dynamic pricing.
GMX launched on the Arbitrum One blockchain in September 2021 and later continued on Avalanche in January 2022. The protocol has since become the second largest derivatives platform in DeFi behind DYDX with over $100 billion in volume traded, $140 million in daily open interest and 230,000+ daily users.
2. ZyberSwap (ZYB)
ZyberSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Arbitrum blockchain, offering an automated market-maker (AMM) and low fees for swapping crypto assets. It boasts some of the most lucrative rewards for staking and yield farming on the entire Arbitrum network, making it an attractive option for DeFi users. The platform is fully committed to decentralization and community involvement, with all major changes decided via governance voting.
ZyberSwap has also chosen to employ a fair launch strategy for its token distribution, ensuring that all users have an equal opportunity to acquire its tokens. Further, the platform has undergone a thorough security audit and is incubated by Solidproof, which not only provides access to their expertise but also offers free audit and KYC processes for new projects. Overall, ZyberSwap is a secure and user-friendly DEX that is leading the way in the burgeoning Arbitrum ecosystem.
3. Radiant (RDNT)
Radiant is a cross-chain DeFi platform and is the first omnichain money market, allowing users to deposit any major asset on any major chain and borrow supported assets across multiple chains. The protocol's mission is to consolidate the fragmented liquidity that is currently spread across the top Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols like Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbiturm, Optimism and other networks. Lenders who provide liquidity can earn value through the native token $RDNT. Borrowers can withdraw against collateralized funds to obtain liquidity without selling their assets.
Radiant launched v1 on Arbitrum, a secure and decentralized blockchain that allows the team to build an ecosystem with competitive interest-bearing opportunities while maintaining a high degree of safety. Radiant's cross-chain interoperability will be built atop Layer Zero, with v1 leveraging Stargate's stable router interface. Radiant's native utility token is $RDNT, with emissions allocated to users who provide utility to the platform as Lenders, Borrowers, and RDNT/WETH liquidity providers. The community votes on important measures using locked $RDNT.
4. Gains Netwrok (GNS)
Gains Network is one of the fastest growing decentralized trading platforms on Arbitrum that offers full custody of users' funds, median spot prices, and competitive fees. It allows trading of various assets, including crypto, forex, stocks, indices, and commodities, with high leverages of up to 150x on cryptos, 1000x on forex, 100x on stocks, 35x on indices, and 250x on commodities. Gains Network operates transparently and executes trades 100% on-chain. Its trading engine has no order books or liquidity for each pair, but a single gDAI vault for all trading pairs listed, making it 100x+ more capital efficient.
Synthetic leverage is used, and the DAI vault and the GNS token back the leverage. Gains Network utilizes a custom real-time Chainlink decentralized oracle network to get the median price for each trading order, effectively filtering out any outlier price action happening on a single exchange. The trading engine is fully decentralized, and users do not need to sign up or deposit to start trading. The platform is deployed on Arbitrum and has grown to over 100,000 users with $29 billion in volume traded since its inception.
5. SolidLizard (SLIZ)
SolidLizard is a decentralized exchange deployed on Arbitrum, which offers low-cost token exchanges and reduced swap fees. It utilizes a governance model called the ve(3,3) system, which rewards active user participation through voting, bribes, and decisions on whether to lock or unlock the governance token. SolidLizard allows users to earn income through liquidity provisioning, receiving a share of the rewards allocated to incentivized gauges based on the amount of liquidity they have provided.
Approximately 62% of SLIZ's supply is directed towards liquidity providers, and 33% will go to veSLIZ holders at epoch 1. The veSLIZ holders will see their share of the emissions increase every week, rewarding long-term investors. The team receives 5% of the total emissions. Liquidity providers do not receive any swap fees from the gauge's trading volume. Instead, their income is generated from the rewards distributed by veSLIZ to the gauge.
Why is the Arbitrum Ecosystem a Promising Investment in 2023?
The Arbitrum ecosystem is growing rapidly due to its wider adoption and the scale-up of decentralized finance (DeFi) and gaming applications on the chain. According to a research report by Bernstein, the blockchain has the fastest-growing user base among leading blockchains, with daily transactions and revenue four times higher than six months ago.
The rapid transaction growth is also driven by the growing app ecosystem, with leading DeFi and gaming applications like GMX, Gains Network, and Radiant driving the growth. Additionally, new wallets and wallet activation trends are very strong, with new user acquisition doubling in the past six months and daily active users tripling over the same period. The report also notes that Arbitrum is the only chain where liquidity locked is growing.
Final Thoughts
The Arbitrum ecosystem is quickly becoming one of the most attractive destinations for blockchain developers and users alike. The chain offers faster transaction speeds, low gas fees, and a wide variety of products and services to choose from. Additionally, its growing user base and active wallets suggest that it will continue to grow as more applications are built on the platform. All of these factors make the Arbitrum ecosystem projects outlined in this list a promising investment for the future.
