Many blockchains are contributing to the decentralized finance ecosystem today. While most people look at Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche continues to make significant progress. It is now recognized as a chain with native USDC support, bringing even more attention to its growing decentralized finance ecosystem.
Avalanche Offers Many Advantages
Building on blockchain technology requires a solid foundation that provides accessibility, ease of use, a high throughput, and low transaction fees. Blockchains like Ethereum do not fall into this category, as it is an expensive ecosystem to send transactions or perform other actions. Moreover, its throughput is relatively low, making it unsuitable for decentralized finance and Apps. Even so, Ethereum remains the go-to blockchain for DeFi, applications, and smart contracts today.
That situation will change in the future, at least where Avalanche is concerned. It is a network that provides much higher throughput, far lower transaction fees, and has become home to a booming decentralized finance ecosystem. over 300 projects reside on Avalanche or are in development today. That number will likely increase even further, especially thanks to a recent $200 million development fund for decentralized finance-oriented projects.
One crucial pillar of DeFi is stablecoins, including USDT and USDC. Both currencies provide tremendous benefits to users exploring DeFi opportunities, including lending, borrowing, and yield farming. Avalanche users can access USDT and USDC, although that latter aspect has improved a bit. The need to use the Ethereum-to-Avalanche bridge is no longer required, as the USDC currency is now issued native on the blockchain.
The expansion to this blockchain is part of Circle’s effort to bring this stablecoin to as many blockchains as possible. Other supported networks include Hedera, Tron, Ethereum, Algorand, Stellar, and Solana. In addition, Circle will support over half a dozen more networks in the coming months. As Avalanche is one of the top five chains by DeFi Total Value Locked, it makes for a logical choice and has tremendous potential.
Numerous Successful DeFi Projects
Avalanche has quickly risen the ranks of blockchains ranked by Total Value Locked for decentralized finance. It is now the fourth-largest ecosystem by TVL, surpassing Tron and Solana in recent weeks. Moreover, the gap to Binance Smart Chain is $4.2 billion. As Avalanche’s TVL grows by over 10% every week, claiming a spot in the top three remains possible.
The ecosystem has numerous successful DeFi projects, including Benqi, Trader Joe, Wonderland, etc. These projects explore various products and services, including yield farming, lending, borrowing, liquidity provision, and more. Additionally, Benqi stands to gain momentum from the launch of USDC on Avalanche, as it acts as a decentralized non-custodial liquidity market protocol.
Stablecoins are an important aspect of decentralized finance and the broader cryptocurrency industry. Accessing these currencies on cheap and efficient blockchains can bring more mainstream attention to this industry. Moreover, the ongoing growth of USDC as a leading stablecoin shows investors seek active exposure to digital representations of the US Dollar.
