Jun 8, 2022
A Guide to Owning Your First DeFi Top 10 Coins/Tokens on LBank
The advent of Decentralised Finance, also known as DeFi, ushered in a new dispensation for individuals and some firms alike. It launched a new era for many people to experience what it feels like to have control over their assets.
Before then, nearly every sphere of the economy was managed by central authorities such as financial institutions (banks, savings and loan associations, insurance companies) and the government.
The main idea behind DeFi is to democratise finance by substituting the power of these centralised institutions with a peer-to-peer system where anonymous parties transact with each other instead of with a middleman.
Similarly, an ordinary man can access a slew of financial products and services without much hassle. Within seconds or minutes, anyone can transfer funds from anywhere and anytime.
A Broader View of Decentralised Finance
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) is simply an evolving financial technology that utilises a secure distributed ledger built on top of the blockchain. It makes use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to manage financial transactions.
Accordingly, the term DeFi was birthed in August 2018 between Ethereum developers and entrepreneurs, including Blake Henderson, Inje Yeo and Brendan Forster in a Telegram chat.
On the other hand, it is believed DeFi emerged with Bitcoin in 2009 as BTC was the first-ever peer-to-peer digital currency and the first financial application built on blockchain technology.
DeFi is powered by decentralised apps referred to as “Dapps” and “protocols.” These programs are already used today in various capacities. Most DeFi tokens are linked to DeFi protocols, which are in most cases governed almost entirely by their community of users.
The pivotal point for financial applications occurred when the Ethereum-based protocol MakerDAO launched in December 2017. With this came the “Dai” stablecoin, which allows users to borrow against ETH.
MakerDAO was a game-changer for the cryptocurrency space since it enabled users to issue crypto that is pegged one-to-one to the value of the U.S. dollar by using digital assets as collateral.
Further, it created a dollar-pegged digital asset that did not depend on owning dollars in a bank, such as USDC, USDT and other stablecoins.
Total Value Locked (TVL) of DeFi
As of April 3, 2022, the TVL in decentralised finance hit $231 billion, which indicated a rise to it nearing the all-time high (ATH) of $256 billion recorded on December 2, 2021. However, the recent turn out of events has seen the TVL go downhill, raising a lot of questions on the stability of stablecoins.
To elaborate, the DeFi market measures adoption by estimating what is known as “locked value,” which calculates how much is currently working in various DeFi protocols. Presently, the total locked value in the DeFi protocol is $48.7 billion.
While DeFi has lost almost 90% of its Total Value Locked (TVL) in the wake of Terra’s UST stablecoin and Luna token crash, analysts believe this is still the best time to invest in its coins and tokens as the ecosystem is still at an early stage and may likely bounce back soon.
What is the Best Place to Buy DeFi Tokens?
Aside from purchasing DeFi tokens on DeFi protocols, centralised cryptocurrency exchanges are another place to buy, sell and store this class of cryptos.
Just like every other cryptocurrency, investing in DeFi comes with a level of risk. For that reason, new traders should trade with caution and according to their risk threshold.
Being one of the top 20 crypto exchanges in the world, LBank is popular amongst traders looking to access varieties of coins and tokens as it is known as one of the exchanges with the largest liquidity, security and easy-to-use interface.
How to Buy DeFi Coin/Tokens in LBank Exchange
It is seamless to buy and sell cryptos on the LBank platform. There are at least thirty DeFi coins/tokens to trade with on the exchange including; LINK, UNI, SUSHI, AAVE, AVAX, CRV, amongst others.
To buy a DeFi token on LBank, you will need to first,
1. Download the LBank exchange app on the App Store or Google Play with your mobile. You can also access LBank on your browser.
2. Fund your LBank wallet when you click the ‘Buy Crypto’ button. Then, select your preferred payment options, which include Credit/Debit Card, bank transfer and other accredited payment gateways on the platform.
3. After that, you can go to “markets,” under spot markets, you choose USD and finally select DeFi. Alternatively, you can search for the token you intend to buy directly on the ‘Search’ button.
4. Click on the token you want to buy, set the amount and click on “buy.”
