Sort out 30 mainstream projects that need long-term attention this year

Original Title: 《30 protocols with strong catalysts in the coming months》

Original Author: Thor Hartvigsen, Crypto Researcher

Original Compilation: Kxp, BlockBeats

Against the backdrop of multiple factors such as the anticipated slowdown in the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes, the crypto market has experienced a strong upward trend. Crypto researchers have identified 30 mainstream projects that need long-term attention this year to grasp the latest developments of mainstream protocols in the coming months.

Lido

Lido V2:

· Staking Router: Allows anyone to become a node operator through a modular plug-and-play model (aiming to increase decentralization)

· Withdrawals: StETH holders can withdraw directly from the beacon chain after the Shanghai upgrade

Velodrome

Velodrome 2.0 will launch in Q1:

· VELO FED: veVELO holders will have a say in the VELO monetary policy

· Customizable and adjustable trading fees for currency pairs

· New methods for concentrated liquidity pools

· Overall UI/UX improvements

· And several other upgrades

Radiant Capital

Radiant V2 will introduce in a few weeks:

· Cross-chain expansion (first to BNB chain)

· New assets for lending, including StETH, BNB, potential GLP, gDAI, and more assets through governance voting

· Dynamic liquidity reduction of RDNT emissions

· UI/UX redesign

Fantom Foundation

· fUSD v2: An on-chain fee system for builders and users (optional use of fUSD as transaction fees)

· FVM: Solidity compatible, faster execution; tests show about 4500tps, data storage reduced by 98%, mainnet planned for launch by the end of 2023

· Andre will return

Rocket Pool

Atlas Upgrade:

· Preparing for withdrawals (Shanghai upgrade)

· 8 ETH mini pools (the remaining 24 ETH provided by the protocol for operating validators); lower entry barriers + higher levels of decentralization

· Gas fee optimization (reduced by 40%)

Atlas is planned to launch in March/April.

PlutusDAO

· PLS V2 tokenomics will launch in late March: This will allow users to lock their PLS for multiplier points in the treasury. By doing so, they can earn real rewards, receive esPLS Tokens, and more.

· Additionally, PlutusDAO is planning to incorporate more governance tokens into its platform, with plsRDNT being the next token to join. The PlvRDNT treasury is also planned for future launch.

GMX

GMX will launch V2 at some point this year (possibly Q1/Q2, currently undergoing audits), which will introduce a large number of new tradable assets, not just crypto (synthetic currency pairs).

There are also previews of cross-chain expansion after V2 in Discord.

Optimism Foundation

Optimism is building the OP stack: a modular blockchain framework for easily building various scalable rollups (OP chain). Coinbase's Base will be the first to utilize this technology, with its first phase being Bedrock (Q1 2023).

Trader Joe

· Cross-chain expansion to BNB chain

Liquidity Book V2:

· V2 pool fee conversion for sJOE stakers

· Limit orders and permissionless liquidity book pools

Rage Trade

· Upgrade to GLP high-risk preference treasury: Hedging for traders' profits and losses

· GLP v2 integration (after GMX synthetics upgrade)

· Cross-chain expansion

· Rage perp v2: Potential new collateral options besides tricrypto

Synapse Protocol

Synapse is building an Ethereum-native optimistic rollup (Synapse chain):

· Cross-chain messaging: Call a contract on one chain and execute it on another

· Built for cross-chain Dapps, equipped with Synapse bridging

· Coming soon

Frax Finance

· frxETH continues to grow, as Frax offers the most competitive staking yields

· FIP-188: FRAX will become fully collateralized (from 92% to 100%)

· Overall growth of FRAX and the Frax ecosystem (FPI, veFPIS, FraxSwap, Fraxlend frxETH, etc.)

Pendle

Pendle offers very high yields by splitting assets into principal tokens and yield tokens, with TVL on the rise throughout 2023.

They recently crossed over to Arbitrum with GLP and will add gDAI and additional assets in the future.

Synthetix

Synthetix V3:

· Using ETH and other assets as collateral for synthetic assets

· Liquidity providers will be able to choose which synthetic assets to allocate liquidity to (high risk = high fees)

· Products built on Synthetix (Kwenta, Lyra, Thales, etc.) will gain more adoption

Conic Finance

Conic offers an omnipool on Curve (distributing users' liquidity across different pools and staking it on Convex), allowing users to earn CRV + CVX + CNC. The protocol reached a TVL of 65 million in just one week.

Driving factors:

· Broader adoption due to high yields

· Additional assets

dopex

· rDPX v2: Ability to mint synthetic tokens with rDPX as partial collateral (deflationary pressure on rDPX), the first asset will be dpxETH (not LSD).

· Dopex OpFi products: DeFi products leveraging on-chain options in the background.

Polygon Labs

Polygon is building various chains:

· Polygon Supernets

· Polygon Avail

· Polygon Zero, Miden & zkEVM

· Polygon Nightfall

zkEVM will launch on the mainnet on March 27.

dYdX

dYdX is launching their own application chain (v4), built with Cosmos SDK, to create a decentralized experience similar to centralized trading platforms, which includes:

· No gas fees for trading

· Off-chain order book run by validators

· DYDX as the native gas token

Curve Finance

As stablecoins gain wider adoption, Curve, as the largest on-chain stablecoin liquidity hub, will benefit significantly.

The launch of crvUSD is approaching, creating additional revenue for Curve/veCRV.

Camelot

· More protocol integrations (launch panels and liquidity pools)

· Improved version of xGRAIL with so-called "plugins"

Lyra

Lyra recently launched their 'Newport' upgrade (which integrates GMX perpetual contracts and is deployed on Arbitrum), adding options trading for ETH and wBTC.

In the long term, DeFi options have great potential, and as the adoption range expands, Lyra may become one of the main protocols to benefit.

Cosmos

A few days ago, the first part of the Inter-Chain Security (ICS) upgrade was approved through governance and will launch on March 15.

ICS allows application chains to borrow the Cosmos validator set for security without needing to launch their own validators (which requires payment).

MakerDAO

Maker is advancing several projects, including:

· Spark Protocol: The first product is Spark Lend, inspired by Aave V3, with a direct Maker credit line (launching in April)

· EtherDAI: Native ETH LSD to support DAI

Gains Network

After launching on Arbitrum and adding new assets like commodities and indices, gTrade has become one of the leading decentralized perpetual contracts, experiencing a significant surge in trading volume. Although there is no official roadmap, there are many preview messages in Discord.

Aave

Aave is launching their native stablecoin GHO:

· Over-collateralized by assets on Aave

· Asset supply controlled by "facilitators" (entities elected by the DAO)

· AAVE stakers receive GHO minting discounts

Treasure

· Game Builder Program (GBP) in collaboration with Arbitrum: Incentivizing game developers to build within the Treasure DAO ecosystem

· MagicSwap v2: The future of in-game economies, supporting ERC-20 Tokens and NFT pools, planned for launch in Q2 this year

Uniswap

Uniswap recently announced their upcoming mobile application.

Uniswap remains the leading DEX, with approximately 50,000 users daily as of March.

The mobile app can better attract users to join.

Filecoin

Filecoin will launch the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) and Filecoin EVM (FEVM) on March 14.

FVM will allow the creation of custom smart contracts on top of Filecoin, opening up various new use cases such as tokenizing data, data DAOs, and more.

Kwenta

· Since launching V2 in February, the number of users has significantly increased

Some features set to launch in Q1/Q2:

· Lyra partnership

· Cross-margin v2

· Kwenta SDK

· Fee conversion for stakers

· UI/UX overhaul

… and more