Top Defi dApps by score and TVL

DeFi, short for decentralized finance, means financial services such as trading, lending and borrowing that run on blockchains through smart contracts instead of a bank or broker. You connect your own crypto wallet and interact with the protocol directly. Every DeFi app is a dApp, but not every dApp is financial.

Most DeFi apps earn through trading fees, interest spreads on lending, and fees on products like perpetual futures or managed funds. Some also have a protocol token that captures part of that revenue. The exact model differs by app, so check its documentation for how fees are charged and who receives them.

Non-custodial means the app never holds your funds. Your assets stay in your own wallet, and you approve each transaction yourself. This lowers the risk of a company freezing or losing your deposits, but it also means you are responsible for your keys and for the transactions you sign.

No. Smart contracts can contain bugs, prices can move sharply, and leveraged products like perps can lead to fast losses. Lending and on-chain funds carry their own risks, such as liquidations or strategy losses. Only use money you can afford to lose and read what an app discloses about audits and risks.

Kairo is the only DeFi app listed on our site right now. It is a non-custodial platform on Arc with swaps, perps, prediction markets, lending, on-chain funds and BTC financing, and it is also listed on Base, Arbitrum, Ethereum, BNB Chain and Robinhood Chain. It has a score of 5.8 from us at the time of writing.

Some DeFi products, especially prediction markets and certain derivatives, may count as gambling or regulated financial activity depending on your location. You must be 18 or older (21 or older in some places) and should check that these services are legal where you live. Do not try to bypass location limits, age checks or identity verification.

Layer2 Finance is the largest defi dApp by total value locked, with $98.4K. It is followed by Gravity Finance ($84.2K) and Flame DeFi ($1.19K). TVL figures come from DefiLlama and change daily.

Jewelswap has the highest score at 6.5/10, ahead of Position Defi (6.4) and Hyperbeat Liquid Bank (6.0). Scores weigh security, ease of use, fees and features, and are based only on facts we could verify.

DappsAtlas tracks 39 defi dApps. Of these, 39 have a full review and 3 report value locked, $184K in total.

Ethereum is the most common, with 5 of 39 defi dApps, followed by BNB Chain (5) and Polygon (5). 17% are deployed on more than one chain.

The 8 rated defi dApps average 5.6 out of 10. Of these, 0 score 8 or higher and 1 score below 5.