DeFi Apps Running on zkSync: A Comparative Analysis

zkSync, as a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, is carving a niche for itself in the Ethereum ecosystem. Its low fees, scalability, and maintained security through zkRollups have made it a preferred choice for many applications. Let’s delve deep into a comparative analysis of some popular apps running on zkSync.

Brief Overview:

1. Balancer: Balancer serves as both an automated market-maker and a platform for liquidity provision. Users can create customizable pools to provide liquidity and earn trading fees in return.
2. Mute.io: An all-in-one platform offering automated market-making, yield farming, and a bond platform.
3. Sushiswap: Sushi is a comprehensive DeFi platform, allowing users to swap, earn, stack yields, lend, borrow, and leverage, backed by a robust decentralized community.
4. WOO Network: Connecting traders, exchanges, and DeFi through a deep liquidity network, WOO Network offers best-in-class liquidity and trading execution.
5. KyberSwap: Functioning as a cross-chain decentralized exchange and aggregator across 15 chains, KyberSwap is also the home of KyberAI, a tool for traders to get market insights.
6. Symbiosis: A multi-chain liquidity protocol, Symbiosis lets users perform any-to-any token swaps and much more.
7. zkFlip: This platform is a fully decentralized order book DEX that facilitates 1-click liquidity provisioning.
8. SyncSwap: A powerful decentralized AMM exchange that offers a seamless and cost-effective trading experience on zkSync.
9. SpaceFi: Catering to Web 3.0, SpaceFi is a cross-chain platform with a DEX, NFT capabilities, Starter, and DAO functionalities. Notably, it connects Evmos in Cosmos to zkSync in Ethereum.
10. PerpDEX: A perpetual future decentralized exchange, PerpDEX allows users to engage in leverage trading with a plethora of technological improvements ensuring safe trading.
11. rhino.fi: Acting as a multichain DeFi aggregator, rhino.fi simplifies the exploration of the best DeFi opportunities.

1. Balancer

Balancer stands out as a pioneering AMM protocol on Ethereum, offering unmatched flexibility for programmable liquidity. What truly sets Balancer apart from conventional AMM models is its innovative architecture which decouples the AMM curve logic and mathematics from the fundamental swapping operations. This design decision unlocks a world of possibilities:

1. Traditional Weighted Pools: The classic 50/50 pool split is available, providing liquidity providers with familiar options.
2. Custom Weight Pools: Flexibility is key. Balancer supports pools with custom weights, such as 80/20, letting liquidity providers determine their exposure.
3. Stable Swap Curves: Ideal for stablecoin swaps to minimize slippage.
4. Nested Pools: A unique feature, for instance, Boosted Pools, that further diversifies the offerings.
5. Dynamic Weight Pools: Known as Liquidity Bootstrapping Pools, these pools allow for weights to evolve over time.
6. Concentrated Liquidity Pools: This feature enables providers to focus liquidity on specific price ranges, maximizing their potential returns.
7. Managed Pools: Pools where parameters are tailored and customized for unique requirements.
8. Protocols Built on Top: Balancer’s flexibility supports the creation of entirely new protocols above its architecture, like Gyroscope.

All of this culminates in a rich ecosystem where swappers, arbitrageurs, and aggregators can access vast liquidity. The Balancer Vault is central to this, ensuring optimized batching and path logic, resulting in reduced gas costs and minimal capital requisites. Every individual pool or project built atop Balancer reaps the advantages of its collective liquidity, ensuring depth for base assets and creating myriad swap routes.

2. Mute.io

Mute, a decentralized exchange on zkSync, supports liquidity provision and automated market making. Notably, it provides access to tokens not available on other zkSync exchanges, such as WISP, zCULT, ZKRICE, among others.

Mute not only allows users to track their assets but also offers exceptional liquidity pool yields, with some pairs delivering over 40% annually. Furthermore, it has its token, integral to farming campaigns and the DAO mechanism, currently boasting a capitalization of $50 million.

3. Sushi

While various platforms have made strides to chip away at the liquidity quandary, many of these efforts can be best described as incremental; they build upon existing solutions but don’t fundamentally reimagine the landscape. Sushi, on the other hand, doesn’t just aim to provide a solution but envisions creating a ripple effect of broader network repercussions.

What sets Sushi apart is its refusal to be boxed into a singular framework. Rather than treading the path of a one-size-fits-all solution, Sushi fosters an ecosystem where multiple decentralized markets and financial instruments coalesce. This tapestry of intertwined solutions offers:

1. Versatility: Users aren’t limited to a single market or mechanism but can seamlessly transition between various avenues based on their financial goals.
2. Resilience: With multiple solutions working in tandem, the system is less vulnerable to systemic failures or market shocks.
3. Inclusivity: By incorporating a wide array of decentralized instruments, Sushi ensures it caters to a diverse user base, from novice traders to seasoned DeFi veterans.

But perhaps the most defining aspect of Sushi is its community-driven ethos. Every enhancement, integration, or strategic decision echoes the collective voice of its community. This participatory approach ensures that Sushi remains agile, adaptive, and in line with the evolving needs of its users.

In a world where decentralized finance is rapidly changing the contours of traditional finance, Sushi emerges as not just a platform, but as a beacon, illuminating the path forward for holistic, integrated, and decentralized liquidity solutions.

Read more: Understanding ZK Rollups and Optimistic Rollups: Layer 2 Scaling Solutions for Ethereum

4. WOO Network

WOOFi stands out in the DeFi landscape by ingeniously integrating the vast liquidity typical of centralized exchanges directly on-chain. This fusion empowers DeFi enthusiasts to execute substantial swaps, ensuring they benefit from the most competitive swap fees and the tiniest of slippages. With WOOFi, traders get the best of both worlds, maximizing profit potential without compromising on decentralization.

Core Features of WOOFi:

1. On-Chain Centralized Liquidity: At the core of WOOFi is its unique capability to bring the profound liquidity of centralized exchanges onto the blockchain. This ensures that DeFi traders can perform large swaps, optimizing their profits through the least possible slippage and the lowest swap fees.
2. Cross-Chain Swaps: WOOFi isn’t limited by boundaries. It enables swift and seamless movement of significant assets across a whopping 10 supported chains, ensuring minimal slippage during these transitions.
3. Revenue Sharing: Loyalty is rewarded at WOOFi. By staking WOO tokens, users get a cut of the pie, earning a staggering 80% of all swap fees. And the cherry on top? They can choose to receive these rewards in either WOO or USDC.
4. Supercharged Yields: The platform offers a unique lending proposition. Users can lend their assets to WOOFi’s liquidity manager and, in return, enjoy robust single-sided yields devoid of the dreaded impermanent loss.
5. Perp Trading: For traders seeking the thrill of futures without relinquishing the benefits of decentralization, WOOFi’s perpetual futures trading feature with an order book is a game-changer. It captures the essence of the CeFi trading experience while still maintaining the fundamental principle of self-custody.

5. KyberSwap

Kyber Network stands as a pillar in the DeFi universe, dedicated to crafting a landscape where DeFi is not just accessible, but also safe and lucrative for its users. Spearheading this mission is their marquee platform, KyberSwap – an advanced DEX aggregator. It’s the go-to hub for traders seeking optimal rates and for liquidity providers aiming for maximized returns in the DeFi sector.

Diving into the particulars of KyberSwap’s offerings for liquidity providers:

1. Capital Efficiency Protocols: At its core, KyberSwap houses an array of protocols fine-tuned to ensure that liquidity providers get the best bang for their buck. Every protocol is designed with an unerring focus on optimizing returns.
2. KyberSwap Classic: Making waves in the DeFi domain, KyberSwap Classic takes pride in being the pioneering market maker protocol. Its standout feature is the dynamic liquidity provider fee model. As market conditions ebb and flow, these fees adjust in real-time, guaranteeing that LPs always receive remuneration that mirrors the market’s pulse.
3. KyberSwap Elastic: Elevating the game, KyberSwap Elastic unveils a tick-based AMM model saturated with concentrated liquidity. It’s not just about liquidity though.

6. Symbiosis

Symbiosis is a trailblazing decentralized exchange that aggregates liquidity from multiple blockchains, regardless of whether they employ EVM technology. With Symbiosis, users can trade any token and seamlessly move their assets across different blockchains. The platform eliminates the need to worry about a token’s network or how to transfer funds between various blockchains. All cross-chain operations are streamlined into a single-click process, offering competitive exchange rates and transaction costs.

The Symbiosis protocol is meticulously designed to offer a frictionless cross-chain trading experience, abiding by these key principles:

• Complete Decentralization: Symbiosis operates without a centralized authority, ensuring no single entity can disrupt its functionality or censor user access.
• Interoperability: Symbiosis aims to establish a connection with every blockchain that attracts substantial market interest, striving to create a unified bridge across all blockchains.
• Non-custodial: User funds are always secure, as no one – including the Symbiosis team – can access them.
• Boundless Cross-chain Liquidity: The protocol targets an extensive range of token pairs across all blockchains, offering the best prices for swaps between any arbitrary token pair.

7. Syncswap

Syncswap, one of the first decentralized platforms on zkSync Era, offers extensive token exchange capabilities. It allows users to switch their assets into various tokens, including ETH, USDT, MATIC, BUSD, and BNB, among others. Besides, users can contribute their liquidity in the “Pool” section and reap passive income.

In March 2023, Syncswap launched its token, incentivizing user engagement through activities like token swapping and liquidity farming. The platform shows earned SYNC tokens in the “Rewards” section, encouraging higher transaction volume.

Read more: A Beginner’s Guide to the zkSync Ecosystem

8. zkFlip

zkFlip stands out as the inaugural decentralized and permissionless orderbook exchange for both spot and derivative trading, allowing even the most novice users to establish genuine retail LP positions with unparalleled ease.

Our core mission intertwines the granular precision, control, and efficiency inherent to an orderbook DEX with the expansive decentralized liquidity pool of an AMM. This symbiosis not only ensures lucrative LP incentives but also introduces a degree of price control that traditional AMMs simply can’t match. The outcome? The authenticity and feel of a centralized exchange, but with the virtues of decentralization at its heart.

But we didn’t stop there. Introducing our groundbreaking Automated Orderbook Maker (AOM) technology—a suite of robust tools that, while potent, is crafted to be user-friendly and approachable for all. For a deeper dive into the mechanics and possibilities of AOM, we welcome you to explore our dedicated explainer page.

9. SpaseFI

SpaseFI, a multifaceted platform on zkSync Era, presents a blend of a DEX, NFT marketplace, Starter, and DAO. Token exchanges and liquidity provision remain two core activities that could potentially lead to retrodrops. Given the modest amount of locked funds, some farming programs yield a staggering 650% returns.

In its NFT marketplace, users can buy NFTs themed around planets and celestial objects. By locking native SPASE tokens in the xSPASE block, they can join the DAO and earn staking rewards.

Read more: ZK-SNARKs vs ZK-STARKs: How Do ZK-Proofs Differ?

10. PerpDEX

Introducing PerpDEX, an avant-garde decentralized exchange dedicated to perpetual futures. Seamlessly transact with Perpetual Futures contracts on platforms like Ethereum, zkSync, and the Astar Network, combining the essence of ease, trustworthiness, and security.

PerpDEX isn’t just a trading platform; it’s a comprehensive financial toolbox tailored for both makers and takers. The overarching vision? To democratize the process, allowing everyone, regardless of expertise, to craft or trade perpetual futures contracts with unparalleled simplicity.

Key Features at a Glance:

• Broad Spectrum Trading: Go long or short on any cryptocurrency asset of your choice.
• Amplified Gains: Engage in trades with leverage scaling up to an impressive 10x.
• Passive Income Stream: Benefit from transaction mining, turning trades into an additional revenue channel.
• Risky Endeavours, Amplified Returns: Leverage your LP positions for those with a higher risk appetite.
• Safety Protocols: Enjoy features like Liquidation-Free Funding and a protective Bankruptcy Guard ensuring protocol integrity.
• Diverse Network Affinity: With multichain support, trade seamlessly across various networks.
• Unwavering Compatibility: PerpDEX prides itself on its EVM compatibility.
• Innovative AMM: Experience the power of a lossless AMM, ensuring your assets remain intact.

In essence, PerpDEX isn’t just a platform; it’s the future of decentralized perpetual futures trading, reimagined.

11. rhino.fi

The rhino.fi API heralds a new era of nimble and automated trading for digital assets, encompassing prominent cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin. What sets it apart? The ability to transact while ensuring that your funds, whether in a personal secure wallet or a sophisticated smart contract, remain firmly within your grasp.

Delve Deeper into the API Capabilities:

The meticulously designed endpoints cater to a multitude of trading needs:

• Order Management: Seamlessly submit, revise, or pull back orders on the rhino.fi order book.
• Safeguarded Access: No more dependence on traditional API keys. Instead, the system uses cryptographic signatures for secure and authentic access.
• Full Custody: Unlike some platforms, you’ll always have undiluted control and custody over your funds.

Conclusion

The surge of applications choosing zkSync for their base infrastructure is evidence of its emerging importance in the Ethereum ecosystem. This diversity of applications, ranging from liquidity providers to DeFi aggregators, showcases the versatility of zkSync. Whether you are a trader, developer, or simply a crypto enthusiast, there is a zkSync-based application tailored to your needs.

Read more:

• Top 10 DeFi projects zkSync
• Exploring the New ConsenSys zkEVM: The Power of Zero-Knowledge Proofs
• History of Zero-Knowledge Proofs: From Cryptography to Blockchain