Solana’s Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Projects: The Trending 5 of 2024

Despite its downfall in 2021, Solana made a dramatic comeback with innovative technologies in 2024. Now, as one of the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector leaders, Solana is home to many high TVL projects that benefit from the platform’s scalability, rapid transactions, and minimal gas fees. 

So, with so many successful DeFi Solana projects, which ones hold the most promise in 2024? We’ve handpicked five of them here.

Marinade

Marinade Finance is one of the biggest projects in Solana. It is known for offering unique staking solutions and having one of the highest TVLs.

Using its native token, MNDE, token holders can earn staking rewards while earning the right to vote on the platform’s development and marketing initiatives. 

The platform is particularly known for its innovative liquid and native staking protocols, which help stakers accrue yield while contributing to Marinade’s security. Plus, changes in the Protected Staking Rewards (PSR) and the delegation mechanism will let Marinade offset staking reward losses while putting more validators in charge of the operations. 

Without negatively impacting staker APY, Marinade helps decentralize the Solana validator pool by delegating to more than 100 validators.

Key Features of Marinade

Liquid Staking

Here, token holders can stake SOL and get the tokenized mSOL in return, helping them collect yield as a reward for making the platform liquid and secure. They can use their mSOL in other dApps to maximize their returns. 

Marinade Native

Similar to liquid staking, but receiving SOL directly instead of mSOL on every round. With custody over their tokens, users are immune to smart contract risks and the 6% reward fee charge when using the liquid staking protocol.

PSR

With PSR, stakers don’t have to worry about losing rewards due to lost commissions or protocol issues. The platform also uses its own bond and validator bonds to cover possible losses.

Jito

Jito is the next trending DeFi project on Solana. The AMM mechanism in Jito is known for its speed and efficiency; it greatly increases trade execution speeds and decreases trade latency.

Its cutting-edge design maximizes liquidity while minimizing slippage and offering users a smooth trading process. By committing their SOL and receiving JitoSOL, stakeholders are rewarded for boosting the platform’s liquidity. 

Jito’s unique solution to the MEV controversy has set it apart from the competition. Despite a significant role in solving market inefficiencies, particularly in lending platforms, many experts are worried that MEV will offer an unfair advantage to a few by allowing them to exploit positions in a network.

Jito’s answer was to set up an auction system so investors could bid on transaction chains they thought would make them money. Third-party block systems then run models to find the best transaction pairings. The bids are then sent to validators and stakers in the form of JitoSOL. This system successfully eliminates spam benefits while increasing staker awards. 

Key Features of Jito

Highest TVL in Solana

As of now, Jito enjoys a whopping $1.4B TVL, putting it at the top of all Solana DeFi projects.

The MEV solution

Users may get extra incentives from JitoSOL when MEV transactions take place on the platform. The auction mechanism ensures that validators enhance the network performance, helping avoid congestion.

New income streams for validators

The new auction system lets validators make more money from transactions and gives stakers a share of MEV benefits, boosting their income. 

Kamino Finance

Kamino entered the DeFi scene back in 2022, and since then, it has raced to the top by offering a diverse pack of DeFi solutions, particularly in lending and borrowing.

The KMNO utility is not much different from other DeFi projects. Besides voting on the platform’s key proposals around grants, revenue allocations, and other areas, KMNO holders can stake their tokens on the platform and earn rewards. 

One of the things that sets KMNO apart from the rest is the Kamino Points system. Users have been actively participating in the liquidity vault, lending, and borrowing processes since the announcement of points as a reward system. This strategy is fundamental to Kamino’s development since it determines which users will be most generously compensated in future airdrops.

Key Features of Kamino Finance

The Multiply feature

It makes Kamino more attractive to users. With Multipliers, users can boost their investment in a profit-making asset by borrowing more of that asset.

Kamino Points

A unique reward system that dramatically boosts user engagement while creating a fair reward distribution model where every user gets compensated based on their respective contribution.

Creator Vaults

It gives seasoned market makers the freedom to build and maintain liquidity positions however they see fit, depending on their unique strategies and goals.

Orca

Orca is one of the easiest DeFi apps on Solana for people of all experience levels to use because it has a simple design and swap feature. 

Thanks to Solana’s inherent speed and affordability, Orca processes transactions in under a second while also charging gas fees around half a cent. Similar to other Solana DeFi projects, ORCA token holders can earn a 0.3% reward for staking their tokens while also enjoying the right to cast their votes on the platform’s future.

To solve the usual problem of high slippage and untapped capital limits for LPs, Orca has introduced a new AMM program, Whirlpools.

Whirlpools help with this issue by letting LPs focus their capital on certain price ranges. To promote better capital allocation, LPs will get a larger cut of fees and incentives if they provide higher liquidity for the actual trade price range. Traders also pay less for slippage because there is more volume around the pair’s real price. 

Key Features of Orca

Whirlpools

While minimizing slippage costs for users, it allows LPs to get the highest return for their contribution.

Fair Price Indicator

Using CoinGecko as a reference, this indicator ensures there’s no significant (+1%) discrepancy between the quoted price and the actual price. 

Ultra-fast transactions

Using Solana’s inherent speed, the platform processes transactions in under a second with minimal gas fees.

Marginfi

While similar to many other DeFi lending platforms, Marginfi promises a more innovative, risk-free experience for users. Currently, the platform has only one token, MRGN, with a specific utility. MRGN serves as a governance token for users, letting them be part of the community monitoring Marginfi’s development.

To deliver on this promise, it provides a sophisticated risk management system (mrgnlend) to update users on the status of their loans while maintaining the overall infrastructure. Also, Marginfi ensures transparency and efficiency by removing bad loans via an automatic liquidation mechanism. 

Key Features of Marginfi

New mrgn points

Similar to Kamino, Marginfi uses the “mrgn points” system to encourage user participation and adjust the airdrop offering according to each member’s level of interaction with the platform.

Liquid staking

In addition to better staking returns, this solution comes with extra perks like bigger payouts and no staking fees.

Mrgnswap

The platform has announced plans to launch “mrgnswap,” claimed to be the first ever integrated stableswap.