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With new projects rising and old tokens gaining huge popularity, the world of DEXs is in a continuous influx. Knowing the hottest DEX pairs at any given time can be very instrumental to crypto investors in identifying potential investment opportunities or simply understanding the current state of the market. Below is the list of the top 10 hot DEX pairs for the week ending June 21, 2024, along with some insights into what might be driving their popularity:
1. Ethereum (ETH) and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC): This classic pairing remains on DEXs. As ETH is the native token on the Ethereum blockchain, it remains one of the biggest DeFi players. WBTC offers users with a way to hold Bitcoin on the Ethereum network. Interest in this pair would likely be fanned by recent surges in DeFi activity and the upcoming Merge of Ethereum into Proof-of-Stake.
2. BNB and Binance USD: The native token of the Binance ecosystem, BNB, is usually in the top five most liquid cryptocurrencies. It has huge utility across most Binance services and gives discounts on trading fees. On the other side, BUSD is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar for offsetting the highly speculative nature of the remaining cryptocurrencies. Such a pairing provides maximum exposure to the Binance ecosystem, with the partial stability of a stable coin.
3. UNISWAP [UNI] and USD COIN [USDC]: The former is the governance token of the decentralized Uniswap exchange. It was seen again attracting interest due to the fame of DEXs. On the other side, the other big stablecoin, also pegged to the United States dollar and giving safety for investors during the market's swing, is USDC. This pair offers one communication in the Uniswap ecosystem that offers some stability.
4. Avalanche and Tether: Avalanche is a high-throughput blockchain that has been gaining immense, literally unbelievable, attention in past months. Faster transactions at lower fees compared to Ethereum make it interesting for ETH devs and even end-users. The world's largest stablecoin, USDT, would ease entry and exit into and from the Avalanche ecosystem with much ease. This pair thus symbolizes growing interest in alternative Layer 1 blockchains like Avalanche.
5. Cosmos (ATOM) and USD Coin (USDC): Cosmos is one such project on blockchain interoperability, aimed at the junction of different blockchains. ATOM, its native token, itself gains further interest as the necessity of interoperability in blockchain space gets widely recognized. The pairing with USDC allows users to invest in Cosmos while maintaining some price stability.
6. Chainlink (LINK) and Dai (DAI): Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network tasked with secure and dependable data feeds for blockchain applications. The LINK native token of this platform has given more adoption as the need for secure oracles increases. DAI serves as another decentralized stablecoin, this time with backing from other cryptocurrencies. This offers quite a rather algorithmic way of locking price stability. This can be interpreted to mean the onboarding importance of oracles and stablecoins into the DeFi ecosystem.
7. Sandbox (SAND) and Polygon (MATIC): This is the metaverse project developed to allow the creating, exploring, and monetizing of several virtual experiences that users can create. The concept of metaverse has been part of mainstream conversation, and its utility token, SAND, has been doing considerably well independent of everything. MATIC is the indigenous token for the Polygon network, a blockchain scaling solution that enables high speeds. It offers an inexpensive platform on top of which metaverse projects like Sandbox can be based. This is, in itself, a pairing in which huge interest about the topic comes quite naturally: Metaverse and Layer 2 scaling solutions.
8. Decentraland and Ethereum: Decentraland is another big player in the blockchain-based metaverse arena, with its own offering of personal ownership and parcel virtual land development. MANA, its indigenous token, kept taking constant hype as the metaverse is developing. This pairing thus represents the metaverse dominance of Ethereum, with still so many projects built on this blockchain.
9. AAVE and USD Coin: Technically, AAVE is the governance token of the protocol of Aave, which represents one of the largest lending platforms existing in DeFi. Adoption of AAVE has been climbing with the rise in prominence of DeFi lending. This pairing offers users involvement in the Aave protocol while maintaining some price stability in their holdings.
10. Lido DAO and DAI: Lido DAO is also an Ethereum staking solution wherein the users who stake ETH are paid for liquidity without running their validator nodes themselves. Its governance token, LDO, picked up further as staking seems to be the trendier option for crypto holders. It is paired with DAI, which helps users join Lido DAO's staking services with some price stability in holdings. This would potentially create a stream of passive income but relativized it from the volatility of the market.
