New DeFi platforms emerge as stock markets turn chaotic

The crypto community embraced President Trump and was rewarded with anti-regulatory policies. However, the trade war, fewer rate cuts, and other events rattled the stock market. The silver lining for crypto enthusiasts is that various DeFi developers are rolling out ambitious projects.

Time.Fun

The Solana-based platform, launched in February, is a market where fans may buy time they may share with their favorite creators.

Creators set profiles on Time.Fun and are divided into several categories, including music, influencers, investors, marketing, UI/UX design, athletes, and others.

We’re just about one month since launch with some incredible metrics, optimizations, products and creators.

– $191M+ in trading volume
– 200 creators onboarded
– 56/200 creators earning at least $1k in revenue
– $300K in donations to nonprofits

Read the full recap below 👇 pic.twitter.com/Af33D3uRsz

— time.fun (@timedotfun) April 2, 2025

Profiles present examples of their work and the desired price of their time, expressed in dollars per minute.

Customers may invest in creators or “buy” their time so that creators may spend it communicating with customers via chats, including audio and video calls.

Creators’ content can be sold via auctions. On top of everything, Time.Fun allows customers to connect with Solana team members.

Ethos

The purpose of the Ethos network is to provide tools that allow users to measure the credibility and reputation of the web3 platforms.

Ethos went live on Base in January. The platform allows various web3 entities to capitalize on their reputation. Bad actors may get penalized, though.

The information on the platform is crowdsourced. Users are expected to proactively share and post their accounts on their experience using Web3 services. The reputation is measured via Ethos credibility scores. These scores are gradually summed through thumbs up and down, adding or removing one point.

Also, it is possible to add a review that is not positive or negative but neutral. Depositing and staking ETH (vouching) will have a stronger impact on one’s reputation. Sharing negative experiences can result in slashing the rewards of a bad actor platform.

we are LIVE on @base
ethos is THE credibility protocol of the future, but we recognize credibility & reputation already exist in web3 today.

we’re acknowledging that in celebration of our launch through an initial claim of Contributor XP

Claim here → https://t.co/bG2A1deIWp pic.twitter.com/JtoU6KDbrM

— Ethos (@ethos_network) January 22, 2025

The Ethos tool may be integrated into other platforms so that users will see credibility scores displayed in the profiles of the X users and other platforms. Thus, Ethos moves its reputational scores outside its native platform.

3DNS

3DNS is an Ethereum-based onchain domain registration platform, launched in 2023 and claiming to be the first such.

The platform supports over 400 domains, including .com, .xyz, .box, and others. The domains can be created and registered in the form of ERC-721 tokens. 3DNS allows users to use all major NFT marketplaces.

Register your project’s domain on 3DNS to bring it directly onchain. This helps you avoid security risks from social engineering while managing everything through your crypto wallet instead of traditional registrars.

Choose between Base and Optimism networks for registration.… pic.twitter.com/DEm5XIv3db

— 3DNS 🟢🟩 (@3dns_inc) April 4, 2025

The domain addresses can be managed through a crypto wallet. More than that, the addresses can be used on decentralized and crypto-compatible apps.

Cortex protocol

Cortex protocol is one of the pioneering AI-driven DeFi platforms. With it, users can swap ETH for $HYPE or Cortex (CX) for Synapse (SYN).

The protocol also allows users to bridge Cortex across Solana and EVM. The Cortex Agent can answer questions, interpret code, or earn via DeFi.

Cortex Weekly Roundup:

This week we launched:
– Hyperliquid Public Launch
– Any user can now send up to 20 messages in the chat
– Improved chat responses

…amongst many other UI fixes, mobile improvements, and more.

What should we ship next week? pic.twitter.com/6RYtxQyOiM

— cortexprotocol.hl (@Cortex_Protocol) April 4, 2025

This protocol may be helpful for the developers of apps that incorporate AI. The CX token is used as a governance token to pay the transaction fees.

Wayfinder

Another fresh AI-driven project is Wayfinder. This platform facilitates cross-chain transactions, algorithmic trading operations, running smart contracts, etc.

Wayfinder is an AI open for you to teach it to work onchain. You will need tokens to guarantee the authenticity of the provided info.

Other platform participants will validate this information in exchange for a fee. As soon as the information is validated, everyone can see and use the new path. The author gets rewards every time their path is used.

I just used @AIWayfinder to vibe code a fun little onchain quest — you can play to win 0.008453 ETH

1. visit basebatches.xyz
2. fill out the sentence “_ regions, __________ in funding, totally _____” where the number of underscores is specific, the first word is a number, the… pic.twitter.com/NmSSW1CbTZ

— jesse.base.eth (@jessepollak) April 4, 2025

The example above showcases a quick code written by Jesse, a Base builder. The code allows users to gain 0.0038 ETH.

In a way, Wayfinder represents a new stage of the crypto wallet evolution where crypto wallets serve as decentralized, multi-faceted finance platforms.

Bitcoin and Ethereum evolution goes on

Bitcoin and Ethereum were not standing still either. Ethereum is ready for a Pectra upgrade, which is planned for May.

The upgrade will get the platform closer to a long-anticipated sharding system launch. The latter will tackle one of Ethereum’s greatest drawbacks–poor scalability.

Ethereum is going to use hybrid-proof finality to provide instant transactions verified via two or three independent layers of rollups: optimism, Zero-knowledge, and Trusted execution environments.

Ethereum will use more blobs to increase transaction speed while minimizing fees.

However, we’ll have to wait for Pectra for several weeks. Already, Ethereum embraces enhanced privacy thanks to collaboration with 0xbow.io.

The latter platform strives to find a balance between privacy and compliance, which is a vital and legitimate concern given the recent attacks on crypto, including a major Bybit hack.

ETH holders, head to https://t.co/TOznBtpyFM and deposit up to 1 ETH

If your funds pass our wallet screening, they can be withdrawn privately 🥷

If we don’t approve your funds, you can still withdraw back to your original wallet, making Privacy Pools a non-custodial system 🔐 pic.twitter.com/JKFvwFXlp7

— 0xbow.io (@0xbowio) March 31, 2025

During the current test phase, ETH holders may withdraw from 0.1 to 1 ETH privately via Privacy Pools.

When users request a withdrawal via Privacy Pools, the system screens their wallet. If everything is fine, ETH is withdrawn in privacy. If the funds are not approved, they are returned to the previous address.

As for Bitcoin, lately, various companies have contributed to the Bitcoin network a lot. For instance, Lombard and Babylon Labs introduced Bitcoin staking via a Baby token, paving the way for Bitcoin to enter the DeFi sector.

With the launch of @babylonlabs_io’s Genesis chain and the BABY token, BTC staking enters a new era — and if you’re holding LBTC, you’re part of it.

Here’s what you need to know about claiming BABY and getting ready for what’s next. 👇👇👇

— Lombard | LBTC (@Lombard_Finance) March 26, 2025

Other innovations include bringing Bitcoin into yield-mining via Xverse and Build On Bob.

While some may catch the bad vibes from the market, there is no shortage of new approaches and services that make crypto easier to send, receive, and store, leading to broader adoption. The projects mentioned in this article are only the tip of the iceberg.

Read more: Babylon Labs joins forces with Fiamma to unlock Bitcoin DeFi

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