One minute, crypto mooning. The next, it’s taking a dip, leaving everyone clutching their wallets and wondering what went wrong.
But while traders are nursing their wounds, some blockchain projects are busy building, grinding away in the trenches of DeFi, whether the market cares or not.
Chainlink, the king of the code jungle
Santiment revealed that a handful of DeFi projects have been leading the charge in development activity over the past 30 days.
🧑💻 Here are crypto's top 10 DeFi projects by development. Directional indicators represent each project's ranking positioning since last month:
➡️ 1) @chainlink $LINK 🥇
📈 2) @defichain $DFI 🥈
📉 3) @deepbookonsui $DEEP 🥉
➡️ 4) @synthetix_io $SNX
➡️ 5) @coinbase $CBBTC
📈 6)… pic.twitter.com/datHJAJ6rR— Santiment (@santimentfeed) March 20, 2025
That’s right, while your portfolio was melting, these teams were coding like their lives depended on it. Let’s take a look at the top contenders, and the first one is the Chainlink
This is the oracle network that’s basically the plumbing of decentralized finance. With a development activity score of 547.5, Chainlink has been putting in the work. The result?
Well… not much for its price. LINK has tanked over 22% this month, proving that hard work and financial success don’t always go hand in hand.
DeFiChain and DeepBook, working hard, losing harder?
Right behind Chainlink is DeFiChain, a Bitcoin-centric DeFi network, boasting a development score of 265.3.
Admirable effort, except its native token, DFI, has absolutely cratered, losing over 40% of its value. That’s like hitting the gym every day for a month and somehow gaining 10 pounds. Rough.
Third on the list is DeepBook, a decentralized exchange built on the Sui blockchain.
Its development activity score sits at 254.17, which sounds impressive, until you realize that its native token, DEEP, has shed nearly half its value in the same timeframe. Maybe they should rename it “DeepRed.”
SNX, CBBTC, and the others
The permissionless derivatives protocol Synthetix is next, logging a 195.13 development score. Unfortunately, its price chart also looks like a ski slope, down 13.6% for the month.
Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin, or CBBTC takes fifth place with a 148.3 score. Since it’s literally just Bitcoin wrapped up in a new outfit, its value sticks close to BTC’s, which was hovering at $83,849 at last check.
Further down, Lido Finance and Liquity have also been busy bees, making improvements to their staking and borrowing protocols.
Meanwhile, Injective and Uniswap round out the top ten, proving that at least some DeFi projects still believe in a future beyond market tantrums.
The market’s ugly. Tokens are bleeding. But DeFi development? Still going strong.
These projects aren’t just riding the hype train, they’re laying the tracks for whatever comes next. Whether that effort translates to price gains anytime soon is another story.
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