Arbitrum and its wider ecosystem are on fire right now.

In this text I'll go through the following:

• What is Arbitrum.

• What makes it so special?

• 3 great DeFi protocols you must know about.

• Strong DeFi protocols with lots of upside.

1. What is Arbitrum?

   Arbitrum is Ethereum's biggest Layer 2 to date. A Layer 2 blockchain is an extension of Ethereum that benefits from the security assurances provided by Ethereum while operating independently. It can do all of this because it's an Optimistic Rollup.

   Optimistic Rollups speed up Ethereum's smart contract by using a second-layer chain to handle most of the work, while still recording everything on the main chain for security.

2. What makes it so special?

   Everybody has been calling Arbitrum their new home, but why? It's been growing at an astonishing rate for many months and it currently sits as the 4th biggest chain by TVL and as the 3rd biggest chain for its 24hrs trading volume.

   

   

   It also has something worth more than any kind of TVL. And that is its community. Arbitrum has one of the most vibrant and innovative communities in the whole DeFi space Innovation happens at a large scale when there are developers wanting to create better products.

3. Great DeFi protocols you must know about

   @GMX_IO

   It has earned its spot as Arbitrum's absolute Real Yield King. GMX is a decentralized perpetual exchange that facilitates spot and perpetual trading with minimal fees and zero price impact. The exchange features a multi-asset pool called GLP that enables market making, swap fees, and leverage trading, generating income for liquidity providers and stakers of its main token, $GMX .

   $GMX's market cap has increased massively throughout 2022 and even during this year. It now sits at $640mln with a Fully diluted valuation of 1bln. It's been such a success that it also got deployed on @avalancheavax and it shares a stunning $633mln of TVL between both chains. GMX also generates $260k in revenue from fees making it one of the most profitable protocols in crypto.

   

   

@RDNTCapital

Radiant is an omnichain money market that allows users to deposit & borrow major assets across multiple chains. Its TVL has exploded since the beginning of 2023 and so did the Market Cap of its main token $RDNT. It's built atop of Layer Zero cross-chain interoperability, leveraging Stargate's stable router. The upcoming V2 release will simplify cross-chain fee sharing and expedite the process of launching on new chains and it will launch on @BNBCHAIN soon after.

@CamelotDEX

Camelot is Arbitrum's native decentralized exchange (DEX), with a strong emphasis on community participation through its innovative dividend distribution system and its custom-built launchpad. It is designed to be highly efficient and flexible for its users to utilize its custom infrastructure to achieve deep, sustainable, and adaptable liquidity. Camelot's TVL has been growing like crazy ever since its launch on Arbitrum and its main token $GRAIL has increased its value by more than 800% over the past 30 days.

1. Strong DeFi protocols with lots of upside

   @GainsNetwork_io

   A perp trading DEX with its flagship product gTrade. Been on Polygon for quite some time, but TVL has increased a lot after launching on Arbitrum.

   @vela_exchange

   Also a perp dex with some interesting differences (synthetics, forex, etc.)
   @dopex_io

   A decentralized Options exchange. Dopex has several products, but the flagship product SSOV allows users to lock up tokens for a defined period of time and earn yield. You can learn more about Dopex in this thread:

That's all for now, there's still a whole of protocols on the network but with time i'll be able to keep up to date. Cheers!!!