Introduction

In November 2021, $SOL reached its all-time high at $250. A year later, in November 2022, it traded around $10. Many marked this as the death of Solana, the chain that was called the Ethereum killer. At that time, liquidity flowed out of protocols, and the only active sector on Solana was the NFT market.

Now, one year later, $SOL is trading around $60, and liquidity is flowing back into Solana, with protocol’s TVL skyrocketing. And... among DeFi protocols on Solana, MarginFi stands out in terms of attracting users and TVL.

What is MarginFi?

MarginFi is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol built on Solana. It particularly focuses on accumulating liquid staking tokens like JitoSol, mSol, and bSol. Users who have staked their SOL on other platforms can deposit their reserved tokens on MarginFi to earn extra yields or use them as collateral to borrow other tokens. MarginFi has also recently introduced its own liquid staking token, LST. According to their website:

LST is the only 8% yielding LST.

LST is the only 0% commission LST.

On MarginFi, you can swap your tokens powered by Jupiter and bridge your tokens powered by Mayan.

A Rapid Growth

In early July, MarginFi introduced its MRGN points mechanism, marking a pivotal moment for the project. Since the introduction of MRGN points, the platform has witnessed one of the most rapid growth rates within its niche. As can be seen, the TVL started growing in July, and in October, it skyrocketed to more than $110M.

Similarly, the number of daily active users has grown considerably since July 2023.

Currently, MarginFi, with about 800 daily active users on average, is the third most popular DeFi protocol on Solana in the past 30 days.

Conclusion

With the recent developments, we should revisit our ideas about some chains like Solana. There are new and old DeFi protocols on Solana that are worth keeping an eye on. Jupiter has already announced the $JUP token and a possible airdrop. Other platforms like Jito and MarginFi are tallying points for the potential introduction of tokens and airdrops in the near future.

Additional Resources

• For an analysis of the evolution of the Solana chain and $Sol price, please refer to my analytic dashboard.

• For an overview of MarginFi's growth and its users, also see my analytics dashboard on MarginFi.

• To use MarginFi and earn points, you can use my referral code.