Introduction

There is nothing in the crypto domain that compares to the breadth and depth of the Binance ecosystem. They have products and services which comprise both centralised and decentralized finance (and exchanges). Here is an overview  of the Binance ecosystem:

The original Binance chain is optimised for exchanging digital assets, and hosts the main centralised exchange and the Binance DEX. The new Binance smart chain adds smart contracts and dapps. They are integrated thru BEP2 to BEP20 transfers as per the below diagram:

For the purposes of this post, I will start off discussing the major BSC Defi dapps, and then get into the Cedefi financial services on binance.com. Here is a good overview video, for BSC if you have about 10 minutes. For further info, this article is a good summary. 

Binance Smart Chain dapps:

These dapps are pretty new, but already showing a lot of promise, and rapidly gaining in popularity. It is relatively easy to port apps over from Ethereum (EVM compatable), it can also be used with Metamask, and its much faster and cheaper than Ethereum. It also supports the major coins from other chains thru Bep20 wrapping. This system doesn't require KYC and AML compliance, like the centralised exchange (Binance.com). So, they support both type of financial environments, which is an advantage for transition from the traditional system. 

Cream Finance - Similar in function to Compound, it operates the same way as the ethereum version, but also has coins from other chains like Eth, Dot, Link, BTC etc. It also has yield farming rewards (Cream token) for an initial period, to incentivise providing liquidity. But its much faster and cheaper then the eth version. They are currently ranked 13th on defi pluse with TVL at $184.7 M (includes both Eth and BSC platforms). 

For.tube Defi - lending/borrowing platform - based on the force protocol, this dapp runs on BSC, as well as Ethereum. I have been testing it and the rates are very good for Eth, Dai, BNB (around 50% which includes farming yields, similar to the vaults in yearn (on the eth platform). Different coins are supported on the BSC version and the gas fees are lower, and it operates in a similar way to the eth version. You can also farm rewards in their "FOR" token, which you can easily redeem from the Mybank screen. You can redeem as often as you like, since there is very little cost to claiming rewards. You can further stake the Eth:For pair in the burgerswap pool (see below), if you want further rewards. 

They also have some impressive partners, and their defi platform is very interesting. Apparently, they are providing Defi services for  Huobi. Total liquidity is $84,602,001.85 for both platforms. 

Defi.money (formerly yfii)

Similar to the clone of YFI (yearn.finance) that runs on eth. I didnt see any formal announcement of BSC support, but it seems to work. Different coins are supported on the 2 platforms:

Panama Bridge - This bridge was recently released, and now supports metamask for transfers. It was developed, and is supported by Binance. It allows you to transfer a few of the major coins without having to go thru Binance to convert Eth/Erc20 to BNB/Bep20. It worked well for me. Here are the detailed instructions. 

Pancakeswap - Stake liquidity to get flip LP tokens in your wallet, then stake them to get cake. Staked cake gets syrup. (Gamified farming). One of the grant recipients from Binance fund. Seems to be the best for yield farming right now, IMHO

BSCswap - fork of Uniswap on BSC. Liquidity is at $1,505,140, which appears to be the largest of the dexes currently on BSC. It operates similarly to Eth/Uniswap, except the main token is BNB instead of Eth. You can be a liquidity provider, similar to Uniswap:

They also have BSCswap Pro, which is very similar to eth/balancer, with similar features. But this section doesn't have much liquidity yet, since it is quite new. 

They have also added Degenswap (innovation zone) for yield farming with the "Degen" token. 

Burger Swap - Fork of Uniswap (similar to Sushiswap) and has similar incentives to provide liquidity. Total liquidity is currently at $452,478. It has  gone down in the last couple of weeks. 

Burgerswap just added a bridge for ERC20 tokens from Ethereum, to BSC/Bep20 and back. I tried transferring eth over and it created a wrapped bWeth coin, which I could easily swap to any token that is supported by burgerswap. If it isn't, you can transfer it, but you have to list it on burgerswap yourself, and provide liquidity. But you will get a share of the swapping fees for that pool. So, its a little more involved than the Panama bridge (above)

Moredapps

• Anyswap - Cross chain swapping and bridge between Fusion, Binance smart Chain and Eth. They are still in the process of adding support for ethereum. The rewards for providing liquidity to the exchange are very high

• Farmswap.io - supports liquidity mining on both Eth and BSC. Will also enable cross chain AMM DEX swapping with a router function (presumably with the FARM Token). I am trying to get more info on how this will work, and when it can be expected to be launched. 
• Bnex.org - Exchange and staking for the BNX token (total liquidity on the front page doesn't seem to be correct). 
• Bakeryswap - Yet another AMM DEX on BSC, with farming rewards in bake tokens. No analytics that I could find.
• Softdrinkswap - Yield farming with high APY's. Liquidity ~ 5M
• Stormswap - another AMM/Dex to farm storm tokens by staking
• Narwhalswap - same
• Equator - AMM similar to Balance
• BeefyFinance - This project endeavours to be a yield optimizer, similar to Yearn on ethereum. It will farm from the best projects (see above) on your behalf, so that you don't have to research and go from one to another. This article describes the strategy. But it just launched, and the strategies aren't quite in place yet. It seems to have a lot of potential, if it delivers on the promises. 
• Spartan Pools - One of the first projects to migrate from Binance chain (BEP2) to Binance smart chain (BEP20) and they provide some good guides and documentation. They are community based system for derivatives (synthetic assets), similar to Synthetix on Eth, and have a program for incentivising liquidity. They also plan to provide other Defi services. 
• Swap Tuna - Similar to Sushiswap. For farming Tuna tokens 
• Bidao - this is similar to maker/dai but on BSC instead of eth. The coins will be Bid/bai on BSC, with bid for governance and Bai as the algorythmic stablecoin. Not live yet. 

Lists of Defi dapps

• Yieldfarming list on BSCScan by start date
• List of BSC dapps - from math wallet
• List of BSC defi dapps by number of users/volume from dapp radar
• Stats on Transactions, block times, and addresses for BSC network adoption

 - Running on testnet/In progress

• Dodo - Swapping exchange which eliminates Impermanent losses. Eth version is live, and works well. 
• Dego.finance - Defi lego pieces. They are developing a Multichain (eth  and BSC) modular Defi ecosystem, with a lot of different components. Retro UI. Includes all the usual defi components, including NFT's. 
• Alpha Finance labs - launching very soon on BSC and Eth
• Venus.io money markets (similar to maker/dai on BSC, same developers as Swipe card)
• Cross Finance -"An inter-chain swapping & multi-chain liquidity pool platform, Cross Finance's solution is to connect all chains & allow users to swap & yield-farm on native & synthetic assets. With Cross Finance, you trade & harvest without any borders" 
• Fry.world - Community based Yield farming aggregator (Similar to yearn on eth). In the fund raising stage

Binance.com Finance

This is the venerable, arguably the largest and best centralised exchange in the world, with fiat onramps, and adding a lot of banking and financial activities. They are also fully regulated and legally compliant with the various jurisdictions around the world. 

Binance.com also helps to serve the role of cross chain hub (albeit centralised), by allowing you to transfer coins across chains, and also convert Ethereum assets from ERC20, which is the most widely used standard in the world for tokens to BEP20, so that they can run on the Binance smart chain.

Here are some of the Cedefi financial services that they have added

• Savings (interest bearing)

Included in the est. APY are yield farming rewards in another token that they are promoting called BEL (Bella protocol). Here is more detail on Binance launchpool. (CeDefi product)

• Staking support for POS chains

• Liquid Swap (Liquidity mining for yield farming) similar to Uniswap/Sushiswap (Cedefi version of above BSC dapps)

They also have a limited swap function for stablecoins, similar to Curve.fi and Uniswap

• Binance smart mining pools (proof of work mining)

"Introduction for Binance Smart POW mining Pool - Smart Pool is a service that enables the user to get higher profit by auto-switching hash rate to mine different currencies with the same algorithm. Binance Smart Pool is supporting the SHA256 algorithm and the hash rate of users can be switched among BTC, BCH, and BSV automatically. The final mining income is settled in BTC. "

• Loans

Binance.org Dex (Bep2) and Trust wallet

This additional exchange fits between the main centralised exchange and the community smart contract type of dapp DEX. This CeDefi Dex has a lot of trading pairs, with cross chain capabilities, and the integration with the mobile trust wallet. I  am currently using the trust wallet to farm Kava tokens. You can lock up some BNB to mint usdx, and you will be rewarded with Kava, which you can claim weekly. 

Conclusion

There is so much going on here, that its hard to get an appreciation for everything that they have accomplished, and are in the process of building. They are expanding at a rapid pace. Here is a chart of the growth of unique addresses:

Some people have a problem with the centralised aspect of their services.  But most people still trade on the Binance centralised exchange, which is probably the largest and most successful in the world for various reasons. They still have the most trading pairs from different blockchains, deep liquidity, margin trading, futures, derivatives, fiat onramps, and visa credit card for spending crypto. They have services suited for large institutional traders, as well as small retail ones. They have demonstrated that they deserve to be trusted, and that is what most people are used to in the traditional financial system. Some people still prefer a regulated, legally compliant system, and are willing to do KYC and AML. 

The only thing that I was really missing was a killer monitoring tool like zapper.fi. But I guess that will come with time and increased adoption. For now, I keep track of this manually on the portfolio page of coingecko. 

It might turn out that Cedefi will be the best way to transition to more decentralisation over time. Binance has shown that they will support what the people want, and they are very customer driven. They have very good documentation, and centralised technical support, which is still something that most people prefer over telegram forums for solving problems.