Linea has just passed $1 billion in total value locked (TVL), and its Ignition incentive program is attracting a wave of new DeFi and Web3 apps. Because it’s a zkEVM chain that works almost like Ethereum but with lower fees and fast finality, it’s becoming a popular place for both builders and users who want good yields and smooth on-chain activity. Here’s a simple, real-world breakdown of 10 important types of apps and protocols that are helping Linea grow right now.
First is Aave, one of the most trusted lending and borrowing protocols in crypto. On Linea, Aave acts as a core money market: people can deposit major assets like ETH or stablecoins to earn interest, and others can borrow against them. The risk systems are battle-tested from Ethereum, and Linea’s Ignition rewards give extra incentives to early liquidity providers, so users can often earn higher yields than on older, more crowded chains.
Next is Etherex, which aims to be Linea’s main DeFi center. It offers token swaps and liquidity pools where users can provide liquidity and earn trading fees plus token rewards. Because Linea’s fees are low and the chain is optimized for zk rollups, Etherex grew rapidly in TVL as users chased emissions and ecosystem incentives. For traders, it feels like a simple, fast DEX; for liquidity providers, it’s a way to earn yield on assets they already hold.
Euler brings more advanced lending to Linea, especially for long-tail or newer tokens that aren’t always supported on big, conservative protocols. It uses a risk management system that separates pools and tranches so that less risky assets are protected from more volatile ones. This lets more experimental tokens get liquidity while still keeping the system as safe as possible. For DAOs and more active traders who want leverage on niche assets, Euler is a place to do that without needing permission from a central gatekeeper.
PancakeSwap v3 is another major piece of Linea’s DeFi stack. It’s a leading DEX from the BNB Chain ecosystem that has expanded to multiple chains. On Linea, its v3 version offers concentrated liquidity, where liquidity providers can choose narrow price ranges to make their capital more efficient. This helps deliver tight spreads and a trading experience that feels close to a centralized exchange, but with on-chain transparency and security tied to Ethereum standards, while still benefiting from zk-level low fees.
Beefy Finance is an auto-compounding yield optimizer. Instead of manually claiming and re-staking rewards from Aave, DEX liquidity pools, or Ignition farms, users can deposit into Beefy vaults. The vaults automatically harvest and reinvest rewards, increasing the amount of underlying tokens over time. This is useful for people who want passive income from DeFi but don’t want to constantly manage positions, gas costs, and compounding schedules.
HorizonDEX is focused on concentrated liquidity. And professional trading tools made specifically with Linea in mind. It gives liquidity providers more granular control over their positions allowing them to design strategies around specific price bands or market conditions. Traders benefit from deeper more efficient liquidity that is controlled by algorithms. And advanced LP strategies while fees remain low thanks to the underlying zk infrastructure.
Renzo brings the growing trend of liquid restaking to Linea. Restaking lets users take staked ETH and restake it to secure additional networks or services, earning extra rewards. Renzo issues a liquid token that represents these restaked positions. Users can then use that token in DeFi on Linea putting it into money markets, liquidity pools, or farms. This means they can earn restaking rewards plus DeFi yields at the same time, stacking multiple sources of income without giving up flexibility.
Linea is also attracting Real-World Asset (RWA) protocols, which bring traditional financial products onto the blockchain. These include tokenized U.S. treasuries, on-chain credit products, and tokenized funds or income streams. Because transaction costs are low and the chain is Ethereum-compatible, RWAs can be managed more efficiently, and dashboards have started tracking yields, maturities, and risk profiles. For users, this means it’s becoming easier to access real-world yield products from a Web3 wallet, rather than going through banks or brokers.
Alongside that, a set of perpetual futures and margin trading platforms is emerging on Linea. These protocols allow traders to take leveraged long or short positions on major assets like ETH, BTC, or blue-chip tokens without expiry dates. They typically plug into liquidity from DEXs and lending markets, creating a connected stack: you can borrow on a lending protocol, trade perps using that collateral, and then manage your risk in one ecosystem. As volume grows, these perps platforms are likely to become a key driver of fees and activity on Linea.
Finally, wallets and infrastructure DApps are quietly doing the heavy lifting in the background. RPC providers, indexing and data APIs, bridges, explorers and multi-chain wallets are adding or deepening support for Linea. This makes it easier for both users and developers: users can connect with wallets they already know, and developers can launch new DApps without building their own low-level tooling from scratch. Strong infrastructure is what turns a fast blockchain into a true ecosystem, and Linea is quickly checking those boxes.
Taken together, these ten categories of DApps show how fast Linea is evolving from “just another Ethereum L2” into a serious DeFi and Web3 hub. It combines cheap and scalable blockspace with deepening liquidity and aggressive incentive programs. For users, that means more ways to lend, borrow, trade, restake, and access real-world assets. For builders, it means a growing audience and mature tools. And for the broader ecosystem, it’s another signal that zk-based Ethereum scaling is starting to support full-featured, high-liquidity financial systems not just experiments.
