Following the last Near ecosystem's Token Season, let's discuss the leading ecosystems aside from the launchpad, and take a closer look at ecosystems that are gaining momentum + projects that are data leaders! As ETH's popularity continues to rise, DeFi projects are all stepping up to get active. As the flagship of DeFi in the Near ecosystem, @rhea_finance has solidified its position in NEAR DeFi 👑 through this round of merging Ref + Borrow.
🔝 DeFi data from @defillama
TVL remains stable at $1.6–2.6B, accounting for NEAR DeFi's dominant monthly trading volume of $2.4B, with a cumulative total exceeding $12B and over 1 million users, with protocol revenue stable and continuously rising.
The token situation of $RHEA itself:
Total supply is 1 billion, with approximately 200 million currently in circulation.
Mainly comes from the conversion of $REF / $BRRR for governance, staking (up to 20%), boosting lending yield, and community rewards.
In the distribution structure, 37% is for converting old tokens, 30.6% for incentives and airdrops (4% for early contributors), with the team and advisors locked for 6 + 30 months, with a maximum overall of 3 years, avoiding sudden unlocking disasters.
Core three-token model setup:
🔪$RHEA Attack Power Bonus - Core token for staking governance
🛡️xRHEA Steel of the Heart - Staking certificate used as Gas / collateral / reputation
🥿oRHEA Growth Speed - Reward token, converted back to $RHEA based on reputation and time.
This way, the ecosystem's 'staking-participation-reward-conversion' can loop infinitely. Compared to a simple DEX/Lending, it resembles a multi-chain DeFi abstraction layer, and the cross-chain experience is indeed smooth, such as directly using $SOL or $BNB's U to supplement NEAR Gas, or using BTC as Gas to play BTCFi.
For a project with this experience and a lending market scale reaching 200 million, the current FDV of 150M and a circulating market value just above 20M is indeed very low. Head DeFi like $Aave has an FDV of $4B–$5B, and even achieving a market cap share of just 1–5% within the NEAR public chain would imply a potential 2-10x (currently at 0.5%).
The spark of NEAR, I hope, is ignited by @rhea_finance! With the official launch of Token Season, there will be more currency pairs and liquidity, allowing the launchpad and DeFi to boost the ecosystem together, delighting the dual chefs 🧑🍳🧑🍳.
