Top 5 Crypto DAO Projects to Look out for in 2023

WHAT IS A DECENTRALISED AUTONOMOUS ORGANISATION (DAO)?

According to definitions, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) is a system developed to distribute decision-making, management, and entity ownership. This is a system of governance that has no central governing body and every member within a DAO typically shares a common goal and attempts to act the in best interest of the entity.

DAOs have become popular very recently with the rising popularity of crypto enthusiasts and blockchain technology becoming more commonplace. Basically, a DAO is a system of efficiently taking decisions in an organisation with a bottoms-up management approach.

Also read: What are DAOs

Since there is no central body of authority in case of a DAO, power is distributed across people who hold a particular token of that blockchain network. All votes and activity through the DAO are posted on the blockchain network itself, making all actions of users publicly viewable.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the top DAOs projects in 2022 out there.

DAO Project	Features
AAVE	Aave (AAVE) is a decentralised lending protocol, that allows borrowers and lenders to interact without the need for any centralised intermediary.
MAKERDAO	MakerDAO is a peer-to-peer decentralised autonomous organisation built on the Ethereum blockchain network that allows people to lend and borrow using cryptos.
CURVE DAO	Curve.fi is the decentralised exchange and automated maker  protocol that is run by Curve DAO and CRV is the governance token that runs the DAO.
UNISWAP	Uniswap is a decentralised exchange (DEX) that runs on the Ethereum blockchain network. This is a DEX that allows investors to swap ERC-20 tokens easily without the need for any intermediary to facilitate the trades.
LIDO DAO	Lido Finance is yet another DeFi protocol the offers liquid staking for ETH and a few other tokens. What this means is that for every ETH that you stake on the LIDO protocol, you will receive one sETH which you can use.

1. AAVE

One of the Top DAO Projects to consider in 2023

Aave (AAVE) is a decentralised lending protocol, that allows borrowers and lenders to interact without the need for any centralised intermediary. The protocol was initially hosted on the Ethereum blockchain, but its popularity has allowed it to integrate with multiple other networks. This is the reason why it features on the list of top DAO projects for 2023.

As with other DAO crypto projects, holders of the AAVE token can have a real say in the protocol’s governance. These include how Treasury funds are used and potential upgrades to the system. Furthermore, AAVE can be used as collateral within the ecosystem, significantly reducing fees.

AAVE has lost over 90% from its all-time-high thanks to the bear run in the crypt0 market than began early in 2022. Once trading around $600-700, it is now trading around $50-60. According to data from DefiLlama, Aave is the fourth largest DeFi protocol run by its own DAO with a total-value-locked of over $3.7 billion.

Additional Read: Total Value Locked in DeFi

AAVE CRYPTO METRICS: A SNAPSHOT

Read more: AAVE Price Prediction

Check out latest AAVE INR Price, Charts, and Data. 

2. MAKERDAO (MKR)

DAO Project Built on Ethereum Blockchain

MakerDAO is a peer-to-peer decentralised autonomous organisation built on the Ethereum blockchain network that allows people to lend and borrow using cryptos. Like any other DeFi protocol, the process of borrowing and lending on this platform is controlled by smart contracts.

Because cryptos are highly volatile, MakerDAO uses a stablecoin known as Dai to determine lending rates and repayable amounts.

In simple terms, MakerDAO is a crypto lending credit facility that disburses loans at predetermined interest rates. If a MakerDAO user wants to borrow a certain amount of crypto, they would first need to deposit the Ethereum into a Maker smart contract. Now this smart contract creates what is called as a Collateralised Debt Position (CDP).

One of the biggest reasons this DAO crypto project has became popular is because The Maker Protocol – also known as the Multi-Collateral Dai System – was created with the objective to unlock the possibilities of DeFi and to provide its users and developers with innovative financial tools. Thus the Maker Protocol combined Dai stablecoin forms the vital base layer infrastructure for a multitude of other application specific decentralised finance protocols in the future. These features strongly positions it as one of the strongest contenders on the list of top DAO projects 2023.

Even before the broader market bear run began, MKR had been losing out market cap to far more competitive DeFi protocols in the market. Even in November 2021, when almost every other token worth its salt was touching ATH, MKR was trading over 40% down from its actual ATH. And ever since the crypto winter began, MKR has been hit pretty hard and has lost over 90% of its market cap since the beginning of the year.

MAKER CRYPTO METRICS: A SNAPSHOT

NATIVE TOKEN	MKR
CURRENT MARKET PRICE	$575
ALL-TIME-HIGH	~$6300
DRAWDOWN FROM ATH	~91%
TOTAL-VALUE-LOCKED	$5.94 BILLION
DEFI DOMINANCE	14.85%

Check out latest MAKER INR Price, Charts, and Data. 

Read more: MAKER Price Prediction

3. CURVE DAO (CRV)

DAO Projects Designed to Swap Between Similar ERC-20 Tokens, Primarily Stablecoins & More

Curve.fi is the decentralised exchange and automated maker  protocol that is run by Curve DAO and CRV is the governance token that runs the DAO. This is a DeFi protocol that runs on the Ethereum blockchain network. The protocol is designed to make it easy to swap between similar ERC-20 tokens, primarily stablecoins (like USDC and DAI) and Ethereum-based Bitcoin tokens (like WBTC and renBTC).

So, Curve differentiates itself from other DeFi protocols by focusing solely on stablecoins. According to the Curve.fi website, over 70 liquidity pools are available where users can deposit their idle holdings and generate a yield. Yields tend to be based on supply and demand, although certain pools offer APYs of over 30%.

One of the worst hit DAO tokens,  Curve (CRV) crypto has lost over 93% from its opening day highs which it was never able to reclaim again. Moving against the general trend, it touched a local high of around $7 just when 2022 began and since then has been on a strong downward trajectory. While prices are on the downlow and the project has lost a lot of market share, it still features on the list of top DAO projects to look out for in 2023.

Curve Crypto METRICS: A SNAPSHOT

NATIVE TOKEN	CRV
CURRENT MARKET PRICE	$0.58
ALL-TIME-HIGH	~$15.3
DRAWDOWN FROM ATH	~96%
TOTAL-VALUE-LOCKED	$3.72 BILLION
DEFI DOMINANCE	9.3%

Check out latest CURVE INR Price, Charts, and Data. 

4. UNISWAP (UNI)

Top DAO Project to Swap ERC-20 Tokens without any Intermediary

Uniswap is a decentralised exchange (DEX) that runs on the Ethereum blockchain network. This is a DEX that allows investors to swap ERC-20 tokens easily without the need for any intermediary to facilitate the trades. Since some of the most popular tokens for trading are ERC-20 compliant, Uniswap DAO Crypto Project becomes an attractive place for those kinds of traders.

One of the most unique features of Uniswap is that it uses something called ‘liquidity pools’ which replaces the order book format used by traditional exchanges to meet orders. Anyone can place their idle ERC-20 tokens into Uniswap’s liquidity pools and generate a yield return, thus incentivising holders to create liquidity in the system. Returns will vary depending on the token by staked in the pools but are usually far higher than traditional saving accounts or fixed income streams.

Also Read: UniSwap Use Case 

Much like MKR’s technical structures – Uniswap’s UNI token has also been falling well before the broader bull market ended. UNI had touched it’s all-time-high back in May 2021, during the earlier mini bull run that happened during those couple of months. But when the market did another run up, UNI couldn’t participate in that wholeheartedly and could record significantly lower high than before.

UNISWAP CRYPTO METRICS: A SNAPSHOT

NATIVE TOKEN	UNI
CURRENT MARKET PRICE	$5.6
ALL-TIME-HIGH	~$48
DRAWDOWN FROM ATH	~90%
TOTAL-VALUE-LOCKED	$3.4 BILLION
DEFI DOMINANCE	8.5%

Additional Read: Uniswap Technical Analysis

Check out latest UNI INR Price, Charts, and Data. 

5. LIDO FINANCE (LDO)

DAO Project for Liquid Staking for ETH and other Tokens

Lido Finance is yet another DeFi protocol the offers liquid staking for ETH and a few other tokens. What this means is that for every ETH that you stake on the LIDO protocol, you will receive one sETH – a tokenised version of staked Ether, or in other words, a liquid token. You can now use these stETH tokens and earn passive income on DeFi platforms. Lido doesn’t even ask for a minimum staking amount.

The Lido DAO crypto project governs Lido’s liquid staking protocols. This means that node operators don’t have direct access to your staked Ether. The Lido DAO picks the node operators. So it basically works as a liquid staking solution for proof-of-stake (POS) blockchains, aggregating node operator partners who run the underlying validator infrastructure on the Ethereum, Solana, and Terra blockchains.

LDO crypto has been falling ever since April 2022, but of late it has been making some strides upwards. Since the beginning of July 2022 alone, it has managed to more than double in value at its highs and the technical structures seem positive. The RSI, which had neared overbought regions has now receded back to safe levels and hence a further hike from current levels may be likely if market conditions persist.

LDO CRYPTO METRICS: A SNAPSHOT

NATIVE TOKEN	LDO
CURRENT MARKET PRICE	$1.07
ALL-TIME-HIGH	~$5
DRAWDOWN FROM ATH	~79%
TOTAL-VALUE-LOCKED	$5.89 BILLION
DEFI DOMINANCE	14.7%

TOP 5 DAO TOKENS (BY MARKET CAP)

TOP DAO TOKENS: A SNAPSHOT

	UNISWAP	AAVE	MAKERDAO	CURVE DAO	LIDO FINANCE
LAUNCH DATE	NOVEMBER 2018	JANUARY 2017	DECEMBER 2017	JANUARY 2020	DECEMBER 2020
FOUNDER	HAYDEN ADAMS	STANI KULECHOV	RUNE CHRISTENSEN	MICHAEL EGOROV	KONSTANTIN LOMASHUK, VASILIY SHAPOVALOV AND JORDAN FISH
BLOCKCHAIN	ETHEREUM	ETHEREUM	ETHEREUM	ETHEREUM	ETHEREUM
TOKEN NAME	UNI	AAVE	MKR	CRV	LDO
MARKET CAP	$4.2 BILLION	$820 MILLION	$561 MILLION	$311 MILLION	$334 MILLION
CIRCULATING SUPPLY	762 MILLION UNI	14 MILLION AAVE	977K MKR	531 MILLION CRV	312 MILLION
MAX SUPPLY	1 BILLION UNI	16 MILLION AAVE	1.005 MILLION MKR	3.3 BILLION CRV	1 BILLION LDO

Read in detail about Top DAO Tokens 2022 

Values as on 16 December, 2022

WHERE CAN YOU BUY DAO TOKENS IN INDIA?

You can buy and invest in these DAO tokens right here in India on our CoinDCX trading platform. Just download the CoinDCX App crypto investing app, enter the details required and wait for your profile to get verified. Once done, fund your wallet and buy DAO Tokens. It is as easy as that. Over 1 crore Indians trust CoinDCX and its about time you join the family too!