According to DeFi Llama, WingRiders (WRT) is now the leading DeFi protocol on Cardano by Total Value Locked (TVL). The protocol currently holds 42% dominance of the chain, with $51.77 million locked.

The TVL of its next nearest competitor, Minswap, is $40.73 million, which is down 81% from its peak value of $211.53 million, achieved on March 28.

WingRiders sets itself apart from the competition

WingRiders is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) Decentralized Exchange (DEX) running on Cardano’s eUTxO layer 1.

This brings several benefits over accounting-model DEXes, as seen on Ethereum, including deterministic fees and, given the use of rich datum values, a flexible environment with which to process multiple operations reliably.

According to the whitepaper, the team set out to make use of Cardano’s transaction-based model to provide a trusted and cheap way to trade crypto tokens.

CryptoSlate reached out to WingRiders for commentary on its recent success. Kaaran Kalantari, the company spokesperson, said he attributes this to several factors including interest generated by the project’s upcoming IDO.

Although the reputation of stablecoins, in general, has taken a knock in recent times, Kalantari still sees them as critical components of the crypto industry. And with WingRiders being the only “real [Cardano] marketplace” for stablecoins, it offers Cardano users access to this key market.

“Stablecoins inspire trust and facilitate a greater level of transactions. Our users are able to purchase Tether and USDC, and none of our competitors offer major stablecoins. Furthermore, our competitors don’t offer yield farming potential on these stablecoins.”

Market turbulence and the role of DeFi in this

With the implosion of Terra and the ongoing industry-wide liquidity crisis unfolding, DeFi has been blamed as a contributory factor.

But Kalantari takes a philosophical view saying, DeFi, as an innovative and novel technology, opens users up to “a degree of inherent risk.” Nonetheless, the spin side to accepting this risk is the potential to make money.

“DeFi is pushing cutting-edge technology that is pioneering the future of financial systems, and whenever you are dealing with this level of innovation, there is a degree of inherent risk. There is also, of course, the potential to make money.”

A look at the project’s roadmap shows the team is planning to complete its IDO, and incorporate changes as a result of the Vasil upgrade, before Q2 ends.