Organization Name – Milkyway Zone

Category – Banking & DeFi

MilkyWay is a pioneering liquid staking and restaking platform purpose-built for the emerging modular blockchain ecosystem. Since its debut in December 2023 on Celestia, it has offered the promise of …one stake, infinite impact—liquid staking, curated DeFi vaults, and soon, real‑world spend via the Way Card. Users deposit base tokens (like TIA, BABY, INIT), receive 1:1 liquid tokens (milkTIA, milkBABY, milkINIT) and can use them across integrated DeFi applications without forfeiting staking rewards. MilkyWay auto‑compounds yields within vaults that rebalance risk‑awarely across lending markets, liquidity pools, yield farms, and more—even paying off everyday purchases through future yield. At protocol level, it also supports modular restaking: builders seeking shared security can draw from these pooled assets and configure validation rules, while stakers can delegate to get boosted returns. The platform leverages CosmWasm on Osmosis, Cosmos SDK with IBC, a multi‑sig custody system connected via a daemon across chains, and a modular architecture enabling highly flexible staking workflows. Underpinning it is MILK, the native utility and governance token with a fixed supply of 1 billion. MILK accrues to stakeholders, AVS integrators, community contributors, and ecosystem growth initiatives; it supports security, gas, and treasury coordination. Incentivization extends via mPoints—a reward program for staking, bridging, restaking, referrals—with a MassDrop planned around the H1 2025 token launch. MilkyWay’s debut vaulted over $51 M TVL within two months; within months it grew its asset coverage to Celestia, Babylon, Initia, and deeper DeFi links with Camelot, Osmosis, Demex and others. Governance, security, and integrations have evolved under community‑driven design. Support for multi‑asset restaking (up to BTC, ETH, stablecoins) and custom AVS rules sharpens its developer appeal. Standard features like audits, bug bounties, and multisig infrastructure guard safety. MilkyWay’s on‑chain architecture and tooling drive interoperability and capital efficiency: stakers earn, build with confidence, and spend via future yield. Financially, it closed a $5 M seed round in April 2024 backed by YZi Labs, Polychain, Hack VC, LongHash, Crypto.com Capital, Mustafa Al‑Bassam, Kenny Li and others—setting stage for ecosystem growth. Token generation began in April 2025 aligned with Binance Wallet TGE; MILK now trades (~$0.05) across exchanges such as Bitget, KuCoin, and Bybit. Alongside technical launches (milkBABY and milkINIT in April 2025), MilkyWay positions itself as the connective tissue in modular architecture—bridging staking, DeFi yield, developer security and real‑world finance via earn‑maximize‑pay. Its multi‑chain, composable, extendable model positions it uniquely: not only does it simplify staking, but it also underwrites new apps with shared security. With modular chains gaining momentum, MilkyWay stands ready to onboard more assets, rollups, real swaps, spending rails, and governance tools. It represents the next frontier of liquid staking—evolving from single‑chain novelty to holistic capital orchestration across blockspace. As modular ecosystems advance, MilkyWay offers a foundational layer enabling capital fluidity, shared security, builder confidence, and financial inclusion for retail and institutions, blurring lines between banking, DeFi, and staking with a modular infrastructure-first vision. Read More

Organization Name – Harvest Finance

Category – Banking & DeFi

Harvest Finance is an autonomous asset management ecosystem launched to streamline yield farming, aiming to make decentralized finance more efficient, accessible, and profitable for everyday users and… seasoned DeFi participants alike. Emerging amid the mid‑2020 “DeFi summer,” Harvest recognized the fragmentation and inefficiencies across yield‑generating protocols and introduced a smart contract layer—vaults—capable of aggregating capital and deploying it into high‑yield strategies with minimal user intervention. The user journey is simple: connect a wallet, deposit tokens (e.g., ETH, USDC, WBTC), and receive fTokens representing vault shares, while the system auto‑harvests and compounds profits from platforms like Curve, Aave, Compound, Uniswap, SushiSwap, Yearn, and more. Interest is automatically reinvested, overcoming gas‑inefficient manual farming and delivering optimized returns. Harvest’s internal token, FARM, launched concurrently in September 2020 via a fair launch model—no pre‑sale, investors, or pre‑mining—with zero circulating supply at genesis. FARM serves dual purposes: governance participation and revenue sharing. Native staking pools allow FARM holders to earn performance fees extracted from vault activity. The supply was capped through a community‑led vote at 690,420 FARM over a four‑year emission schedule, with final minting ending in September 2024, ensuring token scarcity. Harvest’s early adoption was explosive: within a month, total value locked (TVL) soared past $1 billion, underscoring user confidence in its auto‑farm strategy. But the platform also faced adversity: in October 2020, a flash‑loan exploit drained ~$24 million from a USDC vault via price manipulation. The ensuing crash slashed TVL from over $1 billion to approximately $290 million within hours. A swift community governance response refunded affected users, introduced timelocks, and initiated audits. Over time, Harvest rebuilt trust, revised governance mechanisms, and expanded its toolkit, including the rollout of interest‑bearing iFARM, the fCASH borrowing facility, ampliFARM boost vaults, and support for Layer‑2 networks such as Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, and zkSync. Post‑exploit, governance decentralization improved, with community proposals guiding Vault additions, supply restrictions, and treasury decisions. The Harvest Council of 69—named for the playful ethos of “69 & 420 for the people”—oversees strategic partnerships, injections, and treasury spend. FARM’s real‑world utility has remained compelling: holders earn a share of protocol performance fees, vote on protocol changes, and participate in new strategy launches. Interoperability grew, with multi‑chain vault support, version 2 frontend overhaul, and seamless deposit‑withdraw mechanics across networks. As of mid‑2025, Harvest offers 100+ vault strategies spanning major chains, catering to both small capital users (min deposit ~ $1) and institutional capital via audited vaults and robust UX dashboards. The token economy supports farming via vault yield compounding and profit‑sharing through FARM staking. Continuous audits and timelocks enhance security, while governance evolves to balance protocol agility with decentralization. Despite periods of lower TVL relative to its early peak (e.g., ~$109 M in mid‑2022), the protocol has rebounded as DeFi matured. It remains integrated into the DeFi ecosystem—listed on major exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, ZB.com), embracing multi‑chain strategies like UNI V3, maintaining transparent analytics, and listing on index trackers like DPI. Through 2023 and 2024, Harvest focused on resilience, cross‑chain expansion, protocol iteration, community governance redesign, and risk mitigation. The launch of fCASH gave iFARM holders collateralized borrowing options, and ampliFARM enabled auto‑staking rewards. The protocol’s final token emission occurred in September 2024, marking a shift from emission‑driven incentives to treasury and fee‑based incentive structures. Harvest’s story is one of rapid ascension, crisis, and resilient reinvention. It showcases decentralized finance’s promise—and perils—while demonstrating how community‑driven solutions, transparent governance, and technical agility can restore trust and adapt to evolving financial ecosystems. Today, Harvest represents a mature automated yield farming platform: multi‑network, community‑governed, fee‑driven, and audit‑hardened. Its path offers a blueprint for programmable finance: democratized yield, aligned incentives, and guardrails for unpredictable risk. As DeFi continues to integrate with institutional and global capital flows, Harvest stands poised as a foundational layer for smart yield, cross‑chain asset management, and decentralized revenue sharing. Read More

Organization Name – Tranchess

Category – Banking & DeFi

Tranchess is a decentralized protocol launched in mid‑2021 that innovatively combines liquid staking with structured tranche investing to cater to varying risk appetites within a single ecosystem. I…ts origin dates back to early 2020, when the founders conceptualized it as an on‑chain equivalent of traditional tranche-based investment funds. The platform first debuted on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), with its BTC-tracking fund and associated tokens launching in June 2021, marking the official start of Tranchess. Shortly after, additional funds targeting ETH and BNB were introduced, enabling users to access liquid staking exposure and yield farming through native derivative tokens such as bQUEEN, qETH, and nQUEEN+. Tranchess employs a four-token architecture: main fund tokens (QUEEN) that track their underlying assets’ price movements plus staking rewards; BISHOP tokens, which represent conservative fixed-yield exposure by lending to leveraged participants; ROOK tokens, which provide a leveraged, non-liquidation position on the main funds; and CHESS, the governance token earned by staking QUEEN, BISHOP, or ROOK. Beyond farming yield, CHESS holders can lock their tokens to mint veCHESS, granting them voting power over emission schedules, fee rebates, and fund allocation across underlying pools. Weekly CHESS emissions began on June 24, 2021, at a rate starting at 300 k tokens, increasing incrementally, and vesting over about four years.

Emissions are dynamically allocated between BTC, ETH, and BNB pools proportionate to TVL and governed weightings.

Tranchess has expanded cross-chain via partnerships with Multichain and AnyCall to enable CHESS/veCHESS transfers between BNB Chain and Ethereum. On Nov 25, 2021, the qETH liquid staking fund launched on Ethereum, unlocking new utility for CHESS via Balancer and bribing mechanisms like Hiddenhand and auraBAL integration.

The core protocol supports instant creation and redemption of QUEEN tokens and added instant AMM swaps for BISHOP, ROOK, and BUSD conversions on its V2 upgrade. Security transparency is a priority: Tranchess has undergone multiple audits by PeckShield and CertiK and runs bug bounty programs. Governance via TranchessDAO was established in late 2022, allowing community oversight on CHESS emission splits, fund strategy, treasury growth, and transparency improvements.

Multichain expansion has been a primary focus; since late 2021, instant swaps, liquid staking for ETH, and extensive cross-chain bridges have been implemented.

The Tranchess BNB fund launched in early 2022, surpassing 230 k BNB in deposits within weeks, backed by the launch of validator nodes on BNB Chain to secure user yield through delegation and protocol rewards.

By mid‑2023, Tranchess had TVL over $40 million and market cap north of $17 million, signaling adoption across both conservative and risk-seeking investors.

Its tournament-style incentive program, “Trooper of the Month,” rewards community contributors and strengthens user engagement

The protocol continues rolling out features: integration with Chainlink oracles for stable pricing, UI redesigns, deeper AMM liquidity options, and expanded fund tracking. Notably, Tranchess has forged partnerships with Balancer, RockX, Multichain, Venus, Chainlink, and others, amplifying interoperability and user yield.

CHESS tokenomics emphasize community alignment: out of the 300 million supply, 50 % is earmarked for community rewards, 15 % for investors, 20 % to the team, 10 % for ecosystem, and 5 % reserved.

The platform’s emission design encourages users to stake and lock CHESS, while veCHESS unlocks fee rebates and governance weight. Ongoing focus remains on expanding liquid staking pools, adding new asset-backed funds, enhancing cross-chain utility, and evolving community-led governance, positioning Tranchess not just as a yield aggregator but as a modular finance hub tailored to different investor profiles. Its audited smart contracts, tranche flexibility, no-liquidation leveraged exposure, and dynamic DAO control set Tranchess apart in decentralized finance. As DeFi matures, Tranchess aims to broaden its product offerings, increase chain coverage and asset types, and strengthen its position as a sophisticated risk-return management platform. Read More

Organization Name – Biswap

Category – Banking & DeFi

Biswap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and DeFi platform originally launched in 2021 on Binance Smart Chain. It has since grown into a multi-chain ecosystem offering token swapping, yield farming, s…taking, launchpools, launchpad, NFT marketplace, lottery, referral system, and liquidity optimization tools. With over 1.2 million active users and partnerships with major names like Binance, Bybit, Axelar, Wormhole, and Sociogram, it aims to deliver broad exposure, robust liquidity, and strong support for projects launching on its platform.

From the outset, Biswap differentiates itself through ultra-low trading fees (0.1 %, sometimes tiered as low as 0.015 % for stable-pair swaps) and a unique three-tier referral rewards system, where users earn rewards not only from their own swaps and stakes but also a share of rewards from referred participants .

The core of Biswap’s utility is the BSW token, which is used across its ecosystem: for liquidity provision, staking, farming, fee rebate rewards, referral commissions, lottery tickets, launchpool participation, and token burn mechanics that reduce supply over time.

In its launch year it quickly integrated a wide array of functionalities, including initial DEX offerings (IDO), launchpools, a referral mechanism, farming and staking options, and even NFT trading. By its first anniversary in early 2022, Biswap had surpassed $600 million in TVL and $46 billion in accumulated trading volume—becoming one of the top ten DEX platforms across chains.

User engagement is driven by features such as fee return programs (where traders receive up to 100 % of swap fees back in BSW), high APR farms, and regular airdrops, faucets, and incentives, including a Space Agents creator program distributing up to $10K monthly.

According to platform documentation, BSW token supply is capped at roughly 203 million tokens, with programmed burns, revenue-sharing systems, and staking-based distribution helping recreate scarcity and incentivize loyalty.

Security and trust have been reinforced by independent audits—such as CertiK—which helped mitigate concerns around vulnerabilities or ownership risk. Users report steady yield farming returns in early phases and maintain that the platform has been more reliable than many other early DeFi offerings, though caution remains warranted given occasional reports of scams or user losses linked to wallet misuse or lack of transparency.

Alongside strong referral incentives, early Reddit posts describe extremely high APRs (often several thousand percent) and daily reward harvesting, lending to rapid growth but also potential concerns about sustainability.

Strategic future development is oriented around multi-chain expansion, including support for Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, and other roll‑up networks, as well as new investment tools, liquid staking, advanced trading instruments, and a profit‑sharing revenue model.

The roadmap signals an ambition to move beyond BNB Smart Chain to broader interoperability, deeper capital efficiency, and broader deflationary economics through revenue sharing and token burns.

Overall, Biswap is built to be a full-stack DEX ecosystem blending low-fee swaps, accessible farming, referral rewards, tokenomics-driven deflation, and community incentives. Its strengths include high user incentives, comprehensive toolset in one platform, competitive low fees, vibrant referral and airdrop structures, and growing cross-chain support. Risks lie in user-reported security incidents, the difficulty of sustaining early ultra-high APRs over time, anonymous team opacity, occasional censorship claims in community forums, and the broader regulatory uncertainty around DeFi platforms Read More