## What Is Idle (IDLE)?

Idle is a decentralized finance project that lives by one simple motto: “Money should never sit still.”

The first iteration of this project went live in August 2019 — and a series of enhancements have been made in the months since. This subsequently led to the launch of Idle Finance V3, which aimed to deliver a streamlined interface and a better experience for users.

Through Idle, crypto investors can establish a portfolio that best manages their risk appetite. Once users make a deposit, funds are automatically distributed among a range of [DeFi](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-decentralized-finance) protocols, enabling them to earn interest. Portfolios are regularly rebalanced when better opportunities come along, and a dashboard offers at an at-a-glance insight into how funds are performing.


### Who Are the Founders of Idle (IDLE)?

Idle’s CEO is Matteo Pandolfi, and according to his LinkedIn profile, the project was co-founded during a ConsenSys hackathon. He has described his role at the company as “everything but code” — meaning that he is tasked with establishing the platform’s vision for the future, recruiting new talent and leading strategic sales.

In an interview with BitCompare, he explained that one of the most powerful lessons he’s learned since starting the company is that there’s little point in attempting to build a perfect product the first time round — instead, it’s better to make improvements along the way that are informed by feedback from users.

Pandolfi’s fellow co-founder at Idle is William Bergamo, who serves as the company’s chief technical officer.


#### What Makes Idle Finance Unique?

One of Idle’s unique selling points lies in how users don’t need to move their money manually between the plethora of DeFi protocols that exist today. This is achieved through holding IDLE tokens.

But another distinctive attribute concerns the fact that Idle Finance’s team have aimed to make their product as easy to use as possible. Blockchain complexity is an insurmountable hurdle for many investors who would otherwise be interested in learning more about what crypto has to offer.

In a recent interview with DeFi Prime, Pandolfi said that he believes gas should only be a thing that developers need to be concerned with — adding that insurance should be integrated into products to eliminate the risks associated with smart contract losses.


#### Related Pages:

Tech deep dive: [What is decentralized finance?](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-decentralized-finance)

Learn more about [yearn.finance](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/yearn-finance/).

[DeFi’s 10 biggest moments in 2020](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/defis-10-biggest-moments-in-2020).

Subscribe to the CoinMarketCap [newsletter](https://coinmarketcap.com/newsletter/).


#### How Many Idle Finance (IDLE) Coins Are There in Circulation?

As of late January 2020, CoinMarketCap data suggests that there are 892,640 IDLE in circulation, with a maximum supply of 13 million tokens.

An airdrop for IDLE tokens was held in late 2020 — and anyone who had interacted with this platform before October 2020 was eligible.


### How Is the Idle Finance Network Secured?

Idle Finance’s tokens are based on the [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/) network. The platform has undergone several security audits courtesy of Quantstamp, which concluded in a December 2020 assessment that these contracts “are generally well documented and well designed.” 


### Where Can You Buy Idle Finance (IDLE)?

The main market for acquiring Idle Finance tokens is found on [Uniswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/uniswap-v2/), where a pairing is offered with Wrapped ETH (otherwise known as WETH for short.) Learn more about how to convert local fiat currencies into crypto assets such as Bitcoin with [our straightforward guide](https://coinmarketcap.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/).

Idle

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Ethereum

Shiba Inu

Chainlink

Pepe

Uniswap

Eden

ELMOERC

Monavale

suterusu

AurusX

InsurAce

O3 Swap

Neutrino Index

Damex Token

hiPENGUINS

OmniCat

BIRDDOG

CAW(A Hunters Dream)

Railgun

Work X

Opium is a new platform for launching and trading cryptocurrency derivatives.

Having begun operations in May 2020, Opium uses Ethereum to run a decentralized derivatives marketplace in which any cryptocurrency owner can participate.

The aim of the platform is to democratize access to financial derivatives while using the benefits that decentralization affords traders over legacy alternatives.

Opium’s in-house token, OPIUM, launched in January 2021 and will fulfil various roles mostly centered around platform governance. Active users will be able to vote on some of the most important decisions involved in the platform’s operations.

Opium

dHedge DAO

xDai is a cryptocurrency that is pegged to the US dollar. The xDai chain is a stable payment blockchain that is designed for fast and inexpensive transactions. STAKE is secured by proof-of-stake consensus. xDai was founded on Oct. 1, 2018.

STAKE is a multi-chain staking token that is designed to secure the payment layer. Staking allows validators and delegators to provide transaction consensus and receive staking incentives for block production. It is only required for consensus providers, not everyday on-chain transactions.

xDai was created by the POA Network, an open-source public side-chain of Ethereum founded in April 2017. It offers a framework for smart contracts which provides developers with an easy and effective way to code on Ethereum, while also leveraging the POA Network capabilities.

STAKE

QuadrantProtocol

Pillar

saffron.finance

Kleros (PNK) is a decentralized dispute resolution project that launched in July 2018. It is an open-source online dispute resolution protocol that uses blockchain and crowdsourcing to adjudicate disputes fairly.

Kleros offers a middleman service for decentralized applications (DApps) and their users. If the service provided by the application does not create a dispute, Kleros acts as a trustless third-party service for payment.

When a dispute does occur, however, each party can apply for arbitration through the Kleros arbitrators that are selected from the owners of PNK tokens. PNK is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 utility token with a fixed supply.

At this point, the jurors can make a decision that will favor either party. The arbitration fees are distributed to all arbitrators in the form of ETH; jurors who have issued a minority decision lose part of their PNK tokens for the benefit of the majority of jurors. This decision can be appealed, at a cost. The stated mission of Kleros is to offer easier access to justice and improve individual freedom.

Kleros charges a cost that is payable in ETH and is provided by the parties to the dispute or drawn from the funds previously locked in escrow.

Kleros

YFDAI is an entire permission less DeFi ecosystem that combines Staking & Farming services and soon, Lending/Borrowing services, SafePredict, and Insurance together with their own DEX called SafeSwap and their own LaunchPad where legitimate projects in the DeFi space can launch their new vetted projects with contract audits, locked liquidity and locked dev tokens in time release smart contracts.  Whereas other DeFi protocols rely upon minting new tokens to sustain their staking and farming rewards, YFDAI has allocated tokens for these products which will be replenished with fees generated by the ecosystem. YFDAI also has a deflationary burn mechanism built into the platform that will ultimately reduce the total supply to just 13,950 tokens.

YFDAI’s mission is to clean up the DeFi space by de-risking the purchase of new projects by performing due diligence vetting and requiring adherence to the same protocols that YFDAI itself adhered to on their launch.  YFDAI’s motto is ‘no more exit scams or rug pulls.’

YFDAI.FINANCE

pNetwork

Zap (ZAP) is the first-ever decentralized oracle platform to be released to the public. The official launch for Zap oracles was in January 2019; however, work and development on the project began in 2017, when the coin first went public. The Zap protocol is an innovative take on data sharing, token creation and decentralized applications (DApps). In addition, the platform allows users to set bonded pricing curves. The combination of all these capabilities makes Zap a multifunctional blockchain solution for a wide range of applications.

The Zapp protocol’s main goal is to be an all-in-one solution for DApp developers, investors and other enterprises looking to introduce blockchain decentralization to their operations.

Graviocoin

NEST Protocol

Validity

Fusion

WaykiChain

C.R.E.A.M Finance is a decentralized  DeFi lending protocol for individuals, institutions and protocols to access financial services. Part of the yearn.finance ecosystem, C.R.E.A.M. Finance is a permissionless, open source and blockchain agnostic protocol serving users on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain Polygon and Fantom.

Users who are passively holding Ether or wBTC can deposit their assets on C.R.E.A.M. to earn yield, similar to a traditional savings account. For more information visit https://app.cream.finance/.

The C.R.E.A.M. Finance protocol was created as a Compound Finance fork.

C.R.E.A.M Finance is open-source, permissionless, blockchain-agnostic and offers yield farming rewards to its users in order to inclusively develop its network.

The project (which stands for Crypto Runs Everything Around Me) was launched unexpectedly on the Ethereum network on Aug. 3, 2020 through the YOLO liquidity pool. In September 2020 it went live on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

The CREAM token allows users to lend, borrow, stake assets and help govern the network, allowing them to vote on assets to support or delist.

Cream Finance

Carbon Protocol

Haven Protocol is similar to an offshore bank where users can create private tokens that represent stable and volatile assets, including commodities and fiat currencies (such as USD). The protocol is based on Monero, which focuses on secure, private and untraceable transactions.

As a result, most of the features of Monero extend to the Haven protocol, including the bulletproofs and other privacy tech. The base currency of Haven is the XHV, which is burnt to provide users with private, untraceable, synthetic assets and commodities called xAssets.

The network uses a “mint and burn” process to provide users with untraceable digital assets with standard market pricing and real asset-pegged value storage. Simply, users can burn Haven (XHV) for Haven Dollars (xUSD), which is a synthetic stablecoin.

Haven Protocol

Established in July 2020, TrustSwap is a diverse Web3 ecosystem creating secure infrastructure for blockchain builders and communities. The TrustSwap Launchpad is a leading Launchpad and IDO service, achieving the #1 spot on Cryptorank in 2023 for All-time High Returns and Average Returns. TrustSwap has launched over 55 projects with a collective fundraising of over $70 million.

TrustSwap is also the parent company of The Crypto App and Team Finance, which offer a suite of multi-chain services including crypto portfolio tracking, token and liquidity locks, minting, staking, and vesting-as-a-service.

SWAP token is the key to accessing guaranteed allocations in top-tier IDOs via the TrustSwap Launchpad. Staking more SWAP tokens longer increases your SWAP Score and unlocks higher allocations as well as other perks for top stakers.