In our introduction, we gave you a basic explanation of what Metis is and why it's unique. If you're interested in more technical details regarding the Metis blockchain, check out our comprehensive analysis of Metis' Blockchain Technology.

Now, let's begin our journey by diving into the applications of the Metis ecosystem that have the greatest potential for making strategic investment decisions.

dApps

Aave now deployed in Metis

Metis announced the official integration of Aave's V3 lending markets at the beginning of May. This strategic deployment establishes efficient capital markets within the Metis ecosystem, serving as a critical foundation for the growth and sustainability of the Web 3.0 economy.

DeFi enthusiasts can now leverage the powerful combination of Metis's network speed and security, along with the industry-leading features of Aave V3. This integration empowers users to access the full potential of DeFi and capitalize on its multitude of benefits.

Renowned for its battle-tested security measures, Aave stands as a leading protocol, trusted by countless consumers seeking lending, borrowing, and yield opportunities across diverse asset types.

Stargate was deployed in Metis Andromeda

Metis' integration of Stargate (Jan, 2023), the leading part of LayerZero, brings forth a new era of possibilities, leveraging the cutting-edge Layer Zero technology to enhance flexibility in fund management, treasury operations, and yield strategies for projects.

Additionally, Stargate provides an Autonomous Pool Deployment (APD) that facilitates the seamless swapping of METIS tokens between the Ethereum Mainnet and Metis Andromeda, further streamlining cross-chain interactions.

As of May 13, 2023, Stargate boasts an impressive Total Value Locked (TVL) of approximately 435 million USD. With its cross-chain capabilities, the protocol facilitates interoperability across seven prominent blockchains; namely, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Fantom, Polygon, and, of course, Metis.

Maia DAO / Hermes Protocol

Hermes Protocol, powered by Maia DAO, leads the way in terms of network activity in Andromeda, surpassing all other dApps in recent months.

With the Uni v3 upgrade, Maia has solidified its position as the yield powerhouse in the Metis ecosystem, amplifying the excitement for users.

Positioning itself as a comprehensive financial instrument hub, Maia aims to offer a diverse range of services. Hermes, the first piece of this puzzle, focuses on facilitating the seamless and cost-effective exchange of both volatile assets and stablecoins, ensuring minimal fees and slippage for users and decentralized protocols alike.

Netswap

As the second largest contributor in April, Netswap, the pioneering DEX deployed on Metis Andromeda, drives network activity with remarkable prowess.

A standout feature of Netswap is its staking platform, enabling users to earn METIS rewards, receive dividend airdrops through veNETT staking, and access upcoming IDOs with wNETT staking. This enticing offering has sparked substantial interest within the Netswap community, fueling its impressive performance in April.

With ongoing efforts from the Netswap team to enhance the user experience and introduce new functionalities, the future holds even greater promise for this dynamic DEX.

Tethys Finance

Tethys Finance, which has established itself as the leading decentralized exchange application for Metis users, offers fast, secure, reliable, and advanced trading.

With the launch of Tethys perpetual, the first DEX to provide Metis leverage trading, just three months ago, the platform has achieved unparalleled success. There are also possibilities for leverage trading with ETH, BTC, USDC and AAVE. Its intuitive interface ensures a seamless trading experience, empowering users with ease and convenience.

In March, Tethys Finance achieved a significant milestone by raising the METIS cap to 260,000 USD, expanding opportunities for users to long METIS, and driving increased participation on the platform.

As a result, Tethys emerged as the third most active protocol in the Metis ecosystem in April, solidifying its reputation as a trusted and dependable decentralized finance platform.

Who will be next?

No one knows, but after Aave and Stargate, it is very likely that other dApps will expand their coverage to include the Metis blockchain. The Hybrid Rollup architecture looks very attractive, and I hope the Metis team will be able to deliver it in time.

Road Map

First-of-its-kind Hybrid Rollup architecture

Metis has laid out an ambitious Road Map for 2023, with the introduction of Hybrid Rollups as a key highlight.

Breaking new ground, the Metis DAO Foundation unveiled their plans to develop the industry's first-ever Hybrid Rollup. This innovative approach combines the remarkable scalability of Optimistic Rollups with the unrivaled security and fast finality of Zero-Knowledge Rollups.

By fusing these two architectures, Metis will establish a robust and user-friendly L2 solution, empowering Ethereum developers to seamlessly deploy a wide array of decentralized applications (dApps).

The synergistic combination of the scalability of Optimistic Rollups and the enhanced security and fast finalization of Zero-Knowledge Proofs creates a unique rollup architecture.

Metis is committed to prioritizing the development of this groundbreaking architecture and recognizing the importance of open collaboration. They will release the technology as open source, embracing the ethos of Ethereum and the wider Web 3.0 community.

Impact

The Metis blockchain has the potential to be a major player in the Ethereum ecosystem and DeFi. By solving the scalability challenges of Ethereum, Metis could make it easier and more affordable for developers to build and deploy dApps, and for users to interact with them. This could lead to a wider adoption of DeFi and could help to drive innovation in these areas.

The Metis blockchain is the cheapest L2 blockchain around, with transaction fees that are 328 times lower (as of May 13, 2023) than the Ethereum Mainnet. This can benefit traders who don't have a huge amount of capital, but who also want to participate in trading, liquidity providing, staking, lending, and other DeFi functions even if transaction fees on other blockchains become too expensive due to high demand.

Opportunity for Investment

To me, all the above points look really promising for the future of the Metis blockchain. Compared with other favorable L2 blockchains in terms of TVL (May 13, 2023), Metis really has a lot of growth potential:

Arbitrum: 2.38b USD TVL (63x higher TVL compared with Metis)

Optimism: 849.83m USD TVL (23x higher TVL compared with Metis)

zkSync Era: 97.14m USD TVL

Metis: 36.82m USD TVL

Now imagine that this trend of deploying the biggest and most popular dApps in the DeFi space will continue on Metis. TVL will grow, and we will see people diversifying across different blockchains. If this happens, and experienced developers create more new dApps on Metis, people will be enticed to try it out.

Perpetual trades on DEX (Decentralized Exchange) are also very favorable at this time, and many people will prefer to trade on DEXs than CEXs (Centralized Exchanges). A lot of people want to save money on gas because they don't trade in particularly high amounts. Metis seems to be very friendly to these people in particular.

The tokenomics of the METIS coin is also worth mentioning. METIS has limited the maximum supply to 10,000,000 METIS coins. Currently (May 13, 2023) there are 4,450,490 METIS in circulation, representing 44.5% of the maximum supply.

What are the potential catalysts for a METIS price rise in the future?

• METIS is still not listed on the largest CEXs such as Binance and Bybit
• The deployment of multiple proven and popular dApps of all categories like derivatives, DEXs, lending, cross chain, CDP (Collateralized Debt Position), liquid staking and other various cryptocurrency yields options in DeFi
• Metis’s marketing still has plenty of room for improvement. What if they could upscale their efforts, thus attracting thousands of other potential investors?

Is it the right time to buy METIS? What are the other opportunities to accumulate METIS in DeFi?

Although the price of METIS looks promising, no one knows if it's the right time to buy. There are several options how to get METIS, the two most common will be DCA buying strategy and farming.

As a DeFi participant, my preference to accumulate METIS is through yield farming. So, if I see a good opportunity for a "safe" yield somewhere, I'm in. My favorite farms, at this moment, are those that are risk-free in terms of impermanent loss - Single stablecoin pools.

Below, we will share with you our favorite opportunities to accumulate METIS without the risk of impermanent loss (IL).

Where to farm to get METIS as a reward?

Single stablecoin pools:

• ‍Hummus Exchange - m.USD, m.USDT, m.DAI with 8% APR + / - (May,2023).  Rewards are in METIS and HUM. I prefer to sell part of the rewards in HUM to METIS.

• Stargate Finance - USDT pool. After you provide liquidity in USDT, deposit your LP token to farm for 5,5% APR + / - (May,2023) rewards in METIS.

Where can I use METIS to get further yields?

There is currently no single stake available for METIS, but you have several options where you can use your METIS. We recommend you to thoroughly research the ecosystem and find the one that is most suitable to your strategy.

For example, on Netswap, you will find a pool wETH/METIS  with 8% APR or METIS/m.USDC with 17% APR (May 13, 2023). For me, it's not very interesting if there is a possibility of impermanent loss for the sake of a couple of % APR. I think a better strategy is to use Aave to deposit METIS as collateral, borrow some of the stablecoins, and deposit the stablecoins into Stargate or Hummus to farm more METIS. I believe there will be more possibilities to use METIS in the near future.