The cryptocurrency market has far faced an uphill battle for the larger part of 2022 due to global economic headwinds on multiple fronts, along with supply chain constraints, blistering inflation and the ongoing war in Ukraine. 

Despite the weakness seen in a majority of crypto assets, several decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have managed to strengthen their fundamentals and entice new users to enter their ecosystems.

Here’s a look at four protocols that are showing strength even as the wider crypto market struggles to gain footing.

Balancer

Balancer (BAL) is an automated market maker (AMM) on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain that offers users a range of DeFi capabilities including the ability to stake tokens, provide liquidity, participate in governance voting and perform token swaps.

According to data from Token Terminal, the total value locked (TVL) on Balancer is currently $3.54 billion, the third-highest TVL in the history of the protocol despite falling prices across the cryptocurrency market.

The staying power of the Balancer TVL is due, in large part, to an increase in funds staked in stablecoin pools on the platform and a more involved governance mechanism that lets veBAL hodlers vote on which pools receive a majority of the BAL reward emissions.

DeFiChain

DeFiChain (DFI) is a DeFi protocol that was created through a fork of the Bitcoin code and operates in conjunction with the Bitcoin network to offer users access to crypto assets as well as tokenized stocks.

Data from Defi Llama shows that the TVL of…