Ref combines several core components: a decentralized exchange, lending, a synthetic asset issuer, and more -— into a single, synchronous DeFi stack. Ref will take full advantage of NEAR’s low fees ($0.005 per swap), one-to-two second finality, and WebAssembly-based runtime (hello, Rust smart contracts!) to rival even CEX costs and speeds and become a powerful addition to the increasingly multi-chain DeFi ecosystem. Using the recently launched Rainbow Bridge (NEAR <> ETH), traders can utilize the billions of dollars in ERC-20-compliant assets from Ethereum, and eventually, from any chain (BSC, Polygon/Matic, Cosmos/IBC, and others) on NEAR.

Ref Finance is the first major DeFi application on the rapidly growing NEAR blockchain. Ref is currently an automated marketplace but has plans to expand to a full range of financial products including:

Ref Finance is the protocol with the highest total value locked (TVL) in the NEAR ecosystem, which stands at $248.96 million.