Waves' Steady Rise: From ICO to DeFi Powerhouse

Since 2016, Waves has been quietly but steadily evolving, occasionally going against the tide. Rewind to 2016, the platform successfully raised $30 million in Bitcoin during the pre-DeFi era, marking one of the largest ICOs done solely through the crypto community, without venture capital or marketing campaigns. The main network was then launched, beginning real infrastructure development. By 2017, Waves introduced its own DEX, standing out for its speed and user-friendliness amid the still-nascent DeFi landscape. In 2018, Ride was introduced, enabling smart contracts with no gas fees—an early indicator of Waves’ user-centric approach even before it became fashionable. In 2019, Waves launched Neutrino, the first stablecoin protocol without over-collateralization, along with a dynamic monetary policy involving node-driven reward adjustments, further deepening decentralization. 2020 saw the emergence of Swop.fi, an AMM with diverse liquidity pools, laying the groundwork for Waves' DeFi layer. 2021 was a pivotal year, with a token IDO raising $50 million in just 29 hours, Waves Ducks launching a P2E NFT game that evolved into a metaverse, Puzzle Swap debuting, and TVL surpassing $1 billion. In 2022, Waves hit a high of $50, and Power DAO was introduced as a community-governance model centered on goal-driven decision-making. 2023 appeared calm externally but involved ongoing restructuring and deeper ecosystem planning. In 2024, Units.Network was launched—a secure, fully compatible L2 bridging the entire Waves ecosystem, representing mature infrastructure many only dreamed of. Looking ahead to 2025, Waves aims to accelerate DeFi with continuous updates, AI tools, and auto-staking—all while solidifying its position as the wave itself, riding this unstoppable tide. Through every market cycle, Waves has maintained its course—nothing simplified, no exits, only consistent progress and groundbreaking innovations.