Why did Amazon survive the dot com crash and become one of the world's largest companies? Why did Apple go from making gimmicky computers in different colors to the largest corporation on earth? How did Netflix take down Blockbuster like a scam call center with an AARP phone list? How did Bitcoin go from worth pennies to over $20,000? All of these items share one characteristic — innovation.

Amazon didn't invent online shopping. Apple didn't engineer the microchip or the cell phone. Netflix didn't create the home entertainment space. And Bitcoin didn't invent money. All of these were existing ideas that were innovated.

A great thing about innovation is that you don't have to innovate too much to see dramatic growth. Small improvements on popular items can create instant success.

So, here are some Arbitrum-exclusive crypto platforms that you may need to learn about that have innovative twists and improvements on already battle-tested ideas.

Why Arbitrum?

If you are asking this question, you probably haven't used Arbitrum. It's cheap. It's fast. It's got a varied ecosystem. And, in crypto, when you build a good solution, it will attract investors and developers. We can all agree that 2022 was a rough year for crypto. But take a look at the daily transactions occurring on the Arbitrum network.

Arbitrum doesn't have a token (yet). So they aren't bribing teams to build on their platform. And they aren't incentivizing users to try out their dApps. This is important because they still have many arrows in their quiver to drive more activity, awareness, and adoption.

More importantly, Arbitrum has growing DeFi liquidity and investment in its protocol. As a result, it has leapfrogged to the number 4 position regarding chains measured by total value locked.

Yes, it's bigger than Polygon. It's bigger than Avalanche. And it's bigger than Solana, which isn't even in the top 10.

With more money, faster transactions, higher speed, and dramatic customer cost-saving, everyone in the crypto space should be looking at Arbitrum projects. And I believe Arbitrum-exclusive projects have tremendous upside in this challenging crypto environment.

So, I've researched and compiled a list of innovative Arbitrum-exclusive projects. This is a starting point. I'm not going to dive deep into all aspects of the platforms (unless it's unique). You can research these ideas and decide if they warrant your investment capital. Also, remember Bitcoin and Ethereum's performance dictates the market. So if Bitcoin tanks, it will probably take these projects down.

I would put all these projects in the high-risk/high-reward category. I don't own all of these tokens yet. I have them on my watchlist and may buy them in the future. I will disclose projects I am invested in. They are all relatively new. If you are looking for more conservative investments, you may consider Bitcoin and Ethereum.

All the data about token price and market cap is based on the time of writing.

#1) Zyberswap.io

Token Price: $3.40

Circulating Market Cap: $1.3 million

Token Holders: 839

Token: ZYB

Tradable on: https://Zyberswap.io

Since I discovered and invested in Zyberswap.io (ZYB) less than one week ago, I can't stop writing about it. It's rare to find a fair launched project so early before most potential gains can be had.

The fair launch means that the lion's share of the tokens didn't go to friends of the developers during a presale, venture capital firms, advisors, partners, or any other groups who can dump tokens on you in the future and artificially reduce circulating token supply. I can't stress how big of an opportunity this can be if a fair launched project succeeds. It allows us early investors (us today) to be the "venture capital and investors."

The fair launch also means the community is responsible for helping the project, using the platform, and sharing the opportunity with their communities. Ideally, when the project succeeds, it truly is a rising tide lifting all boats. I wish all crypto projects were fairly launched, and it's very rare to find one with a quality developer team. I'm talking blue lobster rare. Legendary rare. Needle in a haystack rare. (I thought I'd cover multiple generations ;))

Why is Zyberswap.io innovative?

Zyberswap.io is a dex that allows users to swap between tokens. Think Binance or Coinbase, but the fees don't go to CZ or the Coinbase executive team. It's the most popular platform type in the DeFi space. If you've interacted with DeFi, you are probably familiar with other dexes like Uniswap, Sushiswap, or Pancakeswap.

Zyberswap is seeking to be the top dex on Arbitrum. And if it keeps up the pace it's going, it will. In less than two weeks since launching, the protocol has amassed over $30 million in total value locked.

In addition to being able to provide generous farming rewards (since tokens weren't "gifted" to seed capital), this has been a successful way of drawing attention and investment in the project. Usually, these generous rewards get dumped on the market, crashing the reward token price.

Zyberswap has a unique strategy to stem investors from dumping the token. If a ZYB investor stakes their ZYB for 14 days, they can receive rewards in Ethereum. Transaction fees on the platform will fund these rewards. Next week, ZYB liquidity providers will receive dual rewards in ZYB tokens and ETH.

I don't know about you, but a fair launch project with a creative team and strong momentum seem like something to get very excited about.

**ZYB can only be purchased on https://Zyberswap.io**

#2) Hamachi Finance

Token Price: 0.000422

Circulating Market Cap: $8.1M

Token Holders: 1,449

Token: HAMI

Tradable on Sushi.com

Meme coins are a necessity on every chain. And while I am typically not a fan of meme coins, this is a project I decided to invest some capital in. When you buy HAMI, you have to pay a 7% tax when buying and a 7% tax when selling. The built-in mechanics for this strategy are proven because people are less likely to sell if they have a 7% fee, and it keeps bots from arbitrating. For example, whales can't easily manipulate because of the 14% total taxes.

Why is Hamachi Finance different?

Typically, the taxes on coins are either paid out to existing token holders or used to buy back the token and put it in a burn wallet. The tax adds no real value and means that later buyers usually pay the earlier buyers with their tax.

Hamachi has taken a better approach. Instead of feeding itself with transaction taxes, it uses those funds to purchase other crypto assets. The Hamachi team researches projects for investors, and rewards are distributed to HAMI owners in the reward token. For example, I bought some HAMI today. The reward token is TND, and I will be rewarded in TND based on how much of the HAMI supply I own.

Like other meme coins, being earlier to the project provides more benefits. The community is also helpful and active. I visited the Telegram channel, and the community is extremely hyped about the opportunity. That may be because the HAMI token has been up 327% in the last 14 days! But that doesn't mean there isn't much more room for it to move higher.

HAMI is an opportunity for you to be early to a meme project, diversify your portfolio with hand-picked projects by the team (so far, all of the reward projects have gone up, but this isn't guaranteed), and discover new opportunities you may not have found out about on your own. They say they are also going multi-chain to look at other projects on different chains.

If this project continues on its trajectory, big gains could follow. And, for those who sell, investors are getting rewards from the sales tax. Clever tokenomics and an investment team are working on your behalf. I'd say this is pretty innovative.

#3) GMD Protocol

Token Price: $71.77

Circulating Market Cap: $5.7 million

Token Holders: 3,720

Token: GMD

Tradable on: Uniswap

Here's how I feel about this project. The pretty girl in class has been smiling at you for the past week. You want to ask her to prom and are too nervous to ask. Finally, one night, you convince yourself you will ask her tomorrow at school. The next day arrives, and you find out she has already agreed to go with someone else. It looks like you're going with your ugly neighbor, Loretta Jean.

I recently wrote about this project, How I Am Earning 14% APY on My ETH, and You Can Too! I explained how I was staking some ETH for 14% APR and hadn't bought the coin. Since then, GMD has been up over 50%. I should have used my ETH to buy some GMD. I still think it's a good play because the supply is only 80,000 tokens. When I get some extra funds, I will probably buy some.

What makes GMD innovative?

GMX is the darling of this bear market. While the rest of crypto is in a frozen, dank cave with a recent glimmer of light, GMX holders have been drinking Pina Coladas on a warm Hawaiian beach. It's always 5 o'clock at GMX.

Put simply, GMD allows you to single-stake ETH, BTC, or USDC and earn yield via GMX. It involves delta-neutral strategies beyond my scope of being able to describe. These smart vaults have been full, meaning that other investors believe in the product, and I'm looking forward to the capacity expansion to try the BTC smart vault.

The protocol charges a fee for the use of its smart vaults. 100% of the fees collected are distributed to GMD stakers. Currently, staking pays a 13% APY, but it gets updated every Wednesday. GMD rewards are paid in a combination of ETH and escrowed GMD tokens.

Key Takeaways

If Arbitrum continues growing at its steady pace, it can surpass Binance Smart Chain in the decentralized finance space measured by total value locked. Moreover, since Arbitrum is built as a second layer on Ethereum, money can migrate from Ethereum to Arbitrum easier than competing chains.

As investors succeed in these Arbitrum projects, they will look for other Arbitrum-exclusive projects and potentially spread some of their gains. The projects mentioned here have unique value propositions and are at the right place (Arbitrum) at the right time. Consider these if you want more exposure to Arbitrum in your portfolio.

Of course, these are all high-risk projects, so portfolio management must be considered. However, if you are more risk-averse, Bitcoin and Ethereum are great places to look in the crypto market.

What do you think of these projects and their innovations? Are they doing enough to separate them from the thousands of other crypto projects? Are you invested in any of them? Why do you like one opportunity more than the other, or do you like all three? Or will another Layer 2 or smart chain have more growth than Arbitrum? Share your insights, opinions, and perspective in the response section.