Best Layer 1 Protocols in the Middle East

Compare the Top Layer 1 Protocols in the Middle East as of January 2026

What are Layer 1 Protocols in the Middle East?

Layer 1 protocols, also known as layer 1 blockchains, are blockchain protocols that are built as the base layer of a blockchain. A layer 1 protocol serves as the underlying base blockchain of a blockchain network, as opposed to a layer 2 protocol which is designed to improve the scaling problems and transaction speeds and fees that layer 1 blockchain networks and protocols face. Decentralized applications and cryptocurrencies can be built on Layer 1 protocols, and layer 1 protocols interact with layer 2 protocols in order to improve efficiency and overall user experience. Compare and read user reviews of the best Layer 1 Protocols in the Middle East currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

  • 1
    Velas

    Velas

    Velas

    The fork of Solana with embedded EVM integration. Fastest EVM/EBPF hybrid chain inherited best from Solana and applied to EVM world. Supports all smart contracts built on the Ethereum blockchain. Extremely efficient performance at a fraction of the cost. Stake to support decentralization and get rewards. Through the Velas Network users gain access to decentralized services, delegating the security of his passwords, keys or seed-phrases to segmentation algorithms and validators that are interested in data security. Most important, this information will be distributed over the network and not available to any of its participants.
  • 2
    MultiversX

    MultiversX

    MultiversX

    MultiversX (formerly Elrond) is a highly scalable, secure and decentralized blockchain network created to enable radically new applications, for users, businesses, society, and the new metaverse frontier. Scale across the Multiverse. Build new apps, new economies, new worlds. Sovereign blockchain module, and core blockchain applications. Deployable in minutes. Fully customizable. Including a great set of features and use cases for any creative, brand, or company. The portal to the Metaverse. The home of your avatar. Everything finance. A debit card. Friends, chat and social. Accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. A world creation engine. A network of interoperable metaverses. The very first Metaverse planet of this new world.
  • 3
    Meter

    Meter

    Decentralized Finance Labs

    Meter is a high performance infrastructure that allows smart contracts to scale and travel seamlessly through heterogeneous blockchain networks. Meter is a Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain protocol. The Meter system consists of two tokens: MTRG, the governance token (eMTRG is the ERC20 version), and MTR, the low-volatility currency token. Financial assets should flow freely among blockchains. Meter’s HotStuff-based consensus allows 1000s of validator nodes, making Meter the most decentralized Layer 2 for Ethereum. Meter processes thousands of transactions per second and transactions are confirmed almost instantly. Meter Passport allows assets and smart contracts travel and communicate across heterogeneous blockchains for the best price, liquidity and yield. Meter is an Ethereum Compatible with unique enhancements. Unlike other Layer 2, DEXes build on Meter are front running/MEV resistant, fast and uncensorable.
  • 4
    Stellar

    Stellar

    Stellar Development Foundation

    Stellar makes it possible to create, send, and trade digital representations of all forms of money: dollars, pesos, bitcoin, pretty much anything. It’s designed so all the world’s financial systems can work together on a single network. Stellar's API and SDKs are ready to help you transform the world of finance, and the network’s currency connections could give even a small company the power and reach of an international bank. Leverage the many currency-backed tokens already on the Stellar network. Use Stellar's built-in decentralized exchange for crypto, forex, or securities. Users can swap between tokens using simple functions built into the protocol. Leverage the Stellar Disbursement Platform (SDP) to initiate and disburse bulk payments that move in real-time and settle instantly 24/7/365 with full certainty of funds delivery. Stellar has the documentation, tooling, and support to help you get your project up quickly.
    Starting Price: $0
  • 5
    Ripple

    Ripple

    Ripple Labs

    Discover why 200+ financial institutions choose RippleNet to find new customers in new markets, expand services and deliver the best experience in global payments today. Too often, global payments are costly, unreliable and slow. The underlying systems are fragmented and complex. RippleNet offers the most advanced blockchain technology for global payments—making it easy for financial institutions to reach a trusted, growing network of 200+ providers across 40+ countries and 
six continents. Using proven crypto and blockchain technology honed over a decade, Ripple’s enterprise-grade solutions are faster, more transparent, and more cost-effective than traditional financial services. Our customers use these solutions to source crypto, facilitate instant payments, empower their treasury, engage new audiences, lower capital requirements, and drive new revenue.
  • 6
    Ethereum

    Ethereum

    Ethereum Foundation

    Ethereum is the community-run technology powering the cryptocurrency, ether (ETH) and thousands of decentralized applications. Ethereum is a technology that's home to digital money, global payments, and applications. The community has built a booming digital economy, bold new ways for creators to earn online, and so much more. It's open to everyone, wherever you are in the world – all you need is the internet. Today, billions of people can’t open bank accounts, others have their payments blocked. Ethereum's decentralized finance (DeFi) system never sleeps or discriminates. With just an internet connection, you can send, receive, borrow, earn interest, and even stream funds anywhere in the world. Today, we gain access to 'free' internet services by giving up control of our personal data. Ethereum services are open by default – you just need a wallet. Stake your ETH to become an Ethereum validator.
  • 7
    Kava

    Kava

    Kava Labs

    Kava is a DeFi platform for decentralized lending and stablecoins compatible with major cryptocurrencies. It owns a cross-chain that offers guaranteed loans and stablecoins to users of the main crypto assets, including BTC, XRP, BNB or ATOM, among others. Users can guarantee their cryptocurrencies in exchange for USDX, Kava's stablecoin. Two types of tokens can be found on the platform, the KAVA coin and the USDX stablecoin. KAVA is the native token of the blockchain and is comprehensive in the security, governance, and mechanical functions of the platform. A highly scalable and secure Cosmos SDK blockchain that connects Kava to the 30 chains and $60B+ of the Cosmos ecosystem via the IBC protocol. An EVM-compatible execution environment that empowers Solidity developers and their dApps to benefit from the scalability and security of the Kava Network. With single-block finality and unrivaled scalability, Tendermint Consensus enables Kava to support your transaction needs.
  • 8
    Algorand

    Algorand

    Algorand

    Technology that enables frictionless finance. We are the technology company that built and developed the world’s first open, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol that, without forking, provides the necessary security, scalability, and decentralization needed for today’s economy. With an award-winning team, we enable traditional finance and decentralized financial businesses to embrace the world of frictionless finance. Advanced technology paving the way for sophisticated applications. Comprehensive smart contract capabilities enable DeFi solutions and dApps that can scale to billions of users, tens of millions of daily transactions, with negligible transaction fees. Algorand Standard Assets are standard blockchain assets with customizable options, directly in Layer-1. Secure transfers and immediate transaction settlement for multiparty transactions built in Layer-1. Enabling enterprise to embrace decentralized finance.
  • 9
    Avalanche

    Avalanche

    Avalanche

    Build on Avalanche. Build without limits. Avalanche is an open, programmable platform for decentralized finance applications. Launch Ethereum dapps that confirm transactions instantly and process thousands of transactions per second, far beyond any decentralized blockchain platform today. Deploy blockchains that fit your own application needs. Build your own virtual machine and dictate exactly how the blockchain should operate. Stake, or lock up, your AVAX to help process transactions and further secure the platform–providing security guarantees well-above the 51% standard. You probably have the hardware required to join the platform. Avalanche is Solidity-compatible. All of your favorite tools like Remix, Truffle, and Tenderly work out of the box. Deploying smart contracts on Avalanche cost just a tenth of what they cost on Ethereum. High gas fees, front-running, and other adverse effects of slow smart contract blockchains are now a thing of the past.
  • 10
    Telos

    Telos

    Telos Blockchain

    Telos is the ideal network for real-world use across multiple industries, Telos-based Tokens NFT’s and Smart Contracts are already used for DeFi, gaming, social media amongst a backdrop of almost unlimited real-world use cases. There are over 100 projects already building on Telos. Top brands already use Telos Blockchain for real-world activities including transparent hackathon judging and payments through Taikai. Telos natively runs eosio C++ smart contract technology. The leading decentralized stack for high throughput decentralized applications. Telos will be the first EVM-compatible blockchain built on eosio. Deploy and run your Ethereum Apps using Telos EVM for the most performant DeFi available. Join hundreds of developers and thousands of users who are choosing Telos. Economic and geographic decentralization to ensure the security and safety of the chain. Community support, including the Telos Works proposal system and grant making for new projects.
  • 11
    Decred

    Decred

    Decred

    Decred employs an innovative hybrid proof-of-work/proof-of-stake system that layers security and carefully aligns incentives. This system yields the best of both worlds, making it an order of magnitude more expensive to attack than pure proof-of-work or pure proof-of-stake. Decred’s built-in governance systems empower its community with formal rights to make consensus changes and manage project-level decisions. These systems make Decred adaptable, allowing it to evolve per the will of the stakeholders, resist forks and incorporate new technology over the long run. Decred continuously funds its treasury with 10% of each block reward and employs a flexible contractor model that allows contributors to receive compensation for their work. This makes Decred a sustainable and self-funded decentralized autonomous organization. Use DCRDEX inside Decrediton and vote on four new consensus changes. Upgrade to the 1.7 release now!
  • 12
    Stargaze

    Stargaze

    Stargaze

    The first interoperable Layer 1 for NFTs. NFT launchpad, NFT marketplace, community-owned, zero gas, carbon neutral (proof-of-stake), secured by 100+ validators. Programmable via CosmWasm, interoperable via Cosmos IBC, Ethereum interoperability via Gravity Bridge. Setting up your project for minting is done via a set of command-line tools. Start by cloning a sample repository, and replacing it with your project contents. Stargaze's sg721 contract allows for off-chain metadata storage. We recommend using a decentralized storage solution such as IPFS. Stargaze NFT metadata follows the OpenSea metadata standards. Create directories to hold images and metadata, and then compile them into a single IPFS CAR (Content Addressable aRchive) file that can be uploaded. After getting the CID for metadata, you set it as the base URL in your contract. This way, the contract knows how to associate each token ID with an individual token URI without having to send the contract a list of URIs.
  • 13
    Umee

    Umee

    Umee

    Simplest way to start your DeFi experience for staking, rates, and interoperable solutions across blockchains. Umee is a layer one blockchain for cross-chain communication and interoperability, built on the Cosmos SDK and powered by Tendermint Consensus along with a self-sovereign validator network. Interoperability is achieved using Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC), Gravity bridge, and decentralized infrastructure for creating a universal cross-chain DeFi hub toward expanding the crypto ecosystem. A DeFi platform designed towards integrating with money legos, that interconnects crypto markets across networks, allows for the development of open finance innovation including multi-chain staking, interchain leverage, and cross-chain interest rates. As a base layer blockchain, applications and money lego primitives can be built on top of Umee to access cross-chain leverage and liquidity.
  • 14
    Hyperliquid

    Hyperliquid

    Hyperliquid

    Crypto is fragmented today, but it doesn’t need to be. For the first time, build projects, create value, and exchange assets on the same hyper-performant chain. The foundation of the Hyperliquid L1 is HyperBFT consensus, which lets a disparate set of nodes agree on the state of the world. The state comprises all applications, both those built as native components and the HyperEVM. The Hyper Foundation, established to support the development of the Hyperliquid blockchain and its ecosystem, has announced the upcoming genesis distribution of its native token, HYPE. This initiative marks a significant step toward implementing proof-of-stake consensus and launching the HyperEVM on the layer-1 blockchain's mainnet. Hyperliquid's flagship application is a decentralized trading platform that provides deep on-chain liquidity for a wide range of assets. With the introduction of HyperEVM, applications built on Hyperliquid will have access to this extensive liquidity.
  • 15
    Celo

    Celo

    Celo

    Celo is an open platform that makes financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. Global payments infrastructure built for mobile. Thousands of organizations and individuals are developing, growing, and governing Celo, an open-source platform that enables anyone to build borderless applications. Hyper-efficient light client and full node incentives allowing for scalability to 6 billion smartphones. Full EVM compatibility making it easy to get started. Growing family of native stablecoins, like Celo Dollars, which follow the value of fiat currencies. Pay transaction fees with stablecoins or your own tokens. Users can easily send currency to any mobile number, enabled by Celo’s decentralized phone verification protocol, and get access to a growing ecosystem of global cash-in cash-out options. Explore, build, and ship ideas for your community using Celo’s developer tools.
  • 16
    WAX

    WAX

    WAX

    The Worldwide Asset eXchange™ (WAX) is the world’s leading decentralized video game and entertainment network. We deliver the safest and most convenient way to create, buy, sell, and trade virtual items (NFTs) - to anyone, anywhere in the world. The WAX tokenomic model marries the explosive growth of NFTs with the superior monetization capabilities of DeFi. It enables anyone who participates to earn rewards in the form of Ethereum Tokens (ETH) and WAXG Governance Tokens. Global brands trust WAX to launch their NFT sales, including deadmau5, Atari, Topps, William Shatner, Capcom, and more. Build dApps, games, marketplaces and more on WAX. The WAX Developer Hive offers documentation, quickstarts, code samples and more. There's so much you can do on WAX - play a game, buy and sell NFTs on a marketplace, upgrade your dApp.
  • 17
    Zilliqa

    Zilliqa

    Zilliqa Research

    At Zilliqa, we leverage on our silicon-smooth, speedy and cost-effective blockchain platform to catalyze and transform digital infrastructure across all global communities and industries. We're committed to delivering a scalable and secure platform for developers and enterprises who wish to build decentralized applications. Our unique application of sharding allows the blockchain to scale in a linear fashion. This ensures that the Zilliqa platform can scale to meet the needs of a growing ecosystem of miners and applications. Zilliqa is powered by the first peer- reviewed and safe-by-design smart contract language called Scilla. Using functional programming design principles (as in OCaml) allows it to be more friendly towards static checks and formal verification. Thanks to Zilliqa's consensus mechanism, the ecological footprint of mining has considerably been reduced. Only 1 minute out of every 2-3 hours is needed to mine ZIL, allowing one to dual-mine other chains at the same time.
  • 18
    Ergo

    Ergo

    Ergo Platform

    Ergo builds advanced cryptographic features and radically new DeFi functionality on the rock-solid foundations laid by a decade of blockchain theory and development. Ergo draws on ten years of blockchain development, complementing tried and tested principles with the best peer-reviewed academic research into cryptography, consensus models and digital currencies. We start with solid blockchain basics and implement new and powerful cryptography natively. Our team has a solid background in core development with cryptocurrencies and blockchain frameworks including Nxt, Scorex and Waves, and our lean approach means we can prioritise new features and requirements quickly.
  • 19
    Cosmos

    Cosmos

    Cosmos

    The Internet of Blockchains. Cosmos is an ever-expanding ecosystem of interconnected apps and services, built for a decentralized future. Enter a new universe of connected services. Cosmos apps and services connect using IBC, the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol. This innovation enables you to freely exchange assets and data across sovereign decentralized blockchains. Serving as the economic center of Cosmos, the Cosmos Hub is a blockchain that provides vital services to the Interchain. Set to operate a next-gen decentralized exchange, swapping digital assets from across the Interchain, with very low fees and instant transaction confirmation. With the upcoming Interchain Staking feature, ATOM will soon be securing many chains, in exchange for additional staking rewards. A core mission of the Hub – to connect chains by establishing IBC connections with compatible chains and operating decentralized bridges with chains like Ethereum and Bitcoin.
  • 20
    Harmony

    Harmony

    Harmony

    Harmony is an open and fast blockchain. Our mainnet runs Ethereum applications with 2-second transaction finality and 100 times lower fees. Harmony’s secure bridges offer cross-chain asset transfers with Ethereum, Binance and other chains. Harmony serves as a platform for creators to connect with their community. Harmony’s bridges can connect any Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake chains. Our FlyClient architecture are fully trustless and highly gas-efficient. Currently, our bridges for Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain secure tens of millions cross-chain assets. Developers simply change Chain ID and enjoy faster EVM executions identical at the bytecode level. They can use their familiar and standard Web3 tooling to easily migrate to Harmony. What about users? They can continue to use MetaMask or Ledger — but now pay minimal fees. Any Ethereum wallets or portals can work on Harmony without code changes or new installs.
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