In this post, I'll share some of my initial experiences on the Fantom Network
I've been interested in Fantom ever since I contributed to the Crypto guides initiative. Since it is a good candidate for a future CubFinance expansion, I thought it would be good to get to know it a bit better.
I'm not going to make any moves yet, but I want to get the lay of the land in case I decide to add it to my portfolio in the future. I want to look at some of the most significant projects on the network but before that, let's do a quick overview of Fantom itself.
What is Fantom?
I'll provide a brief description of the most important aspects of Fantom, but we do have a pretty good Fantom guide here on LeoFinance and I highly recommend you check it out if you want to know more.
Fantom is a high-performance, scalable, and secure smart-contract platform. They are one of the so-called Ethereum killers and they bet on high speed, scalability and cheap fees to accomplish that goal. With high throughput and speed comparable to Solana, Fantom is one of the fastest platforms.
Another reason why Fantom became famous is its DeFi Architect, Andre Cronje, who is the creator of Yearn.Finance and a respected name in the world of DeFi.
Interacting with the Fantom network
To interact with the network, you must be connected to the Fantom Opera Chain. I was happy to find out that it's possible to do so with Metamask. I don't know if Metamask is any good or should be exploring other options by now, but since I'm already using it for BSC and Polygon, I think it will be easier to use it for Fantom as well.
Here's the information needed to connect to Fantom Opera:
Network Name: Fantom Opera
New RPC URL: https://rpc.ftm.tools/
Chain ID: 250
Currency Symbol: FTM
Block Explorer URL: https://ftmscan.com/
If you're not sure what to do with that, you can use this step-by-step guide.
Now we're ready to check out some of the opportunities in Fantom. I'm sure there is an ocean of them, but I'll only go through a couple because, as I said, this is only a first overview of the ecosystem.
FTM
FTM is the native token of the Fantom network, and as such, it's used for securing the network, governance and paying fees.
It currently ranks #44 with a market cap of $3,776,432,226. In the last few weeks, the token took quite a beating with the rest of the crypto market and now trades at around $1.48.
It hit its ATH of $3.46 around five months ago, and it's been up and down ever since. I think it still has a lot of room to grow, and I'll consider adding some to my portfolio in the future.
SpiritSwap
With over $270M TVL, SpiritSwap is one of the biggest DeFi projects on Fantom. It has a very nice UI based on the famous Uniswap. It has pretty much everything you would expect from a large DEX, such as farms, pools, bridges, bonds and much more.
I didn't count, but some sources say that there are close to 1000 pairs supported by Spiritswap.
Rarity 2
I actually found this right here on LeoFinance through an article written by one of the most knowledgable guys when it comes to DeFi, 
Rarity 2 is an RPG-themed play-to-earn that, in theory, requires no investment to start. You can play it for free, but you'll have some limitations, which means if you want to play it to its full extent, you'll need to invest a little something up front.
It's simple but looks well made, and the UI is not fantastic but also not bad at all. I haven't played it yet, but it doesn't seem time-consuming, which is just my kind of game.
Final thoughts
Fantom seems to be a solid network with many promising projects built on it. I think it still has a lot of room to grow, so maybe it's worth keeping an eye on it.
I think it would be a great candidate for the CubFinance umbrella, so I hope they do indeed expand to it sometime soon.