The decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape is experiencing a significant loss of Total Value Locked (TVL) across major blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano, causing unease in the crypto market, while the Base blockchain network shows unexpected growth in TVL.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) has been heavily impacted by the crypto bear market, with the total value locked in DeFi reaching its lowest point since February 2021, as investors withdraw approximately $170 billion in deposits due to decreased yields and increased exploits. However, newer protocols like Unibot are attempting to simplify the DeFi experience and show promising signs for reigniting the DeFi space.
Hackers have targeted decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols almost 500 times since 2019, stealing a total of $6 billion, highlighting the vulnerabilities of the smart contracts that underpin DeFi platforms. The recent surge in hacks, along with declining market share and increasing interest rates, has led to the closure of several platforms and calls for regulations to prevent money laundering and enhance security measures.
Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, remains confident in the face of regulatory challenges, stating that Binance is a stronger company now and is ahead of the game in terms of regulatory compliance, despite recent lawsuits and scrutiny from regulators.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) have published a joint policy paper with recommendations for regulating stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) activities, in response to the risks associated with crypto assets.
Global securities regulators have outlined a blueprint to hold participants in decentralized finance (DeFi) accountable for their actions and protect market stability, as the sector has experienced significant shrinkage and is being used for money laundering; regulators are proposing a framework to ensure investor protection, risk management, and cross-border cooperation.
According to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) bulletin, a centralized oracle based on trust may be the only option for DeFi, but this compromises the decentralization ethos underlying crypto DeFi.
The Tokenized Asset Coalition (TAC) has been formed by seven leaders in decentralized finance (DeFi) to work towards the adoption of public blockchains, asset tokenization, and institutional DeFi, with the aim of creating a unified financial system on the blockchain.
Brine Fi, a decentralized crypto exchange (DEX), has raised $16.5 million in Series A funding at a valuation of $100 million, attracting investor interest due to its orderbook-based system and privacy features, as well as the recent scrutiny faced by centralized exchanges. The DEX aims to combine the benefits of a DEX and a centralized exchange (CEX) by offering features such as an orderbook and zero-knowledge proof technology to prevent frontrunning. Brine Fi is targeting both retail and institutional traders and plans to comply with potential regulatory requirements in the future.
Despite Visa's announcement and warnings from Binance's CEO, major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are struggling in a bearish trend while a top Federal Reserve official expresses deep concern over the $120 billion stablecoin market.
Binance CEO predicts that DeFi will surpass centralized finance in the next bull run, while the US CFTC takes regulatory action against three DeFi protocols for alleged registration failures; a report from the Bank for International Settlements argues that pure DeFi has little use case in the real world due to the need for oracles; Binance is refunding $1 million to users over a token incident, and the Shiba Inu ecosystem's layer-2 network, Shibarium, has reached over one million wallets but has yet to impact the price of SHIB token.
Finoa, a Berlin-based cryptocurrency custody firm, is expanding its services to include decentralized finance (DeFi) through its custodial wallet infrastructure, offering regulated institutions access to a curated list of web3 platforms and permissioned DeFi applications.
Binance.US CEO departs and workforce is reduced as the crypto exchange faces pressure from regulatory actions, while BitMEX launches a prediction market and FTX amends its crypto asset sale proposal.
Google Cloud has partnered with Web3 startup Orderly Network to develop user-centric developer tools for decentralized finance (DeFi) in order to make entry into the decentralized world more accessible. The collaboration aims to address challenges related to self-custody and transparency in DeFi by developing off-chain components of DeFi infrastructure.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong advocates for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and suggests legal action to establish a legal precedent, while MakerDAO's founder believes decentralized stablecoins could dominate the crypto market, and Polygon CEO acknowledges the success of their $1 billion investment in zero-knowledge proof rollups. Additionally, market surveillance firm Solidus Labs reveals that decentralized exchanges have become a hotspot for wash trading, and a DeFi advocacy group petitions to stop a patent troll from targeting DeFi protocols. Despite a mixed week for the top 100 DeFi tokens, the total value locked into DeFi protocols remains above $49 billion.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem experienced a decline in on-chain economic activity in August, with exchange volume decreasing by 15.5%, the DeFi Index falling 21%, and the total value locked decreasing by 8%; however, positive developments such as stablecoin growth were observed.
The concentration of assets in decentralized finance (DeFi) could pose a risk if stablecoins surpass the market capitalization of the native tokens of their underlying blockchains, creating a potential for double-spending and control by token holders, highlighting the need to rethink distributed ledger technology (DLT) architecture and explore alternatives to blockchain such as directed acyclic graphs (DAG).
Decentralized finance (DeFi) projects in the US face significant regulatory risk, according to Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, who believes that US regulators are neglecting the advantages of transparent and open infrastructure in financial markets and that it will be left to the courts to resolve these issues.
