Main topic: Hackers stole $62 million from Curve Finance, raising concerns about the strength of the decentralized finance ecosystem.
Key points:
1. Curve Finance is one of the largest decentralized exchanges (DEX) with $1.67 billion in total value locked (TVL).
2. Several DeFi projects' pools were also hacked, resulting in significant losses.
3. The hack was caused by a bug in older versions of the Vyper compiler contract programming language.
4. The hack represents about 4% of Curve's TVL, but a white hat hacker returned $5.4 million to Curve.
5. The hack highlights ongoing challenges and vulnerabilities in the crypto space.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are facing intense pressure as prices drop and short-term holders offload their assets, signaling a possible capitulation phase and suggesting further downside potential. Additionally, major altcoins like Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano have witnessed a decline in their Total Value Locked (TVL) over the past week, indicating a decrease in popularity and utilization in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
Ethereum may have reached a bottom in the bear market and is expected to break out from an ascending triangle pattern, according to crypto strategist Credible Crypto, who predicts a consolidation between $1,600 and $2,000 for the rest of the year before a surge in early 2024. However, they also hold a bearish view for ETH/BTC in the short term.
Google AI's prediction model, Bard, suggests that the price of Ethereum could reach $3,000 or even $10,000 in the next crypto bull market, driven by the development of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the metaverse; however, regulatory uncertainties and security vulnerabilities pose risks that could hinder Ethereum's growth.
The past week in DeFi saw the developers behind Base and Optimism protocols collaborate on a revenue and governance sharing framework, while evidence emerged regarding the $1.5 billion Multichain hack and victims search for answers, and blockchain security provider Quantstamp introduced a new DeFi tool to detect flash loan attack vulnerabilities. Additionally, Shiba Inu's Ethereum layer 2, Shibarium, is preparing for a relaunch, and the DeFi market experienced a minor dip in total value locked.
AI-powered solutions are bringing stability to crypto markets by mitigating slippage and uncertainty, improving liquidity access and predictive analysis.
With millions of investors potentially experiencing their first crypto bull run, experts emphasize the importance of having a clear investment plan, avoiding memecoins, implementing dollar-cost averaging, and balancing investments between speculative and mature cryptocurrencies.
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.
Ethereum staking services have agreed to limit all validators to 22% in order to ensure the decentralization of the Ethereum network, while DeFi hacks and exploits resulted in a loss of $16 million in August, including a nearly $900,000 exploit on Balancer protocol, and Shibarium's second launch saw over 100,000 new wallets added to the layer-2 protocol. Additionally, the USDC stablecoin is set to launch on Coinbase's layer-2 platform, and the DeFi market experienced a bearish decline in response to a delay in the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF.
Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao predicts that decentralized finance (DeFi) has the potential to surpass centralized finance (CeFi) in the next bull run, emphasizing the positive impact of regulatory clarity and the need for broader cryptocurrency adoption worldwide.
Changex, an all-in-one mobile wallet, aims to attract traditional finance users to decentralized finance by offering easy-to-use DeFi functionality in a familiar environment and combining centralized and decentralized finance in a single screen. Users can trade, buy, sell, and transfer crypto, as well as stake assets and earn rewards, with plans to launch a Visa Debit Card and IBANs for managing fiat assets in the future. Changex has been selected as a participant in the Cointelegraph Accelerator program and plans to integrate the Avalanche blockchain and introduce leveraged staking functionality.
Staking in the crypto market is rebounding, with proof-of-stake revenue generation reaching almost all-time highs, driven by the surge in total value locked for liquid staking protocols and the appeal of staking as a safer investment option in a year of liquidity challenges and DeFi hacks.
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.
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.
FTX, a bankrupt crypto exchange, is seeking court approval to liquidate $3.4 billion in cryptocurrencies, with a maximum offload of $100 million per week, potentially impacting the market in a more gradual manner rather than causing a sharp fall in asset prices; this article examines the price movements and potential impact on Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Aptos (APT).
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.
The crypto industry experienced significant capital outflows of $55 billion in August, leading to a liquidity crunch that allows isolated events to have a greater impact on prices and market movements, according to an analysis from Bitfinex.
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.
A group of decentralized finance protocols in the Cosmos ecosystem, including Wormhole, Swing, Tashi, and Evmos, are collaborating to solve liquidity issues by introducing bridged tokens and integrating liquidity pools, allowing users to swap, borrow, and perform various DeFi actions.
