The funding round was led by CoinFund and comes as the firm aims to simplify DeFi yields for apps and institutions across blockchains
The DeFi sector showed resilience this week as inflows and volumes increased.
The Bitcoin network is evolving into a wider DeFi ecosystem, the report said.
World Liberty Financial completed its initial sale of tokens at 1.5 cents each and has now released more, hiking the price to 5 cents.
FTX’s $1.2 billion repayment is seen as a significant liquidity event for the industry that may bolster cryptocurrency valuations.
AI agents saw a 322% surge in market capitalization in Q4 2024, hitting $15.5 billion.
Sergio Lerner of RootstockLabs discusses Bitcoin bridging hurdles, BitVM innovations and implications for DeFi.
Usual Protocol has introduced a revenue-sharing model to stabilize its ecosystem following USD0++ depegging from $1.
Solana is becoming the preferred cryptocurrency for retail investors, bolstering analyst expectations for another year of significant gains as the industry awaits the first US spot SOL ETF.
Pyth Network partners with Revolut to integrate digital asset data into DeFi, bridging the gap between TradFi and Web3.
Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin gets a boost as Chainlink’s price feeds enable secure, real-time DeFi transactions on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger.
As the new year kicks off, the crypto world is buzzing with fresh projects promising big returns. From meme coins to eco-friendly tokens, these six cryptocurrencies are turning heads. Here’s why you should keep an eye on them. 1. Wall Street Pepe $WEPE is making a splash in the meme coin space, blending finance humor […]
The Aave community has pushed back against the proposal, questioning whether it addresses the core risks.
Growing investor optimism in anticipation of Trump’s inauguration is inviting new capital into the market, which pushed Aave deposits to a new all-time high.
The lending platform also introduced Aave v4 in 2024, while its GHO stablecoin expanded to multiple blockchain networks.
The United States Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) received more than 44,000 comments after proposing the rule.
According to a report published today by blockchain security firm Hacken, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols witnessed a steep decline in exploits in 2024, while centralized finance (CeFi) platforms more than doubled their losses due to security breaches. DeFi Platforms Show Better Security Mechanisms In its annual “Web3 Security Report,” Hacken outlined the general trends in the cryptocurrency industry with regard to scams and security infrastructure. The report notes that total losses arising from security failure in 2024 stood at $2.91 billion. Related Reading: WazirX Exchange Releases Post-Mortem Report: Was North Korea Behind The $235M Exploit? DeFi protocols accounted for $474 million in losses this year, a 40% decline from $787 million in 2023. This sharp drop reflects the growing adoption of advanced security techniques, such as zero-knowledge cryptography and multi-party computation, across the DeFi ecosystem. One key factor contributing to the reduction in DeFi exploits was the sharp decline in cross-chain bridge hacks. Losses from these attacks have consistently fallen – from $1.89 billion in 2022 to $338 million in 2023, and finally to $114 million in 2024. In contrast, CeFi platforms, including cryptocurrency exchanges, reported $694 million in losses in 2024, more than double the $339 million recorded in 2023. CeFi accounted for nearly one-third of all crypto-related incidents, highlighting persistent vulnerabilities in centralized systems. Gaming and metaverse projects were another major target in 2024, responsible for nearly 20% of all crypto-related hacks, with $389 million in losses. The largest gaming/metaverse breach of the year was the PlayDapp exploit in Q1 2024, which resulted in a $290 million loss. Phishing scams also remained a significant concern, causing more than $600 million in losses this year. These scams highlight increasingly sophisticated social engineering tactics in the Web3 space. In November, the sector faced a $129 million address poisoning attack. For context, address poisoning phishing involves attackers sending small transactions from an address that closely resembles one the victim has interacted with, tricking them into mistakenly sending funds to the fraudulent address in future transactions. Memecoins And Rugpulls Continue To Prey On Users While memecoins were all the rage for the majority of 2024 – particularly on the Solana (SOL) blockchain due to its low transaction costs – a significant proportion of them preyed on investors through presale scams and celebrity-endorsed rug pulls. Related Reading: Dogecoin & Other Memecoins No Longer Grabbing Social Media Attention: Santiment One notable example is the Hawk Tuah memecoin, launched by viral influencer Hailey Welch, popularly known as “Hawk Tuah Girl”. The coin’s value plummeted 95% shortly after launch, sparking severe backlash from the wider Web3 community. The rise in memecoin-related scams also underscores the need for greater investor education, particularly when engaging with such speculative assets. At press time, Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $98,921, up 5.8% in the past 24 hours. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview.com
The DeFi protocol aims to capture around 40% of MEV profits from adding Chainlink's new oracle service.
The current stablecoin market cap is approximately $204 billion, but the sector remains highly centralized.
According to Morpho Labs co-founder Merlin Egalite, Polygon could collect a 7% yield on its stablecoin holdings at current rates.
As DeFi expands, the oracle market faces new competition from emerging providers challenging established players like Chainlink.
Core DAO’s Adam Bendjemil highlighted Bitcoin-based DeFi’s potential at Bitcoin MENA 2024, highlighting security-first blockchain innovation.
Sky’s (formerly MakerDAO) use of externally owned accounts (EOAs) to manage $756 million in USDC reserves raises questions about security and transparency.
CeFi and DeFi ecosystems do not need to be divided as regulation is well-positioned to help DEXs improve universal standards, the GRVT CEO said.
Aside from privacy concerns, complexity and poor user interface remain the biggest barriers to entry for institutions entering Web3.
Safenet aims to be a layer connecting existing blockchains and allow users to interact with any chain through a single account.
According to Deribit, the exchange will include USDe in its cross-collateral pool as of early January 2025, pending regulatory approval.
World Liberty Financial's WLFI token is only available to accredited investors inside the United States and non-US residents.
Ensuring that decentralized finance platforms and networks do not remain siloed is a key hurdle for DeFi applications to overcome.
The DeFi liquidity protocol has already paused operations on Arbitrum and Avalanche blockchains as the team investigates the vulnerability.