Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. For DeFi, the last week of 2022 saw another slew of exploits, insider job accusations and exit scam drama. It all started on Christmas, when Defrost Finance, a decentralized leveraged trading platform on the Avalanche blockchain, was exploited by a DeFi flash loan attack causing $12 million in losses. However, the hacker behind the attacks reportedly returned a portion of the funds the next day. Security analytic firm Certik looked into the chain of …

It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that our industry is facing tough times. We’ve been in the midst of a “crypto winter” for some time now, with the prices of mainstays, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), tumbling. Likewise, monthly nonfungible token (NFT) trading volumes have fallen more than 90% since their multibillion dollar peak back in January of this year. Of course, these declines have only been exacerbated by the numerous black swan events rocking the crypto world, such as the FTX and Three Arrows Capital meltdowns. Taken together, it shouldn’t be a surprise that crypto is facing a …

The app that produces stablecoin Vader Protocol US Dollar (USDV) will be shut down, according to a Dec. 29 announcement from its developers. We are sunsetting Vader Protocol: https://t.co/C3AKHo9URj Existing $VADER and $USDV holders, please visit the webapp to redeem the treasury: https://t.co/SnRlvpXnaQ For all technical issues related to the claim, please check in at the <vader> channel on Discord. — Vader (@VaderProtocol) December 29, 2022 Vader protocol was an algorithmic stablecoin network similar to the failed Terra network. It was supposed to encourage arbitrages to keep USDV always equal to $1. When Terra assets depegged in May from the …

MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor has shared his firm’s plans to release Bitcoin Lightning Network-powered software and solutions in 2023. In a recent Twitter Spaces on Dec. 28, Saylor shared that the company is exploring software and solutions that utilize the Lightning Network, such as solutions that “support” enterprise marketing as well as a cybersecurity solution aimed at corporate websites. The Lightning Network is a layer-2 payment protocol layered on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain that allows for off-chain transactions, raising payment throughput and lowering transaction fees. The business intelligence and tech company, known for its massive Bitcoin holdings, has been …

Custodial CeDeFi investment platform Midas will close down its operations because of a $63.3 million deficit in its decentralized finance (DeFi) portfolio. In an announcement, the company’s founder and CEO Iakov Levin also known as “Trevor” wrote that the move is partly because the fund’s DeFi portfolio lost $50 million, which is 20% of its $250 million assets under management (AUM). In addition, Levin also highlighted that the collapse of the Terra, FTX exchange and Celsius contributed to their struggles. The Midas founder noted that their users withdrew 60% of the funds after the LUNA, Celsius and FTX debacles. Levin …

Defrost Finance, the decentralized trading platform that suffered a $12 million exploit leading up to Christmas, has denied allegations that it had “rugged” its users as part of an elaborate “exit scam.” On Dec. 23, the platform announced it suffered a flash loan attack, leading to the draining of user funds from its V2 protocol. One day later, another incident saw a hacker steal the admin key for a second “much larger” attack on the V1 protocol. It’s understood the attacker(s) conducted the flash loan attack by adding a fake collateral token and a malicious price oracle to liquidate users. …

After recovering the funds lost in a recent flash loan exploit, decentralized leverage-trading platform Defrost Finance is planning to return the funds to their rightful owners, according to a new announcement. In a Medium post, Defrost highlighted that it will soon be refunding the assets to their original holders and will be following a specific process. The process includes converting all Ether (ETH) into stablecoins, like DAI, at the on-chain market rate. Then, all stablecoins will be transferred from the Ethereum blockchain into Avalanche. Apart from these, the team will also be conducting a scan of on-chain data to find …

The Bitkeep exploit that occurred on Dec. 26 used phishing sites to fool users into downloading fake wallets, according to a report by blockchain analytics provider OKLink. The report stated that the attacker set up several fake Bitkeep websites which contained an APK file that looked like version 7.2.9 of the Bitkeep wallet. When users “updated” their wallets by downloading the malicious file, their private keys or seed words were stolen and sent to the attacker. 【12-26 #BitKeep Hack Event Summary】 1/n According to OKLink data, the bitkeep theft involved 4 chains BSC, ETH, TRX, Polygon, OKLink included 50 hacker …

On Dec. 26, blockchain security firm CertiK issued a warning alleging that Defrost Finance, a decentralized leveraged trading platform on the Avalanche Blockchain, is an "Exit Scam." In supporting the decision, CertiK wrote: "On 24 December we have seen an #exitscam on @Defrost_Finance. We have attempted to contact multiple members of the team but have had no response. The team are not KYC'd but we are using all the information that we do have to assist with authorities." The prior day, Defrost Finance suffered a flash loan attack that drained protocol users of $12 million in assets. Immediately after the …

While many are still enjoying the holiday season, hackers are hard at work, draining around $8 million in an ongoing BitKeep wallet exploit. On Dec. 26, some users of the multichain crypto wallet BitKeep reported that their funds were being drained and transferred while they were not using their wallets. In their official Telegram group, the BitKeep team confirmed that some APK package downloads have been hijacked by some attackers and have been installed with code that was implanted by hackers. They wrote: “If your funds are stolen, the application you download or update may be an unknown version (unofficial …

Leading decentralized finance (DeFi) aggregator 1inch Network announced a major upgrade — Fusion — around its 1inch Swap Engine. The Fusion upgrade aims to deliver cost-efficient, secure and profitable swaps for crypto investors. The Fusion mode in 1inch Swap Engine allows DeFi investors to place orders with a predecided price and time range without paying network fees. In addition, the upgrade includes network improvements such as updated staking contracts and tokenomics. As a decentralized trading and matching system, the 1inch Swap Engine connects DeFi users and provides liquidity for crypto trades through professional market makers. Explaining the intent behind the …

Defrost Finance, a decentralized leveraged trading platform on Avalanche blockchain, announced that both of its versions — Defrost V1 and Defrost V2 — are being investigated for a hack. The announcement came after investors reported losing their staked Defrost Finance (MELT) and Avalanche (AVAX) tokens from the MetaMask wallets. Moments after a few users complained about the unusual loss of funds, Defrost Finance’s core team member Doran confirmed that Defrost V2 was hit with a flash loan attack. At the time, the platform believed that Defrost V1 was not impacted by the hack and decided to close down V2 for …