The cryptocurrency industry has offered developers and investors the opportunity to introduce new financial tools providing plentiful options to earn passive income. Simply holding crypto has offered patient investors the chance to make gains over the years. However, there are various other ways to increase crypto assets’ stacks, even in bear markets. Other than staking, crypto savings accounts allow retail investors to accrue their funds by earning interest on the crypto assets they deposit on specific cryptocurrency platforms if they agree to lend out their coins or tokens. Crypto interest accounts are particularly appealing because they distribute much higher returns …

Interlay, a London-based blockchain firm, launched a Bitcoin (BTC)-based cross-chain bridge on Polkadot (DOT). Named interBTC (iBTC), the bridge allows the use of Bitcoin on non-native blockchains for decentralized finance (DeFi), cross-chain transfers and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), among others. interBTC operates as a BTC-backed stablecoin, secured by a decentralized network of overcollateralized vaults, which according to Interlay, resembles MakerDAO’s DAI token, a stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. The iBTC vaults use mixed-asset collateral to insure BTC reserves, making iBTC redeemable 1:1 with BTC over the Bitcoin blockchain. As a preventive measure during unforeseen vault failure, the collateral is programmed to …

Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin will introduce native token swap functionality to its in-house wallet after integrating decentralized finance (DeFi) market maker 1inch’s application programming interface. 1inch’s Pathfinder algorithm will increase the functionality of KuCoin Wallet, the exchange’s recently launched decentralized wallet platform, which features cross-chain trading, DeFi and nonfungible token (NFT) support. The algorithm will aggregate liquidity from over 250 sources from automated market makers (AMM) and proactive market makers (PMM) across the DeFi ecosystem. 1inch plugs into liquidity sources running on nine different blockchain networks, providing a wide range of tradable asset pairs. Related: DeFi market has room for growth …

Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur who has been quite active in the crypto ecosystem for the past year, is facing a class action lawsuit over his promotions of the bankrupt crypto brokerage firm Voyager Digital. The Moskowitz Law Firm filed a civil suit in the United States District Court in Southern Florida against Cuban for promoting Voyager’s unregulated crypto products. The lawsuit demanded a jury hearing for the case. The lawsuit alleged Cuban also misrepresented the firm on numerous occasions, making dubious claims of it being cheaper than competitors and offering “commission-free” trading services. Cuban, along with Voyager Digital CEO …

Cross-chain bridges have been the target of more than a few hacks this year, but new data from blockchain analytics provider Elliptic alleges one has been used to launder over half a billion dollars in ill-gotten crypto assets. According to an Aug. 10 report, crypto bridge RenBridge has facilitated the laundering of at least $540 million in proceeds of crime since 2020 through a process known as chain hopping — converting one form of cryptocurrency into another and moving it across multiple blockchains. Elliptic said that decentralized cross-chain bridges provide “an unregulated alternative to exchanges for transferring value between blockchains.” …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols continue to be targeted by hackers, with Curve Finance becoming the latest platform to be compromised after a DNS hijacking incident. The automated market maker warned users not to use the front end of its website on Aug. 9 after the incident was flagged online by a number of members of the wider cryptocurrency community. While the exact attack mechanism is still under investigation, the consensus is that attackers managed to clone the Curve Finance website and rerouted the DNS server to the fake page. Users that attempted to make use of the platform then had …

A “killer app” for consumers is what will be needed to bring the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector to a level that draws in a mainstream audience, said Ripple Lab’s head of DeFi markets Boris Alergant. Alergant nade the comments during a panel at the Blockchain Futurist Conference titled "The Future of Decentralized Finance" on Aug. 9, which was covered by Cointelegraph reporters on the ground in Toronto, Canada. Alongside Alergant, Aventus Ventures CEO Kevin Hobbs, FLUIDEFI co-founder and CEO Lisa Loud, and Teller Finance CEO and co-founder Ryan Berkin also featured on the panel. The general sentiment among the panelists …

On Aug 9, automated market maker Curve Finance took to Twitter to warn users of an ongoing exploit on its site. The team behind the protocol noted that the issue, which appears to be an attack from a malicious actor, is affecting the service’s nameserver and frontend. Don't use https://t.co/vOeMYOTq0l site - nameserver is compromised. Investigation is ongoing: likely the NS itself has a problem — Curve Finance (@CurveFinance) August 9, 2022 Curve stated via Twitter that its exchange — which is a separate product — appeared to be unaffected by the attack, as it uses a different DNS provider. …

On Tuesday, Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, pledged its full support for the transition of Ethereum to a proof-of-stake, or PoS, blockchain after the much-anticipated Merge upgrade. The firm views The Merge as an important milestone in the scaling of the Ethereum ecosystem, writing: "USDC has become a core building block for Ethereum DeFi innovation. It has facilitated the adoption of L2 solutions and helped broaden the set of use cases that today rely on Ethereum's vast suite of capabilities. We understand our responsibility for the Ethereum ecosystem and businesses, developers, and end users that depend on USDC, …

The aggregate total value locked (TVL) in the crypto market measures the amount of funds deposited in smart contracts and this figure declined from $160 billion in mid-April to the current $70 billion, which is the lowest level since March 2021. While this 66% contraction is worrying, a great deal of data suggests that the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is resilient. The issue with using TVL as a broad metric is the lack of detail that is not shown. For example, the number of DeFi transactions, growth of layer-2 scaling solutions and venture capital inflows in the ecosystem are not …

On August 2, the Nomad token bridge became yet another victim of cross-chain hacking after the protocol suffered a $190 million exploit. Joining a list of casualties alongside Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge and Solana’s Wormhole, many industry experts have cast doubt on the future of cross-chain technologies. However, not all cross-chain toolkits have thus far been exploited. Regarding this matter, Cointelegraph spoke with Osmosis’ co-founder Sunny Aggarwal. Osmosis is one of the most popular decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, on the Cosmos hub with $120 million in total value locked. Here’s what Aggarwal had to say regarding Cosmos’ namesake inter-blockchain communications …

South Korea's most popular metaverse blockchain Klaytn is set to benefit from deeper liquidity and improved token swaps through a new partnership with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol 1inch Network. Klaytn has enjoyed success in South Korea as the country continues to see prolific nonfungible token (NFT) and GameFi use. Klaytn is a product of tech behemoth Kakao - which commands a user base of some 52 million people that use its flagship KakaoTalk application and suite of software products. Klaytn derived its proprietary blockchain technology off the Ethereum Virtual Machine and powers various play-to-earn and AAA games, NFT marketplaces and …