Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Vee Finance reported $35 million in losses in an exploit, just a few days after launching its mainnet on the Avalanche network. After pausing services due to suspicious activity on Monday, Vee Finance confirmed that its platform was under attack resulting in a loss of 8,804 Ether (ETH) and around 214 Bitcoin (BTC). The total amount is worth more than $35 million at the time of writing. According to the official incident announcement, the suspected attacker has collected stolen assets on one address after exploiting the Vee Finance trade contract address. In order to prevent further …

United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced it will not be pursuing its Lend crypto lending program. In a Sept. 17 update to a blog announcing the program in June, Coinbase hinted at difficulties in regulatory clarity across the crypto industry in its decision to not bring the crypto lending product to the market. According to the exchange, “hundreds of thousands of customers from across the country” had already signed up for Lend, a program that aimed at offering 4% annual yield returns on deposits of USD Coin (USDC). The announcement comes less than two weeks after the Securities and …

The Texas State Securities Board has filed for a hearing with the potential to impose a cease and desist order against crypto lending firm Celsius Network for not offering securities licensed at the state or federal level, while the New Jersey Bureau of Securities has ordered the platform to stop offering and selling interest-earning cryptocurrency products. According to a Sept. 17 filing, the Texas regulator will be holding a hearing related to allegations that Celsius Network is offering and selling securities in Texas that are not registered or permitted in addition to not registering as a dealer under the state’s …

Singapore-based crypto lending platform Hodlnaut will partner with United States crypto exchange Okcoin in an effort to drive adoption and crypto transactions among users. In a Wednesday announcement, Hodlnaut said the partnership would allow its users and those on Okcoin to purchase cryptocurrencies and earn rewards on their holdings. The lending platform said Singapore-based users already use Okcoin as a fiat on-ramp solution to go from the Singapore dollar to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). “We are building the next generation of tools to help onboard the investors and traders who have been on the fence about crypto,” said Okcoin's …

Decentralized lending protocol Pledge has secured $3 million in investments for its cross-chain ecosystem focused on long-term financing, highlighting continued innovation in the DeFi sector. The investment round was led by DHVC, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm, with additional participation from U.C. Berkeley Professor Gary LaBlanc and Stanford University community members Ray Wong and Torsten Wendl. The raise will support Pledge's mission to become a premier crypto-asset lending platform that eventually paves the way for tokenized real-world financial assets. Pledge was created by a group of blockchain-focused researchers at Stanford University, including Professor David Tse, Nicole Chang, Ray Wong …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly threatened to sue Coinbase over a crypto yield program it deems as a security. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted on Wednesday that there has been some “really sketchy behavior coming out of the SEC recently” before launching into a 21 post thread detailing the SEC’s dealings with the firm. Armstrong explained that the crypto exchange approached the SEC earlier this year to brief the enforcement body over the up-and-coming Coinbase Lend program that intends to offer 4% annual yield returns on deposits of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin. According to the …

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair Christopher Giancarlo, also known as “Crypto Dad,” is leaving the board of crypto lending firm BlockFi but will continue to advise the group on digital assets. In a Wednesday announcement, BlockFi said Ellen-Blair Chube — a managing director and client service officer at investment banking firm William Blair & Company — would be replacing Giancarlo. BlockFi founder and CEO Zac Prince cited Chube’s “strong financial services experience married with her deep knowledge of the public sector” in bringing her on as a board member. Prince added that Giancarlo would contribute in an informal …

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand continues introducing new regulations for the cryptocurrency industry, citing investor protection concerns. On Wednesday, the Thai SEC proposed a set of additional regulations related to custody of investors' cryptocurrency holdings held by digital asset business operators. The newly proposed rules refer to custody of fiat money for digital asset accounts as well as cryptocurrency lending, or earning interest on crypto holdings. The SEC is specifically looking to prohibit crypto companies from using investor assets for the “benefit of another client or other persons,” or seeking benefits from both investors’ fiat money and …

Liquidity market protocol Benqi has reached $1 billion in total value locked, or TVL, less than a week after launching on the Avalanche (AVAX) network, a major milestone that highlights the explosive growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) lending services. Benqi Finance announced the milestone on Twitter late Sunday, where it thanked its community for the overwhelming support. Absolutely speechless... Thank you everyone for the overwhelming support. @avalancheavax #AvalancheRush #Avalanche $QI pic.twitter.com/36zRSrvHSs — BENQI (@BenqiFinance) August 23, 2021 The protocol generated $200 million in TVL in the first 24 hours and $500 million in the first two days, as per the …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rapid recovery above $46,000 has renewed calls for a $100,000 BTC price by the end of 2021, while the effects of China’s crackdown on the mining industry are slowly beginning to fade as the Bitcoin network hash rate shows signs of recovery. One of the side benefits of China’s crackdown is that it has lowered the barriers of entry into the Bitcoin mining space, which has been shown to provide profits in both bull and bear markets. Bitcoin mining is one of the few ways that investors can acquire BTC without directly purchasing it from the market, and …

Demand for Aave has boomed dramatically in the previous 24 hours as traders assessed its involvement in Bitwise Investment’s upcoming institutionally focused investment vehicle. The San Francisco-based asset management firm announced Wednesday that it would invest directly in Aave to back its “Bitwise Aave Fund,” a fund created to build a bridge between accredited investors and the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. “There is growing demand from financial advisors, hedge funds, institutions, and other professional investors for exposure to the fast-growing DeFi markets,” Matt Hougan, chief information officer of Bitwise, said in a press release, adding that the investment products …

Jack Dorsey’s cryptocurrency-friendly digital payments firm Square is expanding competition with global payments giants like PayPal by acquiring a major Australian lending company. Square announced Sunday that the firm has entered into a scheme implementation deed to acquire all of the issued shares in fintech company Afterpay in a $29-billion deal. The transaction is based on the closing price of the Square common share and is expected to be paid in all stock in the first quarter of 2022. The acquisition enables Square to further accelerate its strategic plans for payment ecosystems as the company is looking to integrate Afterpay …