Decentralized finance service B.Protocol has announced plans for a new version that will improve the liquidation of undercollateralized loan positions on lending platforms. In a release issued on Tuesday, the backstop liquidity protocol for DeFi lending platforms revealed that the upcoming v2 is based on a white paper for a novel Backstop automated market maker (B.AMM) written by a couple of anonymous community members. According to a blog post published by B.Protocol founder Yaron Velner the v1 design that utilized professional liquidators to share profits with users instead of miners was not sufficient to tackle the capital inefficiency problem. Unlike …

While decentralized finance has stolen the show with big-number headlines over the past year — the closely-watched Total Value Locked (TVL) figure notably growing nearly 800%, rising from $20 billion at the start of 2021 to $157 billion at May peaks — centralized crypto financial services have likewise enjoyed explosive growth. According to Kalin Metodiev, CFA and co-founder at Nexo, the crypto savings account company has grown fourfold to $15 billion in AUM, expanded to 1.7 million clients, and has new features like asset swap functionality built into the platform coming down the pipe. Nexo and Cointelegraph only crossed paths …

Today, decentralized exchange and liquidity aggregator 1inch announce the launch of the 1inch Limit Order Protocol. The new feature boasts 5 different security audits, and will enable users to buy or sell assets at specific price targets on Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon. The new feature will also be able to interact with smart contract logic, and be able to execute orders based on oracle data. Limit orders were previously available to the DeFi ecosystem through a variety of protocols including Gelato and 0x, the latter which 1inch utilized. However, the team claims this new protocol will be more gas-efficient and …

Cryptocurrency lending platform BlockFi is reportedly looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding at a valuation of nearly $5 billion, offering further insights into the growth of crypto-focused companies. The company, which was founded in 2017 by Zac Prince and Flori Marquez, is said to be in late-stage talks with new and existing investors to secure the capital raise, according to technology publication The Information. New York-based hedge fund Third Point Management and Hedosophia, a London-based venture capital firm, are reportedly leading the new funding round. The same report indicates that the latest funding round has …

An all-in-one DeFi platform says it delivers everything that crypto enthusiasts need — including lending services, staking, a fiat on-ramp, remittances and seamless payments. BitCashPay is registered with the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission, and also intends to acquire a license from the country’s central bank. Whereas some decentralized finance projects offer little in the way of support for newcomers into the space, BitCashPay says it is determined to serve as an educational resource that makes digital assets easier to understand. The platform has launched an academy that provides straightforward guides on a plethora of topics spanning cryptocurrencies and blockchain. …

The banks are out of the bag: In a Tweet on Wednesday, Stani Kulechov, co-founder of decentralized finance money market protocol Aave, revealed that the Aave protocol has built a “private pool” for institutions to “practice” before getting involved with the DeFi ecosystem. Earlier on Wednesday, a Twitter user posted an angry tweet directed at Aave’s official Twitter account, noting that his address had been “blacklisted” due to Anti-Money Laundering requirements: Yo. WHAT THE FUCK @AaveAave $AAVE? pic.twitter.com/xKnaG7Idya — HMS RΞΞpΞr (@Fernjosh1) May 12, 2021 Kulechov himself responded to the tweet, saying first that there had been a mistake and …

Analyzing the activity on lending platforms can sometimes be used as a barometer for measuring the sentiment of the cryptocurrency market as a higher number of collateral-backed loans may signal that traders are eager to trade a rising market. The month of April saw the total value locked on Maker (MKR), Aave (AAVE) and Compound (COMP) climb to new highs alongside rising token values and trading volumes. All three of the projects are based on the Ethereum (ETH) network and have benefited from the rising price of ETH as well as a recent decline in the average gas fee that …

Leading full-service cryptocurrency prime broker Genesis Global Trading has seen spot trading treble in the first quarter. Corporate interest accounted for the biggest slice of trading, with Genesis attributing part of its success to its Bitcoin treasury product “Genesis Treasury”. The Q1 report released on April 28 revealed the firm had processed $31.5 billion in spot trading volume — a 287% increase from $8 billion in Q4 2020. It also saw $10.5 billion in derivatives trading. Corporates accounted for $8 billion of the total spot trading volume, an increase of 25% from the previous quarter. The growth of corporate trading …

With a liquidity mining program set to launch on Monday, Aave could be on the cusp of becoming the dominant decentralized finance (DeFi) ledning protocol. Earlier today, Aave Improvement Proposal (AIP) 16 reached quorum, meaning that starting on Monday, 4/26 liquidity providers and borrowers in Aave’s USDC, DAI, USDT, GUSD, ETH, and WBTC pools will earn stAAVE rewards in addition to their standard interest yield. Per AIP 16, providers and borrowers in these pools will split 2,200 stAAVE tokens per day from the protocol’s current 2.9 million AAVE Ecosystem Reserve, currently worth nearly $1 billion. The proposal, written by Aave …

What legal safeguards should you look for? Working with a licensed crypto company offers clients legal rights and helps ensure that they don’t run into regulatory trouble. Financial regulators and international banking bodies around the world are cracking down harder and harder on crypto companies that do not follow regulations, and it’s not just securities law violations they’re looking for anymore. Most notably, any firm dealing with crypto could face serious consequences if it doesn’t have Know Your Customer and anti-money laundering standards in place. One of the best ways to ensure that your cryptocurrency is in the hands of …

Brian Brooks has defended the fintech banking charter introduced while he served as the acting comptroller of the currency after Congressional Democrats took aim at the license on Thursday. Brian appeared as a witness before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions at an April 15 hearing titled, “Banking Innovation or Regulatory Evasion? Exploring Trends in Financial Institution Charters.” The fintech charter was introduced by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, and overseen by Brooks in 2020, allowing financial technology firms including cryptocurrency companies to offer lending and payment products without …

The team behind Liquity Protocol — a DeFi project launched on April 5 — has attracted $1 billion worth of locked up value according to data from Dune Analytics. From $0 to $1B TVL in 10 days Here's some charts highlighting Liquity's growth so far: pic.twitter.com/qpSzRp0gZs — Liquity (@LiquityProtocol) April 15, 2021 The Pantera Capital-backed Liquity is a Swiss-based decentralized and governance-free lending protocol that offers interest-free loans against Ethereum locked as collateral, with users required to maintain a minimum collateral ratio of 110%. Loans are paid out in the protocol’s algorithmic stable coin LUSD, which is pegged to the …