The Compound protocol is set to introduce Open Price Feed — a decentralized oracle whose crypto market prices will allow the project’s lending system to function. The Open Price Feed is currently being tested on a variety of networks. It has operated for almost two weeks on the Ethereum (ETH) Kovan and Ropsten testnet for almost two weeks, and its price feeds have been available for 10 days on mainnet. On Ropsten, a proposal to use the new price feed locked in on Aug. 6. Compound developers are calling the community to test the new system in order to integrate …

United States-based TradeStation, a subsidiary of Japanese firm Monex Group, is planning to launch a crypto lending service. The plan was announced in Monex’s earning report published on July 29. Called “Crypto Earn” the new lending service is “C2B2B” that lends institutions borrowed assets from clients. Last November, TradeStation launched a cryptocurrency brokerage platform via a newly-launched offshoot called TradeStation Crypto. They initially supported Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP). TradeStation launched its app this month and currently, crypto trading is available in 40 states in the U.S. Monex Group, which is also the …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) loan protocol Aave has seen an explosion in the number of flash loans issued — with the daily value of said loans growing more than 1,000% since the start of July from $11 million to more than $130 million as of July 27. The record loan issuance has seen Aave ascend to rank as the fourth-largest DeFi protocol by locked funds, with nearly $392.9 million in capital currently tied to the project, according to DeFi Pulse. The value of Aave’s LEND token has also exploded by nearly 500% over less than two months, with LEND rallying into …

Blockchain firm Mainframe has acquired Sablier, an Ethereum-based protocol for real-time finance. Mainframe plans to integrate Sablier’s money streaming technology into a fixed-rate lending protocol and create tokenized debt markets akin to digital bonds. Crypto loans with lower collateralization Per the announcement, “cryptocurrency loans can create a healthy cycle of speculation, spending and monetary circulation.” Still, borrowers reportedly have low exposure in the current overcollateralized systems: “Crypto-backed loans often require collateralization rations of 150% or higher, and borrowers don’t fully actualize their spending power. With Mainframe's novel Guarantor Pools providing protection for collateral vaults, collateralization ratios can be much lower …

MakerDAO (MKR), the foundational protocol of decentralized finance on Ethereum, hit a new all-time high in the total value locked in its vaults. According to data from Defipulse, the value of the collateral locked in MakerDAO vaults is now slightly above $1 billion following a steep ascent that began on July 22. Source: Defipulse.com Most of that growth is due to the powerful price rally of Ether (ETH), which is still the most used collateral asset for minting Dai (DAI). Since July 22, the amount of ETH locked in Maker rose by about 13%, while the U.S.-dollar value gained almost …

A report by Flipside Crypto states that investors are liquidating their Compound (COMP) holdings as soon as the opportunity presents itself; with major exchange listings acting as catalyst. COMP flows. Source: Flipside Crypto. Exchange listings led to dumps The report states that as soon as COMP was getting listed on major exchanges like Binance (BNB) or Coinbase, there were observing major flows from the investors to exchanges. In addition, there was allegedly a larger transfer made from “the Compound team to DeFi. This correlates with the unannounced listing of COMP on Uniswap”. When trading on Coinbase ensued on June 23, …

The total number of users engaged with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols has increased by more than 140%, since exceeding six-figures for the first time in January. According to data published by Dune Analytics, the total number of DeFi users was just shy of 240,000 as of July 6 — increasing by more than 20% in the past month. The total value of capital locked up in DeFi protocols has also exceeded $2 billion just six months after breaking above $1 billion for the first time. Despite the surge in users, five projects account for the vast majority — roughly 94% …

The Aave lending protocol recently launched a new feature called Credit Delegation. This feature allows users to provide peer-to-peer loans with no formal collateral requirements. Stani Kulechov, the CEO of Aave, explained via Twitter how the system will work. The Credit Delegation feature relies on peers to enter into agreements between each other that allow borrowers to use the lender’s credit line freely. The two parties must enter into a formal legal agreement that would define terms such as repayment schedule, interest and other necessary conditions. Through an integration with OpenLaw, a project to create legal contracts recorded on a …

Cryptocurrency data startup Nomics, in partnership with Nexo, is introducing algorithmic rankings of crypto wallets, lenders, custodians, tax services and over-the-counter desks. The plan is to eventually extend these rankings to every crypto product category, including media outlets. According to Nomics CEO Clay Collins, the same algorithm is applied to all categories without any manual intervention, which should make the rankings more objective. Each entity receives a reputation score based on social media activity and site links. The exact recipe is not disclosed in order to prevent manipulation. Unexpected results This blind algorithm, at times, produces interesting results. Nexo tops …

When Compound launched its governance token, COMP, on June 16, few in the crypto space could have predicted how rapidly it would rise to the top. As Cointelegraph reported at the time, it only took a single day of trading for COMP to become the leader of the decentralized finance rankings. It was a historic moment for any fans of DeFi, marking the first time that Maker (MKR) had been toppled from its throne since the DeFi movement began. News of a Coinbase Pro listing only pushed the price to further heights. But as is inevitably the case with cryptocurrencies, …

Crypto lending, one of the fastest-growing industries in the blockchain ecosystem, has made it possible to earn yields and borrow capital using digital assets. According to a report by research company Credmark, the volume of crypto-backed loans increased seven-fold in 2019, ultimately reaching $8 billion. Experts speculate that crypto lending will attract more investors into the crypto market by increasing its liquidity. “You can think of lending as this incredible grease that just pushes everything forward at a much faster rate”, states Paul Murphy, CEO at Credmark. However, lending and borrowing crypto is a risky practice due to the high …

Decentralized finance is all about cutting out traditional financial intermediaries such as banks. Through the use of blockchain technology, DeFi platforms allow individuals to generate money against their own assets, becoming their own bank, as it were. As an exciting new business paradigm, the DeFi sector has been warming up for some time. But during this past week, it got downright hot, and the current euphoria has some worried that a financial bubble may be forming reminiscent of the initial coin offering bubble of late 2017. Here are three events being cited: Exhibit A: Compound Governance Token (COMP), the governance …