The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been sitting in the backseat since whipping up a frenzy in the summer of 2020 through the first quarter of 2021. Currently, investors are debating whether the crypto sector is in a bull or bear market, meaning, it’s a good time to check in on the state of DeFi and identify which protocols might be setting new trends. Here’s a look at the top-ranking DeFi protocols and a review of the strategies used by users of these protocols. Stablecoins are the foundation of DeFi Stablecoin-related DeFi protocols are the cornerstone of the DeFi ecosystem …

MakerDAO has announced that it will begin offering a maximum of $10 million bounty to white hat hackers and cybersecurity specialists who point out legitimate security threats in its smart contracts. Maker’s (MAKER) plan to front-run attacks on its smart contracts is the largest ever on the bug bounty platform Immunefi. In fact if someone claimed the lot, it would equal the total amount of $10 million that Immunefi has paid out to date from active and inactive events. Its website claims the bugs found have averted up to $20 billion in damages from hacks. Whitehat hackers stand to gain …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) could become the most radical development to come of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies by potentially ushering in a new foundation for global finance. One of the projects that set some early precedents for DeFi was MakerDAO, which pioneered the use of having a distinct token for governance, with MKR, and a stablecoin backed by cryptocurrency as collateral — DAI. Next came Compound (COMP), which let customers borrow and lend select cryptocurrencies using a marginalized system that controlled collateral risk. These early developments have led to the DeFi market we see today, with many yielding products seeming to …

As 2021 draws to a close, the premier lineup in the DeFi landscape largely consists of synthetic asset platforms (SAPs). An SAP is any platform that enables users to mint synthetics, which are derivatives whose values are pegged to existing assets in real time. As long as oracles can supply a reliable price feed, synthetics can represent any asset in the world and take on its price — be it a stock, commodity or crypto asset. As such, SAPs finally bridge the gap between emergent DeFi platforms and legacy finance, allowing investors to place their bets on any asset anywhere, …

Calls for the arrival of an altseason are growing louder on Nov. 3 after the price action for altcoins is on the rise and Bitcoin (BTC) price lingers at the $62,000 support level. At the moment, gaming tokens, supply chain-related projects and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols are scorching hot and as shown below, many altcoins are posting double and triple-digit gains today. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were OriginTrail (TRAC), XYO Network (XYO) and Maker (MKR). TRAC gets a boost from the “Coinbase effect” OriginTrail is a protocol that …

Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance, or DeFi, newsletter. Blogging platform Mirror expanded to the public market this week. Read on to discover the impact of this move for Ethereum wallet holders. What you’re about to read is a more succinct version of the newsletter. For a comprehensive summary of DeFi’s developments over the last week, subscribe below. Mirror expands blockchain blogging to the public This week, Mirror, a decentralized publishing protocol focused on fostering data ownership and free expression, expanded its platform to the public market for the first time. In the previous version, a weekly …

Abracadabra.Money’s stablecoin, Magic Internet Money (MIM), has surged past a $1-billion total supply this month as the project works to provide competition to MakerDAO. Abracadabra is a cross-chain stablecoin lending protocol that operates on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Fantom, Avalanche and Arbitrum. Along with MIM, the project also has a SPELL governance token that can be staked on the protocol. The project describes itself as a “spell book” that enables users to provide collateral via interest-bearing tokens, such as yvUSDC and xSUSHI, and to borrow the MIM stablecoin against their tokens. “To reverse the spell, the caster simply returns …

MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen has published an essay outlining measures that could be taken to make the protocol a vehicle for addressing climate change. In a lengthy Tuesday post published to the MakerDAO governance forum, Christensen asserts that MakerDAO should strive to ensure that all of its collateral comprises “sustainable and climate-aligned assets that consider the long-term impacts of financial activity on the environment.” Christensen asserts that the protocol’s collateral should be invested into sustainable real-world assets (RWAs) through senior credit positions in projects that build “solar farms, wind turbines, batteries, recharging stations and other cost-efficient renewable energy solutions, as …

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) have been a contentious issue in the blockchain and cryptocurrency world for a while now. From their early days as seen in the case of the Slock.it the German startup that brought about The DAO, to current iterations, DAOs have the potential to make or break the crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, and education will be a deciding factor. If recent developments are anything to go by, a misunderstanding of the true nature of the technology behind most DeFi projects could be a contributing factor to the lack of regulatory clarity. Recent dialogue between MakerDAO …

One of France’s leading banks has turned to decentralized finance pioneer MakerDAO to propose the submission of bond tokens as collateral for a loan of the DAI stablecoin. The historic proposal, called “Security Tokens Refinancing,” was submitted to Maker’s governance forums by the international bank on Friday. It would be the first major collaboration between a traditional bank and a DeFi protocol, and could open the door for closer integration between the two sectors. Societe Generale (SG) labeled it as the “first experiment at the crossroads between regulated and open source initiatives.” The bank has proposed that it provide “OFH” …

Recent dialogue between MakerDAO developers and the office of anti-crypto Senator Elizabeth Warren has revealed a concerning lack of familiarity with the current decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. On Monday, a screenshot appearing to show a dialogue between members of the MakerDAO community discussing the conclusions from a recent meeting with the office of Senator Warren circulated on social media. In the screenshot, pseudonymous MakerDAO Governance delegate “PaperImperium” claims to have spent much of the time convincing Warren that Maker is not the same project as The DAO — an infamous early experiment in decentralized autonomy organizations (DAOs) that suffered a …

Hackers have stolen funds out of more than 5,000 user accounts with crowdfunding platform DAO Maker, a site aimed at raising money for crypto projects. According to a report from DAO Maker CEO Christoph Zaknun, hackers were able to remove roughly $7 million in USD Coin (USDC) from 5,251 user accounts at approximately 1:00 am UTC today. The platform said the attacker used a smart contract exploit to initially steal 10,000 USDC, then made 15 more transactions to acquire additional funds. "One of the reasons why this did happen is probably that the amount of deposits within the [Strong Holder …