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 …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is still stuck in what traders hope will be a short-term downtrend as the impact of the April 18 rumors of a crackdown on “unnamed financial institutions” for facilitating money laundering using cryptocurrencies has yet to be shaken off. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that since being pummeled below the $51,000 level on April 18, the price of BTC has been trading in a range between $52,500 and $57,500 and establishing a descending pattern of lower highs and lower lows. While regulatory concerns may have played some role in the current drawdown, there …

Decentralized lending and stablecoin protocol MakerDAO has opened governance voting to allow new tokens as collateral. A number of new collateral types have been proposed for MakerDAO, potentially increasing the number of digital assets that can now be used to mint its stablecoin, Dai. Voting began on Monday and will run for 14 days. Seven tokens have been suggested as collateral for the Maker (MKR), including Moss Carbon Credit (MCO2), Rocket Pool’s staked Ethereum (rETH), the 1inch decentralized exchange token (1INCH) and the BadgerDAO Sett token (bBADGER). Three liquidity provider tokens are also being voted on as prospective collateral, including …

Stablecoins have become a significant foundational piece for the cryptocurrency sector because they serve as a deeply liquid base pair for most assets and also offer investors a secure place to capture gains. Data also shows that stablecoins play a significant role in functioning as a gateway for capital inflow to the crypto ecosystem. While the largest stablecoins in the market are currently controlled and issued by centralized entities like Tether or Circle, DAI and its issuer Maker (MKR) is one stablecoin project that keeps with the ethos of decentralization that the cryptocurrency community is founded on. Data from Cointelegraph …

Now that the Coinbase (COIN) stock listing is out of the way, the focus of traders has shifted back to the crypto market as Bitcoin (BTC) price works to regain its footing above $63,000 and altcoins move higher. After reaching a new all-time high near $65,000, BTC price dipped below $62,000 before finding a bit of momentum in the range which one fund manager called a “great opportunity to buy.” Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that Bitcoin has steadily climbed higher since Wednesday's correction and bulls are attempting to flip the $63,500 level from resistance to support. Trading …

Rune Christensen, founder and CEO of DeFi bluechip MakerDAO, says the decentralized finance space is set to move from its current isolated bubble phase toward more integration with the broader financial landscape. Christensen made this known during Tuesday’s plenary session “Behind the Decentralized Finance Hype” at the ongoing Global Technology Governance Summit organized by the World Economic Forum. According to the MakerDAO CEO, DeFi protocols interacting with real-world assets, such as commercial real estate and trade financing, will require significant regulatory input, stating: “The huge difference between the primordial soup of DeFi building and DeFi in the real world is …

The Dai stablecoin produced by decentralized lending protocol MakerDAO is getting some speed and fee enhancements with its forthcoming upgrade on layer-two. Ethereum scaling solutions provider Optimism will provide the technology as announced on the MakerDAO forum on March 9. Co-founder and CTO of gaming firm Bellwood Studios Sam MacPherson explained the "MakerDAO community will be launching an ‘official’ DAI on Optimism L2" and that the Optimism Dai Bridge would offer improvements on other implementations. He stated that currently, Optimism requires a seven day lockup period when withdrawing tokens back to layer-one (Ethereum) as the rollups rely on publishing the …

The total value locked in decentralized finance — a measure of the total value of assets committed to the DeFi ecosystem —has marked a new all-time high close to $40 billion. According to DeFi Pulse, the figure hit the $39.79 billion mark on the morning of Feb. 10. While the bullish milestone is undoubtedly a reflection of soaring prices across the crypto markets, as a metric, total value locked, or TVL, gives a somewhat crude picture of what is actually going on in the world of DeFi. This is because the metric largely ends up tracking the surface impact of …

Following an exploit last night that cost yield vault project Yearn.finance $11 million in stablecoin DAI, crypto community members from multiple projects have rallied to mitigate the effects, reclaim exploited funds, and reimburse affected users. First reported by the project at 5:09 pm EST, the exploit was a complex arbitration attack on Yearn’s version 1 DAI yield vault. According to a disclosure published by Yearn this morning, the exploit — which featured over 160 nested transactions and has been called one of the most complex to date — netted the attacker $2.7 million in profits, and cost the vault $11 …

The bullish momentum seen throughout the week has spilled over into the weekend as the majority of the top-100 tokens listed on CoinMarketCap are posting double-digit gains. Bitcoin (BTC) entering a brief consolidation period and the possibility of a third round of stimulus checks for American citizens are two possible reasons for today’s bullish price action. While there are concerns about the recent large Bitcoin inflows into South Korean exchanges by BTC whales, fundamentals factors like miner sentiment and decreasing supply are keeping investors feeling relatively optimistic about Bitcoin’s future price prospects. A growing number of experts have voiced their …

If people actually used insurance against hacks, this week would definitely have bankrupted a great many insurers. In the span of one week, a total of four flash loan-enabled exploits were registered (one actually happened the week before, but wasn’t noticed until later). We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol’s loss of $7 million. In total, the hackers stole $18.3 million, which admittedly, is not that much — less than the single October exploit of Harvest Finance. As …

The Maker community is looking for solutions after an analysis by B.Protocol suggests that it is possible to exploit the liquidation system to create under-collateralized debt. The researchers created small vaults for $128, just above Maker’s “dust” parameter that defines the minimum size for new vaults. As Maker’s oracles updated to new prices that made these vaults eligible for liquidation, B.Protocol found that the debt remained unclaimed for several hours. While the researchers later closed the bad debt loans on their own, the mechanism could be abused to create a Dai position that would never be liquidated. Splitting a $1 …