MakerDao governance, a decentralized community of MKR token holders that govern the Maker Protocol, has voted to pull Bitcoin onto the Ethereum blockchain by accepting Wrapped Bitcoin as a new collateral asset in the Maker Protocol, according to the official announcement on May 3. For the uninitiated, wBTC is the first ERC20 token backed 1:1 with Bitcoin. WBTC marks the fourth collateral asset type to be added to the MakerDAO DeFi ecosystem. The former three included ETH, BAT, and USDC. wBTC will now be able to open Maker Vaults in order to generate Dai. The report added that: “WBTC will …
MakerDao (MKR) has published a new report that attempts to put the events of ‘Black Thursday’ into context — and recommends safeguards to ensure it can never happen again. On March 12-13 a roughly 50% crash in the price of Ethereum (ETH) led to the under-collateralization of the debt positions underpinning Maker’s Dai (DAI) stablecoin. The document, which was authored by ‘MakerMan’, said the crash drove liquidations that “effectively swamped” the system’s liquidators. With the ETH network suffering from congestion, users were unable to participate in auctions, resulting in a single bidder winning nearly 62,843 ETH for virtually zero DAI …
Philip Coggan, a British business journalist and news correspondent who writes for The Economist, once mentioned, “Modern money is debt and debt is money.” Few would disagree with this claim. Yes, the vast majority of money circulating today — so-called broad money — represents a specific type of credit–debt relationship. This relationship is at the heart of today’s sovereign monetary authorities, the central banks under which almost all economic activity takes place. But the modern economic reality we have internalized is a breeding ground of confusion for innovators in the decentralized finance and broader crypto communities because it combines the …
Rocket LP DAO, a 4-month-old loan provider that uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as collateral, issued a $1,000 loan this week, backed by only one Ethereum domain name — brantly.eth. The loan was issued for 90 days with a 15% interest rate and is the first loan to ever be issued with only an Ethereum name service domain name for collateral. Rocket signs off the first ever domain name backed loan ⌨️🚀 - @ensdomains x @RocketNFT Loan - $1,000 of ETH loaned to @BrantlyMillegan - “Brantly.eth” is the collateral, also the loanee first name - 15% interests due - Duration: 3 …
The value of the tokens underpinning decentralized finance, or DeFi, protocols has again surpassed $1 billion. The milestone comes amid a spike in the proliferation of DeFi projects, with data aggregator DeFiMarketCap estimating 246 projects to be active. The combined capitalization had crashed below $1 billion amid the March crypto crash that sparked a liquidity crisis for top DeFi project, MakerDAO (MKR). DeFi token capitalization reclaims $1 billion According to DeFiMarketCap, the three-largest tokens represent over half of the combined DeFi capitalization — with Maker representing 28%, 0x (ZRX) comprising 16%, and Synthetix Network Token (SNX) totaling 11% of the …
London-based crypto payment processor Wirex has revealed that it now has over 3 million active users, highlighting the popularity of its crypto-supporting visa card among customers. Wirex is a company licensed by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which allows crypto users to spend their crypto and fiat currencies using a dedicated Visa card and mobile app. The service has been rolled out in 130 countries, with the card accepted at over 46 million locations. Speaking to Cointelegraph on April 14, Wirex CEO Pavel Matveev said that more and more mainstream users “who are not typically hardcore cryptocurrency users” were …
Amid the apparent ongoing collapse in decentralized finance (DeFi) lending, a group of major trading and cryptocurrency companies in the United States are launching an alliance to support the sector. Introduced on April 7, the Chicago DeFi Alliance (CDA) aims to provide DeFi-focused startups and entrepreneurs with support and guidance in complying with trading regulations and other applicable requirements. Chicago DeFi Alliance to share its expertise to boost DeFi liquidity and markets According to a blog post by crypto fund Volt Capital, a founding member the CDA initiative, the alliance also includes major brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, crypto investment firms …
In the latest episode of Beer & Bitcoin, Cointelegraph’s YouTube hosts Jackson and Giovanni were joined by Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Jay Cassano and managing editor Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr. They are in quarantine in New York City and Padova, Italy, respectively. But we’re not inclined to let quarantine hold us down. With some beers on hand, it’s easy to get into an engaged crypto discussion. This time the conversation focused on the economic fallout of Black Thursday, Binance’s acquisition of CoinMarketCap, and the near-emergency shutdown of DeFi giant MakerDAO. Check out the full video and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube …
As the dust begins to settle over MakerDAO’s Black Thursday incident, the team is now returning to a normal working pace. We took the opportunity to catch up with Rune Christensen, one of the original founders of the protocol, for a full recap of the situation and what it means for Maker (MKR). Christensen had been oddly quiet as the events were unfolding, never joining any forum discussion or issuing comments to the media — until now. MakerDAO provides users with stable DAI cryptocurrency in exchange for their volatile crypto holdings, and the platform faced a reckoning as Ethereum crashed …
Famed altcoin advocate John McAfee has put up a $500 reward in the Ethereum-based stablecoin DAI for the best original photo taken in the midst of the coronavirus lockdown. The sea-bound computer programmer asked for pictures of vacant highways and cities from people who are still able to leave their homes for essential supplies and activities. McAfee tweeted: “Those able to leave your homes during quarantine ... (to buy food or get medical care, etc.) ... Take photos of interesting aspects of your vacant cities, highways, etc. $500 in DAI crypto paid for the best photo (Chosen by @theemrsmcafee next …
An auction to recapitalize MakerDAO (MKR) after the mid-March market turmoil successfully concluded on March 28, bringing in over $5 million worth of DAI. Crypto venture fund Paradigm Capital revealed in a March 31 tweet that it won approximately 68% of the auctioned tokens. The company had previously pledged to join a “backstop syndicate” and cover the entire system shortfall if necessary. Acting as a so-called “backstop,” the group would act as the buyer of last resort by purchasing the MKR tokens if their price fell to $100. (The auction’s starting price was $200 and the current market price is …
The Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) announced on March 30 the appointment of Sébastien Borget as President, while further adding that companies like Ubisoft, AMD, Animoca Brands, and MakerDAO have returned as sponsors for 2020. According to the announcement, the BGA — a coalition of 90 game and blockchain companies advocating for blockchain technology within the gaming industry — will seek to strengthen blockchain adoption to expand player capabilities without any barriers. Founded in 2019, the Alliance also hopes to represent blockchain gaming and major game industry events with the sponsorship of the returning leading technology companies. Strengthening blockchain adoption within …