Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) information, a newsletter crafted to bring you the biggest happenings of the past week.
US regulators want to take a closer look at money laundering and terrorist financing laws by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as it asked banking industry players for their views on the criminal risks of DeFi .
Ethereum developers are targeting the last week of March for Ethereum’s Shanghai hard fork and some additional enhancement updates for June next year. The Ankr protocol has earmarked $15 million to buy back bad debt resulting from a recent exploit and the resulting extra circulation of HAY (HAY).
Chainlink deploys staking to increase the security of oracle services. Stakers will earn Chainlink (LINK) tokens as they participate in a decentralized alert system that notifies the network when services do not meet performance requirements.
The top 100 DeFi tokens had a mixed week in terms of price action, with many trading in the green while several others posted a net loss on the weekly charts.
US Regulator Seeks Opinions on DeFi’s Impact on Financial Crime
A US financial regulator wants to seek input from the banking industry on how DeFi technology may affect the agency’s efforts to curb financial crime.
FinCEN has stated that it is “looking closely” at DeFi, while the agency’s acting director, Himamauli Das, has stated that the digital asset ecosystem and digital currencies are a “key priority area” for the agency.
Keep reading
Ethereum developers target March 2023 for Shanghai hard fork
According to a discussion at the 151st Ethereum Core Developers Meeting on Dec. 8, core programmers have set a tentative deadline of March 2023 for Ethereum’s Shanghai hard fork. In addition, developers will aim for May or June 2023 to launch the Ethereum Improvement Protocol (EIP) 4844 upgrade that will introduce proto-danksharding to the network.
Although the much-anticipated proof-of-stake Merge upgrade was completed on Sept. 15, staked Ether (stETH) is currently locked on the Ethereum Beacon Chain. The token is created by the decentralized finance protocol Lido, with close to 3.5 million stETH ($4.48 billion) in circulation. After the Shanghai upgrade, stETH users can withdraw their funds along with any applicable staking rewards for validating network transactions. The Ethereum Foundation said that it structured the upgrades in this manner to “simplify and maximize focus on a successful transition to proof-of-stake.”
Ethereum Developers Target March 2023 for Shanghai Hard Fork
According to a discussion held at the 151st Ethereum Key Developers Meeting on December 8, the kernel programmers have set a tentative deadline of March 2023 for Ethereum’s Shanghai hard fork. Also, developers will target May or June 2023 to release the Ethereum Improvement Protocol (EIP) 4844 update, which will introduce proto-danksharding to the network.
Although the long-awaited Merge proof-of-stake update was completed on September 15, staked Ether(stETH) is currently locked up on the Ethereum Beacon Chain. The token is created by the DeFi protocol, Lido, with about 3.5 million stETH ($4.48 billion) in circulation. Following the Shanghai update, stETH users will be able to withdraw their funds along with any applicable staking rewards for validating network transactions. The Ethereum Foundation said it structured the upgrades this way to “simplify and maximize focus on a successful transition to proof-of-stake.”
Keep reading
Ankr Allocates $15M to Compensate Users as Helio Stablecoin Recovers After Exploit
Stablecoin protocol Helio, which issues the U.S. dollar-pegged HAY stablecoin, said in a tweet on Dec. 7 that it had repurchased $3 million of bad debt on HAY so far on the open market. The day before, blockchain infrastructure platform Ankr stated that it would spend $15 million to buy back bad debt resulting from a recent exploit and subsequent oversupply of HAY.
A series of seemingly unrelated incidents occurred on December 2, when a hacker manipulated vulnerabilities in Ankr’s smart contract code and compromised private keys after a technical update. As a result, the hacker minted 20 trillion Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc), which was pegged to BNB, and sold them, with the price of aBNBc plummeting to less than $2 from around $300.
Keep reading
Chainlink launches staking to increase the security of oracle services
In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Chainlink said that the new staking feature is an integral part of its “Chainlink Economics 2.0” efforts that focus on security and sustainable growth.
Previously, Chainlink users who wanted to receive LINK token rewards needed to get their own nodes up and running. With the new participation mechanism, Chainlink stakeholders have an additional way to earn money while helping to increase the security of the oracle platform.
Keep reading
DeFi Market Review
Analytical data reveals that the total value locked in DeFi remained above $40 billion. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the top 100 DeFi tokens by market capitalization had a volatile week, with several tokens posting a rally higher while others traded in the red.
Synthetix (SNX) was the highest rising token among the top 100 DeFi tokens, posting an 11.8% rise over the past week, followed by Stacks (STX) at 10.8% and Thorchain (RUNE) at 7.47%.
Thanks for reading our roundup of this week’s most impactful developments within the DeFi ecosystem. See you next Friday for more stories, perspectives, and information about this ever-growing space.
Investments in crypto assets are not regulated. They may not be suitable for retail investors and the entire amount invested may be lost. The services or products offered are not directed or accessible to investors in Spain.