Welcome to Finance Redefined, where you’ll get essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights every week – a newsletter designed to bring you last week’s major developments.
Last week saw some major developments ahead of the upcoming Ethereum merger scheduled for September 15. Bitfinex becomes the latest cryptocurrency exchange to support chain split tokens.
While DeFi bridge hacks have become the norm this year, the developers behind Rainbow Bridge managed to thwart an exploit attempt within seconds, causing the hackers to lose their deposits.
The Tornado Cash developer arrested last week was sent to judicial custody for 90 days pending charges. Things are not doing well for the crypto community, who actively support developers and accuse the authorities of restricting freedom.
Cardano’s testnet and Vasil hard fork were in trouble again this week, as founder Charles Hoskinson claimed on Twitter that the issues surrounding the hard fork were “extremely corrosive and disruptive.”
In terms of price action, the top 100 DeFi tokens had a mixed week, with most of them trading in the red on the weekly chart, with the exception of some tokens that even saw double-digit growth.
Hackers try to exploit bridge protocol, fail miserably
Cross-chain bridges are increasingly being targeted by malicious entities. However, not all hackers get away with millions of exploitation attempts. Some people end up losing money from their wallets.
In a Twitter post, Aurora Labs CEO Alex Shevchenko recounted how a hacker tried to exploit the Rainbow Bridge but ended up losing 5 Ether (ETH), worth around $8,000 at the time of writing.
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Bitfinex Offers New Chain Split Token Ahead of Ethereum Merger
iFinex, the company responsible for Bitfinex Derivatives, announced Tuesday that it will launch a new service offering for users ahead of the much-anticipated ethereum merger. The exchange now offers the Ethereum Chain Split Token (CST).
The tokens available to users represent the two systems involved in the merger: ETHW, or Proof of Work (PoW), and ETHS, or Proof of Stake (PoS). Bitfinex has released new trading tokens to enable users to trade in the event of a potential fork. These coins will be available through the Bitfinex derivatives platform.
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Ruling to jail Tornado Cash developer for 90 days sparks backlash
A judge in the Netherlands has ruled that Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev must spend another 90 days in prison while he awaits charges. Confused by the decision, the crypto community rallied to demand the release of the developer.
In a tweet, cryptocurrency investor Ryan Adams argued that the developer did something good for the public with his code contributions, noting that “some bad guys” decided to use Pertsev’s code, and now developers must suffer the consequences.
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What happened to Cardano’s testnet and the Vasil hard fork?
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson went on to refute claims that Cardano’s testnet was “catastrophically broken,” meaning the long-delayed Vasil hard fork needed to finally be pushed forward.
In a Sunday Twitter post, Hoskinson shared his dismay at some videos claiming Cardano’s testnet had “catastrophic” issues, stemming from a Friday post by Cardano ecosystem developer Adam Dean.
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DeFi Market Overview
The total value locked in DeFi fell by $3 billion from last week as markets fell this weekend, according to the analysis. At the time of writing, TVL is worth about $63.26 billion. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the top 100 DeFi tokens by market cap had a mixed week, with several tokens trading in the red while others even showed double-digit gains.
Theta Fuel (TFUEL) was the biggest gainer with a weekly gain of 19.94%, followed by Curve DAO Token (CRV), up 11.76%. Convex Finance (CVX) is up 9.48% on the weekly chart and Pancake Swap (CAKE) is up 7.56% for the week.
Thank you for reading our roundup of the week’s most influential DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education in this dynamically growing space.
