DeFi

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DeFi, short for decentralized finance, represents a shift in the financial sector by leveraging blockchain technology, primarily Ethereum, to eliminate traditional financial intermediaries. It enables various financial applications, from simple transactions to complex contracts, through smart contracts that execute automatically under specific conditions. Key DeFi applications include decentralized exchanges (DEXs), stablecoins, lending platforms, and prediction markets. DeFi offers financial services like loans and interest-earning opportunities without traditional identity verification, relying instead on collateral, usually in cryptocurrency. This innovative sector promises increased accessibility and efficiency but comes with risks, such as market volatility and unregulated projects.

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(Yunha Lee/CoinDesk)
Ethereum in 2022: What Is Money in the Metaverse?
DeFi, NFTs, stablecoins – most of it started on Ethereum. What about next year? This post is part of CoinDesk’s Future of Money Week.
(Yunha Lee/CoinDesk)

Prices for LUNA hit another record high in November. (Annie Spratt/Unsplash)
UST Stablecoin Demand, DeFi Incentives Drive Terra’s LUNA to New All-Time High
Following a network upgrade in October, it’s the second time this month LUNA has logged record highs.
Prices for LUNA hit another record high in November. (Annie Spratt/Unsplash)

Mean DAO co-founders Michel Triana and Eydel Rivero Ruiz (Mean DAO)
Three Arrows Backs Money-Streaming Mean DAO to Boost DeFi Payments on Solana
The $3.5 million funding round included SoftBank and DeFiance Capital.
Mean DAO co-founders Michel Triana and Eydel Rivero Ruiz (Mean DAO)

(Ariel/Unsplash)
Elrond Leapfrogs Into DeFi’s Top 10 as Users Chase Ridiculously Large Incentive Program
What was a $1.29 billion sweetener package when announced is now worth $7.32 billion as the MEX token surges. It has dragged an afterthought chain’s TVL into the big leagues.
(Ariel/Unsplash)

(PIER/Stone/Getty Images)
Which Comes First: DeFi Utility or Yield?
Also: Tackling Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) on Ethereum
(PIER/Stone/Getty Images)

Berlin (Adam Vradenburg/Unsplash)
German VC Greenfield One Raises $160M Crypto Fund With Backing From Swisscom, Others
The VC’s third fund is its biggest yet, and most likely one of the largest crypto funds in Europe.
Berlin (Adam Vradenburg/Unsplash)

El Salvador Wants to Build 'Bitcoin City' With Major Tax Incentives
El Salvador Wants to Build ‘Bitcoin City’ With Major Tax Incentives
El Salvador, the only country where bitcoin is a legal tender, is going to build an entire city based on the largest cryptocurrency by market value. “Bitcoin City” will have n...
El Salvador Wants to Build 'Bitcoin City' With Major Tax Incentives

(Alex Padurariu/Unsplash)
Rari Capital, Fei Protocol Look to Overcome Bagholder Bias in Ambitious DeFi Merger
Two teams are looking to form a $2.4 billion DeFi powerhouse. What’s the holdup?
(Alex Padurariu/Unsplash)

Traders have never seen anything like the cryptocurrency options trading happening these days in decentralized finance. (Thomas Shotter Boys, 1842/Art Institute of Chicago, modified by CoinDesk)
Crypto Options Traders Turn to DeFi for Altcoin Bets as QCP Slings $1B
The Singapore-based firm QCP now trades more than $1B of crypto options per month using decentralized financial applications, including $1 million worth of AAVE options recent...
Traders have never seen anything like the cryptocurrency options trading happening these days in decentralized finance. (Thomas Shotter Boys, 1842/Art Institute of Chicago, modified by CoinDesk)

Another E-CNY Scam Busted, SCMP to Tokenize History
Another E-CNY Scam Busted, SCMP to Tokenize History
Inner Mongolia e-CNY scam busted. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post to release news archives as NFTs. DeFi emerges as an enabler for pricing assets. We’ll have more on thos...
Another E-CNY Scam Busted, SCMP to Tokenize History