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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Frax Finance's Sam Kaizeman (Wikipedia)
Frax Finance Targets $100B Value Locked in Singularity Roadmap
Frax's singularity roadmap has set a target of $100 billion in TVL for its layer 2 Fraxtal.
Frax Finance's Sam Kaizeman (Wikipedia)

Vilnius, Lithuania (Shutterstock)
Lithuania-Licensed Crypto Bank Meld to Offer Tokenized RWAs to Retail Investors
Meld, which is in partnership with the layer-1 blockchain of the same name, has an agreement with DeFi platform Swarm Markets, which started a real-world asset platform in Dec...
Vilnius, Lithuania (Shutterstock)

Top blockchains by DEX volume. (DefiLlama)
Solana Leapfrogs Ethereum on DEX Volume
The meme coin frenzy seems to have catalyzed higher volumes on the Solana blockchain, which also boasts greater capital efficiency than Ethereum.
Top blockchains by DEX volume. (DefiLlama)

Alex McFarlane and Mélodie Lamarque, co-founders of Keyring Network (Courtesy Keyring Network)
Crypto Compliance Platform Keyring Raises $6M to Unlock DeFi for Institutions
The company allows institutional investors to comply with regulations when interacting with DeFi, and recently facilitated a proof of concept trial with Nomura's crypto arm La...
Alex McFarlane and Mélodie Lamarque, co-founders of Keyring Network (Courtesy Keyring Network)

Aevo volume (DefiLlama)
Billion-Dollar Volumes and Then a Steep Drop Prompts Allegations of Wash Trading on Aevo
In response, Aevo says customers suddenly traded more on its decentralized exchange to try to get some of its airdrop.
Aevo volume (DefiLlama)

A shiba inu. (Atsuko Sato)
Meme Coins Strongly Correlated to Network Growth: Franklin Templeton
Meme coin markets have boomed in tandem with the growth of addresses on their underlying blockchains.
A shiba inu. (Atsuko Sato)

BIS tower building (BIS)
DeFi Borrower Behavior Key to Gauging Tokenization Risks: BIS Study
The study was designed to look at the largely unexplored "intricacies" of user behavior and dynamics of decentralized finance lending, the authors said.
BIS tower building (BIS)

Bees (Boba Jaglicic/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)
Developers Upload Script of Jerry Seinfeld’s ‘Bee Movie’ on Ethereum as Gas Fees Plunge After Dencun
Copying and pasting the Bee Movie script is a niche internet meme that originated on Tumblr and quickly spread to Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
Bees (Boba Jaglicic/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

UNI price more than doubled since the plan for the revenue sharing mechanism became public on Feb. 23 (CoinDesk)
Uniswap's UNI Gains 20% as Token Reward Proposal Inches Closer to Approval
Uniswap's reward sharing mechanism, if approved, could inspire other DeFi protocols to follow suit.
UNI price more than doubled since the plan for the revenue sharing mechanism became public on Feb. 23 (CoinDesk)

(Alina Grubnyak/Unsplash)
Bernstein Expects DeFi to Make a Big Comeback
Six out of the top 10 revenue-generating protocols are DeFi applications, the report said.
(Alina Grubnyak/Unsplash)