Governments around the globe have also become more aware of the crypto market and the various ways in which it can be regulated. Despite a growing adoption rate and involvement of mainstream financial giants, however, naysayers continue to portray crypto as a tool for miscreants and criminals. Several crypto platforms and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have been compromised over the years, owing to various code vulnerabilities or centralization problems. However, stealing of money is the easiest part, while moving that money and cashing it out is nearly impossible. This is primarily because most crypto transactions are recorded on a public …

The cryptocurrency market is known for its high volatility and the wild-west nature of the space is, in part, due to many of the assets having small market caps and the 24/7 operational hours of centralized and decentralized exchanges (DEXs). In addition to being high risk, crypto trading can also be a very time-intensive process. It can be an overwhelming task and a barrier to entry for most investors in determining which tokens to invest in. For these investors, index investing could be a profitable alternative for gaining exposure to some of the hottest sectors of the cryptocurrency market. Here’s …

The decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem was filled with ups and downs —mostly the latter— this week, with two very distinct hack attempts and a heartbreaking departure of a DeFi veteran. In this week’s newsletter, we will also look at derivative exchange dYdX’s plans to go fully decentralized by the end of the year. The price momentum of the DeFi tokens remained neutral, with several tokens registering a bullish surge. However, the market volatility meant many of them couldn’t hold onto those gains. Hacker bungles DeFi exploit: Leaves stolen $1M in contract set to self destruct In a rare comedic bungle …

Ethereum Layer 2-based crypto derivatives trading platform dYdX has vowed to become “100% decentralized by EOY” via the protocol's V4 update. dYdX primarily offers perpetual contracts, which are derivatives products that borrow elements from both spot margin trading and futures trading but do not have an expiry date. At present only certain components of dYdX are decentralized, including its Ethereum smart contracts, governance and staking. However its “orderbook and matching engine” are managed by dYdX Trading Inc. — the team that developed the platform. dYdX announced the V4 update on Twitter yesterday with a new roadmap outlining that: “You are …

Bitcoin Suisse has begun offering decentralized finance (DeFi) services to its clients with the addition of the Liquity protocol to its product lineup. It allows customers to post Ether (ETH) collateral in the protocol to mint and borrow the Liquity Dollar (LUSD) stablecoin. In an announcement on April 20, Bitcoin Suisse said it will perform all smart contract interactions and system monitoring on its client’s behalf and allow the borrowed LUSD token to be exchanged into any fiat currency. Bitcoin Suisse is a centralized crypto and financial services company founded in 2013 and based in Switzerland, offering services such as …

One of the main narratives of hope for cryptocurrency investors is that there will be a major shift in public perception that sparks a new wave of capital from retail and institutional traders. Unfortunately for these hopeful bulls, data indicates that the opposite has occurred for nearly a year, a fact evidenced by the declining rate of searches for the term Bitcoin (BTC) on Google. A similar pattern is seen when looking at the search interest for the top smart contract platform Ethereum (ETH), which saw its peak interest occur during the second week of May 2021, and has been …

It has long been believed that investors possessing inside knowledge help drive cryptocurrencies’ price volatility, and a number of academic papers have been published on this topic. This is why Coinbase’s intention to regularly publish in advance a catalog of tokens being assessed for listing on its prominent trading platform is noteworthy. Coinbase’s plans, announced in an April 11 blog along with 50 crypto projects “under consideration” for Q2 2022, could help tamp down the pervasive speculation that surrounds small-cap tokens. Meanwhile, this can help alleviate industry concerns about “information asymmetry,” which typically occurs when one party to a transaction …

The cryptocurrency market has far faced an uphill battle for the larger part of 2022 due to global economic headwinds on multiple fronts, along with supply chain constraints, blistering inflation and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Despite the weakness seen in a majority of crypto assets, several decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have managed strengthen their fundamentals and entice new users to enter their ecosystems. Here’s a look at four protocols that are showing strength even as the wider crypto market struggles to gain footing. Balancer Balancer (BAL) is an automated market maker (AMM) on the Ethereum (ETH) that offers users …

In late March, Ronin, an Ethereum sidechain built for the popular play-to-earn nonfungible token game Axie Infinity, was hacked for over 173,600 Ether (ETH) and 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC) for a combined value of over $600 million. The breach on the Ronin bridge was confirmed by Sky Mavis, the developers behind the popular play-to-earn (P2E) game: There has been a security breach on the Ronin Network.https://t.co/ktAp9w5qpP — Ronin (@Ronin_Network) March 29, 2022 The official report from the company noted that the hackers managed to get access to private keys to validator nodes resulting in the compromise of five validator …

Popular decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap has announced the formation of Uniswap Labs Ventures (ULV), a venture capital fund focused on investing in Web3 companies and projects. The firm will invest at any stage of development into various projects or technologies related to Web3, infrastructure, developer tools, and consumer-facing applications as areas of interest according to the announcement on Monday, April 11. The firm has already invested in 11 companies and Web3 protocols, including decentralized money market Aave, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind the DAI stablecoin, MakerDAO, and blockchain bridging protocol LayerZero. In the announcement, Uniswap expressed what it looked …

Solana (SOL) price reached $143.50 on April 2 after an incredible 82% rally over a 20 day period. This positive performance can be attributed to recent NFT markets-related news and a marketwide bounce, but the current 22.7% decline could have investors confused. The rally started after Coinbase Wallet added support for SOL and other Solana-based blockchain tokens on March 18. The crypto exchange also outlined plans to "further integrate" with Solana by connecting the Coinbase Wallet with the decentralized applications (DApps) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) hosted on the network. The expectation of OpenSea's integration of the Solana network also excited …

The outlook for projects in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has begun to improve in recent months as a combination of global events have highlighted the benefits of holding funds outside of the traditional financial systems. One project that has rallied over the past few months is Kyber Network (KNC), a multi-chain cryptocurrency trading and liquidity hub that aims to offer users the best trading rates. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after bouncing off a low of $2.83 on April 6, the price of KNC jumped 55.4% to hit an all-time high of $4.04 on April …