Over the past two weeks the entire DeFi sector has been in a strong uptrend and many of the top market cap tokens rallied by double and triple-digits. Curve DAO’s governance token CRV has been a standout performer, coming off a low at $0.54 on Jan. 11 to a 2021 high at $1.78 on Jan. 17. Three reasons for this latest surge in volume and price for CRV are a new collaboration with the Yearn.finance (YFI) ecosystem, positive regulatory developments in the U.S. and an increase in engagement boosting the total value locked on the platform. Yearn.finance collaboration The noticeable …

One rule at a time, decentralized finance is gradually being outlawed. It is not that governments specifically aim to make it illegal. Rather, every proposal that comes out lately seems to enact rules that are impossible for decentralized finance to meet. The United States The most recent example is the notice for proposed rulemaking by the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, which requires banks and other money service businesses to verify the identity of customers who transact from “unhosted” wallets (wallets that are not held on registered exchanges or other custody services). A seemingly reasonable requirement in …

Amid all the excitement of crypto’s biggest bull run in history, some assets have been outperforming even the current high-performing market. In particular, Synthetix (SNX) has been on an epic tear, leading the growth of the whole niche. The news of a Coinbase listing in December helped account for some of this. However, at the time of writing, SNX has increased by over 225% since mid-December, currently trading above $16.7 and cementing its position as one of the best-performing tokens in the ongoing rally. Beyond the Coinbase effect, the main reason for the increase in SNX’s price is the genuine …

Near Protocol (NEAR) is a smart contract platform that uses parallel processing to scale the network. This technique, known as sharding, resembles what Eth2 is aiming to achieve and Near’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism also allows token holders to stake their coins. In the past month, NEAR has rallied by 107% and this raises questions on whether the project is making significant strides in what has become an ultra-competitive smart contract industry. Compared to its competitors, NEAR is a relatively new project as the mainnet only launched in April 2020. Unlike Ethereum, NEAR’s consensus mechanism works towards fee stabilization and according …

Decentralized exchanges (DEX) are a giant leap in permissionless and transparent trading, and they exist as fantastic alternatives to centralized exchanges. While DEXs ease the process of listing new ERC-20 tokens and remove the need to pay a central authority high listing fees, they stil have the issue of high gas fees. This is precisely the issue 0x Protocol (ZRX) aims to solve. The 0x Protocol (ZRX) ICO raised $24 million in August 2017 for 50% of its supply, with no pre-sale. As an ERC-20 token, the permissionless Protocol connects liquidity providers through smart contracts, therefore aggregating liquidity. The protocol …

The cryptocurrency market started the year in full force and with all the bullish breakouts happening it can be difficult to discern which projects are simply being driven by the macro trend and which are making gains based on solid tech developments and improving fundamentals. As the price of Bitcoin dropped more than $11,000 between Jan. 10 and Jan. 11, a number of altcoins saw double-digit losses but a few DeFi and layer 2-oriented coins bucked the trend and quickly recovered as BTC price consolidated. For example, TomoChain (TOMO) saw its price double from $0.65 on Jan. 2 to $1.29 …

A new decentralized ecosystem for financial services is aiming to deliver greater levels of interoperability — in a world where hundreds of blockchains can’t talk to each other. The One-Stop DeFi Interoperable Solution (known as TosDis for short) offers white-label solutions — allowing projects to offer services such as staking, yield farming and liquidity staking to their users affordably and securely. This helps eliminate technical barriers as well as the high costs that can often be associated with development. TosDis also enables cross-chain transfers and liquid staking to be performed securely and trustlessly. An EasyStake feature will mean users receive …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent plunge could have been caused due to profit-booking by institutional investors, according to a report by crypto fund manager CoinShares. The report noted a sharp drop in institutional inflows during the first week of the new year and weekly outflows from several crypto investment products. While the recent 28% decline may have scared some new investors, Bitcoin HODLers were likely unfazed as they've encountered six larger corrections during Bitcoin’s massive bull run in 2017. Therefore, describing a 20% fall as a bear market may not apply to cryptocurrencies. As Bitcoin attempts to stage a recovery, let’s analyze …

Bancor has released a status report for its v2.1 decentralized exchange upgrade, covering the performance of its decentralized exchange over the last three months. According to the document, the total liquidity increased by almost 1000%, resulting in the platform earning about $1.12 million in cumulative swap fees. Bancor’s report noted that the fee earnings were more than five times the cost required for impermanent loss compensation for liquidity providers. Indeed, impermanent loss management was a major focus of the v2.1 upgrade, as noted by Cointelegraph back in October 2020. While Bancor initially attempted an oracle-based solution, this was quickly revealed …

The launch of Badger DAO’s DIGG, a synthetic rebasing asset meant to track the price of Bitcoin, is one of the most eagerly anticipated product releases in recent DeFi memory — but the person most excited to see DIGG hit the market might not be a trader, but instead Badger DAO founder Chris Spadafora himself. According to community-minded Spadafora — who would be quick to note that he doesn’t care for the “founder” label despite its technical truth — anticipation for the launch has led to more than one ‘badgering’ inquiry directed at him on Twitter. “You’ve probably seen it… …

In the past week, a large number of altcoins have broken from their sideways ranges to post double-digit gains and it appears that investors are interpreting the current trend as a new ‘altcoin season’. As historical data shows, these altcoin breakouts typically occur after Bitcoin (BTC) enters a consolidation phase after a sharp rally similar to the one the maket has witnessed over the past three weeks. For many of the recent top movers, technical analysis traders are simply capitalizing on tokens that show bullish market structure or are on the verge of a breakout due to increased volumes, but …

After a wild, up-and-down 2020 that saw Sushiswap become the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) by liquidity at two different points, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform has released a wildly ambitious project roadmap for 2021. Key forthcoming developments include multiple examples of some of the most complex and advanced functionalities in the DeFi space, including a cross-chain DEX that will be enabled by Rune and Moonbeam, an implementation on the Polkadot chain, and a fully decentralized governance structure by the end of 2021. The post also provided updates on previously-announced projects, including a v2 launch called Mirin and a mid-January target …