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 …

An ambitious new decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has built a data service for lending platforms that records a user’s financial reputation to reduce the amount of collateral needed for a loan. It has partnered with Chainlink and that protocol’s founder Sergey Nazarov is an early backer. Users of Reputation DAO will have traditional financial data such as Anti-Money Laundering and Know-Your-Customer (AML/KYC), credit scores and banking data tied to their account. The data is designed to help ease friction in obtaining a loan from a decentralized platform, but raises questions about security and the principles of zero-knowledge lending. The Reputation …

Crypto lending firm Celsius Network has announced it will be launching a custody solution for users based in the United States in response to discussions with local regulators. In a Monday announcement, Celsius said its ‘ Earn’ product allowing users to earn interest on crypto would be unavailable to U.S. residents making transfers starting on April 15. According to the firm, any coins transferred to interest-earning accounts before Friday “will continue to earn rewards,” but “new transfers made by non-accredited investors in the United States” will be held in custody accounts. Only “verified accredited investors” in the U.S. will be …

Social media giant Facebook’s parent company Meta is reportedly planning to introduce virtual currency named after CEO Mark Zuckerberg as well as lending services to apps it owns, which may include Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. According to a Financial Times report on Wednesday, the move toward tokens and virtual currency is aimed at exploring alternative sources of revenue as interest in Facebook and Instagram drops. Meta’s potential virtual currency, which employees have reportedly dubbed ‘Zuck Bucks’, will be aimed at use in the metaverse. Facebook owner Meta targets finance with ‘Zuck Bucks’ and creator coins https://t.co/IcK6oAM0J7 — Financial Times …

Neutrino Dollar (USDN), a stablecoin issued through Waves-backed Neutrino protocol, lost its U.S. dollar-peg on April 4 amid speculations that it could become "insolvent" in the future. USDN plunges 15% despite WAVES backing USDN dropped to as low as $0.822 on Monday with its market capitalization also diving to $824.25 million, down 14% from its year-to-date high of $960.25 million. Interestingly, the stablecoin's plunge occurred despite Neutrino's claims of backing its $1-peg via what's called "over collateral," i.e., when the total value of Waves (WAVES) tokens locked inside its smart contract is higher than the total USDN minted, also called …

The decentralized finance (DeFi) market has been undergoing a period of maturation over the past year and many of last year's fast risers have faded into obscurity but this does not mean the formerly "famous" protocols have not continued to build. One blue-chip project that is regaining momentum is Aave (AAVE), a non-custodial liquidity protocol that allows users to lend, borrow or stake their assets to earn yield from their holdings. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of AAVE has rallied 110% from a low of $114 on March 15 to a daily high at …

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities has issued a cease and desist order against Voyager Digital for selling unregistered securities through its Voyager Earn program. Voyager Digital (VGX) is a centralized, crypto-based staking, trading, and lending platform. The order claims that each of the crypto staking and lending accounts issued through the program since 2019 are unregistered securities because of their promise of interest rates as high as 12%. The Bureau cites as evidence for the claim messages on Voyager’s homepage encouraging users to “grow your portfolio” and “journey to the new frontier of investing.” New Jersey claims that about …

Crypto-focused financial modeling platform Gauntlet has achieved unicorn status after raising $23.8 million in Series B funding from some of blockchain’s biggest venture funds. The investment round was led by Ribbit Capital, a Palo Alto-based venture firm, with participation from existing investors Paradigm and Polychain Capital, Bloomberg reported Monday. Gauntlet said the funding will be used to hire additional workers and expand into new industry verticals, including gaming. Gauntlet was founded in 2018 by Tarun Chitra, a Wall Street executive who previously worked at multinational hedge fund D. E. Shaw. Gauntlet provides financial modeling and simulation tools to the cryptocurrency …

Crypto.com is reportedly giving users from countries restricted from its loan program until March 15 to repay their crypto loans. The firm updated the list of restricted countries to include the United States, United Kingdom and 38 others. Users from European nations such as Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. have all shared emails from the company regarding the loan closure date. It's worth noting that some of these users who do not have crypto loans on the platform have received the emails as well. According to the new policy, if users fail to repay their loans by March 15, their …

What platforms can I use in this case? Modern tools can improve the earning process by diversifying asset exposure and empowering AI for quicker reaction times. Although DeFi returns appear promising, investors must continue to air on the side of caution and remember even in DeFi, “get-rich-quick” schemes do not exist. Instead, a minimum level of awareness on topics such as how the blockchain works and what an automated market maker (AMMs) is are necessary for users to deploy passive income generation methods. Furthermore, early DeFi projects required users to be highly experienced while having adequate capital at their disposal. …

According to data from Staking Rewards, Terra (LUNA) has flipped Ethereum (ETH) in terms of staked value, with $29.5 billion worth of LUNA locked up compared to Ether’s $25.9 billion. The platform’s data shows that there are currently 226,325 LUNA stakers, making it the second most staked crypto asset with more than four times the number of those staking ETH at 54,768. Solana leads the staking charts with $35 billion in staked value. In terms of annual staking rewards, LUNA is estimated to yield 6.62% on average while Ethereum fetches 4.81%. The most rewarding out of the top 10 staked …

Anchor Protocol (ANC), a DeFi platform built on Terra blockchain protocol, rebounded nearly 300% in over a month after bottoming out near $1.26. ANC price went as high as $4.97 on the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange on March 3, 2022, breaking above the previous record peak near $4.50 established on Dec. 3 last year. In doing so, the Anchor Protocol also erased all the losses it had incurred during what some called "crypto winter" that started in Q4/2021 — against the prospects of the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes. ANC is the governance token of the Anchor Protocol's decentralized money market …