Recap: DeFi Week of July 6 🦄

Hello Defiers, hope you’re having a great weekend 🙂

Summing up last week: Yield farming is producing unintended consequences as demand for Dai as a way to access governance tokens, is causing it to trade above $1, while Compound Finance users are borrowing from their own supply. But that’s not stopping DeFi platforms any time soon and mStable and bZx announced their token distributions, while users flooded Kyber network to get their hands on KNC. Binance listed SNX was more evidence of demand for DeFi tokens, and CENTRE blacklisting an Ethereum address holding $100k of USDC proved decentralization purists right. Anonymous DeFi builder Molly Wintermute said she’s pushing ahead with Hegic after releasing a first version of the platform with a bug in the code. OMG Network’s Vansa Chatikavanij talked Ethereum scaling and why value transfer is a basic human need.

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🌈🌈: Also: We’re Only 3 Days Away From The Infinite Machine launch!

Pre-Order my book on the history of Ethereum and I’ll send you a personalized Proof of Pre-Order NFT. Click here for how to get a POP.

Join the virtual event hosted by The Strand bookstore, where I’ll be discussing the book with Chris Burniske this Wed. July 15 at 7pm EST.

🙌 Together with Status, a secure messaging app, crypto wallet, and Web3 browser, Kyber Network, the on-chain liquidity protocol for the tokenized world, and Keycard, the secure, contactless hardwallet & open source API.

Interview

“Basic Financial Services is a 21st-Century Fundamental Human Need:” OMG Network’s Vansa Chatikavanij

This week’s interview is with Vansa Chatikavanij , the CEO of OMG Network. The Bangkok-based project formerly known as OmiseGo has spearheaded research and work on a scaling technology for Ethereum called Plasma. Scaling solutions will be key for Ethereum and therefore DeFi,  to continue growing. The network is already at capacity, and gas prices are getting prohibitively high, especially for complex DeFi transactions. 

🎙Listen to the interview in this week’s podcast episode here:

Molly Wintermute: “I’m Paying a High Price for the Mainnet-First Approach to Building”

Molly Wintermute is an anonymous DeFi builder who released a decentralized options trading platform on April 23, only to discover a bug in the code hours later. Nearly $48k of users’ funds are now forever locked in the project’s smart contracts, which Wintermute has refunded thanks to support from early contributors. Wintermute launched a new version of Hegic in early May, and did so without an audit. The audit did come though, a month later, and the platform has so far been running unscathed, though value locked at almost $40k is still below pre-hack days (or pre-hack hours, rather).

Thursday

Dives

• Blocked USDC Proves Decentralization Purists Right: This is exactly what decentralization advocates warn about: CENTRE, the issuer of USDC, has blacklisted an Ethereum address holding $100k of the tokens.

• DeFi Traders Flood Kyber Network After Revamp: Almost $20M worth of $KNC has flooded into Kyber Network after the decentralized exchange’s revamp, signaling demand for DeFi tokens is still surging.

Bytes

• New DeFi Token Set to Go Live Next Week: mStable introduced liquidity incentives to distribute MTA tokens to those depositing funds in Balancer’s mUSD/USDC pool. Next week, those liquidity providers will finally start receiving their rewards. 

• Binance Lists SNX Signaling DeFi Token Demand: Today, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, added support for SNX – the native token fueling Synthetix’s permissionless derivatives protocol.

• Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase readies stock market listing: Reuters

• ParaFi invests $4.5 million in DeFi lending protocol Aave: Decrypt

Tuesday

Dives

• Unintended Consequences of Yield Farming: What started out as a way to drive users to DeFi platforms, has quickly turned into a race that’s focused on snapping up tokens. This is causing parts of DeFi to crack.

Bytes

• Aave Brings Undercollateralized Loans to DeFi: Aave, the third-largest lending protocol behind Compound and Maker, will allow liquidity providers to delegate their borrowing power to other users.

• bZx to Distribute its BZRX Token Next Week: DeFi lending protocol bZx is set to distribute its BZRX token on July 13th at 10am EST as a part of a wider re-launch. 

• For-Profit DAO Makes Second Investment: VentureDAO, a product of the MetaCartel group, announced its second investment is into Zapper, an interface that makes DeFi easy and simple to use.

• Arweave’s Announces $100,000 Incubator: Data storage blockchain protocol Arweave las week announced its Open Web Incubator is live.

💜Community Love💜

Thanking all the amazing Defiers for the support and love this week (and always)!

The Defiant is a daily newsletter focusing on decentralized finance, a new financial system that’s being built on top of open blockchains. The space is evolving at breakneck speed and revolutionizing tech and money. Sign up to learn more and keep up on the latest, most interesting developments. Subscribers get full access at $10/month or $100/year, while free signups get only part of the content.

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About the founder: I’m Camila Russo, a financial journalist writing a book on Ethereum with Harper Collins. (Pre-order The Infinite Machine here). I was previously at Bloomberg News in New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires covering markets. I’ve extensively covered crypto and finance, and now I’m diving into DeFi, the intersection of the two.

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