Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of indispensable decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter meticulously curated to bring you the most notable happenings from the previous week.
The resurgence of total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols surpassing $100 million was facilitated by the restaking of Ethereum liquid assets in the first quarter of 2024. Leading the way in this DeFi TVL revival are protocols such as Lido and EigenLayer.
On April 15, Solana developers released a patch to address the prolonged network congestion on the blockchain. They have assured users that more patches will follow in the near future to restore normalcy to the network.
Ethereum liquid restaking propels DeFi TVL to $100 billion in the first quarter
Recent research reveals that decentralized finance TVL nearly doubled in the first three months of this year compared to the previous quarter, fueled in part by initiatives to restake Ethereum liquid assets.
DeFi TVL surged from a low of $36 billion in Q4 2023 to nearly $97 billion in the first quarter of 2024, according to DefiLlama. Since the start of the year, it has seen an 81% increase, reaching a two-year high of $98 billion last week.
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Avalanche’s home loan tokenization protocol secures $10 million in Series A funding
Homium, a home equity line of credit (HELOC) tokenization protocol built on Avalanche, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Sorenson Impact Group and Blizzard.
“Through shared appreciation home equity loans, Homium introduces a way for homeowners to borrow against their home equity without increasing their monthly debt burden,” Avalanche stated in an announcement on April 15.
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Solana’s mainnet beta update v1.17.31 aims to resolve congestion issues
In an effort to tackle the ongoing network congestion on the Solana blockchain, developers have rolled out a mainnet beta update, v1.17.31. The update was released on April 12, and after three days of testing, it is now recommended for general use by mainnet beta validators.
This patch includes enhancements that will alleviate some of the ongoing network congestion and will be followed by further improvements in v1.18. The current version will help mitigate network congestion and address issues related to the sudden surge in open interest.
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Crypto sleuth cautions about scammers behind DeFi protocol
ZachXBT, a pseudonymous blockchain investigator, has issued a warning about a group of scammers attempting to ensnare more victims through a new fraud scheme involving millions of stolen funds.
In a thread on X, ZachXBT revealed the findings of an investigation into Leaper Finance, a lending protocol based on Blast. According to the analysis, the group is responsible for several rug pulls, including those that targeted users of Magnate ($6.5 million), Kokomo ($4 million), Solfire ($4.8 million), and Lendora.
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DeFi market overview
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView indicates that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a bearish week, with most experiencing losses on the weekly charts. The total value locked in DeFi protocols dropped below $90 billion.
Thank you for reading our recap of the most significant DeFi developments from this week. Join us again next Friday for more stories, insights, and education on this rapidly evolving space.