Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly source of essential insights on decentralized finance (DeFi) – a newsletter designed to bring you the most important updates from the past week.
The DeFi ecosystem continues to experience a surge in prices as its total value locked (TVL) surpassed $100 billion for the first time in over two years. MakerDAO is preparing for its stablecoin “Endgame” scalability transformation, Ethena has become the highest-earning decentralized app (DApp), and DeFi platform Unizen will reimburse its users following a multimillion-dollar hack.
In other news, BNB Chain has introduced its new rollup-as-a-service solution for layer-2 networks.
Maker’s “Endgame” launch aims for 100 billion DAI to challenge Tether
MakerDAO, a decentralized finance protocol, is getting ready for the launch of its highly anticipated “Endgame” transformation. Co-founder Rune Christensen stated that this transformation will steer the platform towards scalable resilience and sustainable user growth. Christensen announced on social media platform X and the MakerDAO forum that it is “launch season” for the protocol’s five-phase plan. Phase 1, scheduled for mid-2024, involves hiring an external marketing firm to rebrand the entire operation into something simpler and more enjoyable. The objective of Endgame is to scale the protocol’s stablecoin, Dai (DAI), from a $4.5 billion market capitalization to “$100 billion and beyond” in order to compete with Tether (USDT).
DeFi protocol Unizen to provide immediate reimbursement after $2.1 million hack
Following a compromise of the platform, DeFi protocol Unizen has announced that it will reimburse its users who lost $750,000 or less as soon as possible. The platform suffered a loss of approximately $2.1 million in user funds. Blockchain analytics firm PeckShield flagged an “approve issue” with the DeFi platform on March 9, reporting that over $2 million had already been drained. To prevent further losses, the security firm advised users to revoke the approvals from the trade aggregator. Security company SlowMist estimated that the attacker swapped USDT for DAI, resulting in exploit losses of around $2.1 million.
Ethena becomes the highest-earning DApp in the crypto space
Ethena has achieved the status of being the highest-earning DApp, with a daily cumulative revenue of over $6.8 million in the past week. This information was shared by Seraphim Czecker, head of growth at Ethena Labs, in a post on social media platform X. The only blockchains surpassing Ethena in terms of revenue were Tron, with $38.6 million, and Ethereum, with $182.5 million in daily cumulative revenue over the last seven days.
BNB Chain to expand layer-2 ecosystem with new rollup service
BNB Chain, powered by the BNB token, has introduced a rollup service solution to facilitate the development of layer-2 blockchains on its network. On March 14, BNB Chain announced its rollup-as-a-service (RaaS) solution, which will enable projects to build layer-2 networks on BNB Chain. This service provides projects with access to the necessary tech infrastructure for deploying layer-2 networks on the blockchain, thereby expanding BNB Chain’s ecosystem.
DeFi market overview
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView reveals that the top 100 DeFi tokens, based on market capitalization, had a bullish week, with most experiencing gains on the weekly charts. The TVL in DeFi protocols exceeded $110 billion for the first time in over two years.
Thank you for reading our summary of the most impactful DeFi developments this week. Join us again next Friday for more stories, insights, and education on this rapidly advancing space.