This Week in DeFi: October 18
Decentralized Finance or DeFi, as it is popularly stylized, is an innovative force to be reckoned with in the finance space. Based on the blockchain network, the defining attribute of DeFi is its lack of reliance on any central authority or intermediary for finance decisions. DeFi is an umbrella term for all those financial services and applications on the public blockchain, usually Ethereum. It is a fast-growing industry, with new updates every week. This week’s edition of This Week in DeFi will walk through some of these additions and what makes them so exciting.
October 7- Evolved Apes NFT Creator Disappear with USD 2.8 Million
The anonymous developer of non-fungible tokens Evolved Apes has vanished, leaving behind the disappearance of over 10,000 tokens. Investors of this NFT-released as a game that has buyers purchase the tokens and fight to survive- are understandably upset. The creator essentially backed out of the project and took all the investment with him, amounting to 798 Ether valued at $2.8 million.
October 8- Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Protocol Alchemix Reveals V2 Plans
DeFi protocol Alchemix has announced its plans to launch a second version of its platform. Dubbed as a ‘self-repaying loan platform’, Alchemix allows the creation of synthetic tokens that can represent future yield of a deposit, and its new version, announced in a detailed blog post, will only expand on its capabilities.
October 8- Algorand-Based Tinyman Raises $2.5M Ahead of DEX Launch
Automated market maker Tinyman, which currently resides on the Algorand blockchain, has raised a sum of $2.5 million a week before its launch. Navigating to alternative blockchains has been a recent trend in the DeFi space, where the majority of apps are largely built on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum’s high fees are what is causing it to lose its dominance. Tinyman was able to raise this money through 20 investors in a testnet operation that has been live since August.
October 12- Coinbase Announces Plans for Coinbase NFT
Popular cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase has announced its plans to launch its own online NFT marketplace, similar to platforms like OpenSea. Coinbase hopes to launch this as a desktop product by the end of 2021 and is already taking orders for a user waitlist. Although a detailed account of features is yet to be released, Coinbase has hinted that this will have more social features and intuitive interfaces which will make the platform understandable to all users.
October 13 — SushiSwap Commits $12.6 Million to Celo’s Global DeFi Initiative
Popular decentralized exchange platform SushiSwap has announced its partnership with blockchain Celo aiming to make DeFi more accessible to mobile phone users. Known as The DeFi for the People, this initiative is no small project and has a target audience of six billion people. The Celo Foundation and SushiSwap have committed a total of $12.6 million in joint liquidity mining rewards in both the platform’s native tokens, making it a historic collaboration.
October 14: Russian President Vladimir Putin Comments on Cryptocurrency
Speaking in an interview with CNBC on whether he sees crypto-based oil contracts be a dominant feature in the future, Vladimir Putin made a few comments on cryptocurrency. The Russian President said that cryptocurrencies are too unstable to be used to settle oil contracts, but may be alright as a form of payment. Transfer of funds may still be on the table, but any trading, especially that of energy resources, is too far down the line.
October 18- UniLend lists on AscendEx
UniLend is an extensive permissionless DeFi protocol that combines spot trading services and lending and borrowing functionality all within one platform. In contrast to other platforms which have limitations as to what can be listed, UniLend allows any asset to be listed on its platform. The listing of UniLend on Singapore-based global cryptocurrency platform AscendEx will increase the market size and reach of UniLend even more.
