Welcome to Finance Redefined, a weekly newsletter providing you with essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights, designed to bring you the most important developments of the past week.
In the second quarter of 2023, DeFi protocols were exploited and hacked for more than $208 million, while only $4.5 million of funds were recovered, and the total losses caused by exploitation exceeded $204 million.
The DeFi ecosystem is a growing industry with billions of dollars in daily transaction volume. Still, it remains niche for a small segment of the crypto industry and out of reach for some. For a comprehensive overview of DeFi, check out Cointelegraph Research’s new report titled: “Investing in DeFi: A Comprehensive Guide.”
DeFi lending protocol Maple Finance decided to offer direct loans to some borrowers, rather than relying solely on pool representatives to provide funding, to fill the void left by bankrupt major lending protocols like BlockFi.
The popularity of Bitcoin’s BRC-20 token standard has led many leading wallet service providers to add support for the new token standard, and the Optimism network transaction volume surged by 67% after the Bedrock upgrade.
The top 100 DeFi tokens continued their bullish momentum in the last week of June, with most tokens trading in the green.
DeFi Hacks and Scams Lose Over $204 Million in Q2: Report
DeFi hacks and scams lost more than $204 million in the second quarter of 2023, according to a June 27 report from Web3 portfolio app De.Fi.
The report, titled “Second Quarter De.Fi Rekt Report,” is based in part on data from the De.Fi Rekt database. Over $208.5 million was stolen during the quarter, but $4.5 million was recovered through prosecutions, deals with hackers, and other recovery methods. According to the report, the number of DeFi hacks in the second quarter increased “nearly 7 times” year-on-year, with a total of 117 incidents, compared with only 17 in the same quarter in 2022. The total loss in the first quarter is more than half of 2023 of $665 million.
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Maple Finance Announces Direct Lending to Fill the Void Left by BlockFi, Celsius
Web3 lending platform Maple Finance announced the launch of a direct lending program, according to a June 28 fact sheet from the platform’s development team. The program is intended to replace services previously provided by Celsius, BlockFi and other now-bankrupt lenders.
In the past, Maple relied on credit professionals known as “pool representatives” to fund these loans. For example, Celsius used Maple to create a Wrapped Ether (WETH) lending pool in February 2022.
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Optimistic Network Transactions Surge 67% After Bedrock Upgrade — Nansen
According to a June 26 Twitter post by blockchain analytics firm Nansen, transactions on the Optimism network have surged 67 percent since the June 7 Bedrock upgrade. Before the upgrade, the network saw fewer than 300,000 transactions per day, but by mid-June, that number had grown to more than 550,000.
The optimism led to a sharp increase in transaction volume after the hard fork, rising to over 400,000 transactions from around June 5-9. Transaction volume grew slowly after the initial spike, peaking at more than 550,000 around June 15. It then began to slowly decline, reaching 500,000 transactions per day as of around June 23, when the data was collected, according to a graph posted in Nansen’s Twitter thread.
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Wallet Provider Launches BRC-20 Token Support Despite Market Slump
On June 21, self-service wallet provider BitKeep announced support for BRC-20 tokens issued on the Bitcoin network. Through this feature, users can view, rank and transfer BRC-20 tokens and non-fungible tokens. The developer also stated that BRC-20 in-wallet swaps will appear “in the future.”
Last month, cryptocurrency exchange OKX also announced support for BRC-20 assets through the OKX Wallet app. Many centralized and decentralized exchanges have also rolled out BRC-20 support.
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DeFi Market Overview
After a three-week bear market, DeFi’s total market capitalization has seen a bullish surge. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the top 100 tokens by market capitalization in DeFi have had a bullish week, with most tokens trading in the green. The total value locked in DeFi protocols is still below $50 billion.
Thanks for reading our roundup of the week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education about this dynamically developing field.
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