Liam J. Kelly

Hop Protocol's 'Sybil Hunter' Payout Unveils Powerful New Airdrop Tool

Decrypting DeFi is Decrypt's DeFi email newsletter. (art: Grant Kempster) Sybil farming ahead of alleged airdrops has become commonplace in crypto. At the first whiff of a new token, hordes of wallet addresses get to work randomly interacting with a new project in hopes of generating loyalty signals and raking in the yet-to-be-launched cryptocurrency. Airdrops typically retroactively reward a community’s “most loyal users.” Loyalty, though, can mean a lot of different things. Is it measured by t

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong; SEC Chair Gary Gensler

These 8 Regions Could Benefit From Lack of US Crypto Clarity, Says Coinbase CEO

Coinbase’s CEO has again urged American regulators to make clear its stance on crypto and amend current policies. Failing to do so, could see innovation occur elsewhere. “It's important for American technology leadership and national security that this industry be built (at least in part) in America,” said Brian Armstrong, sharing a recent op-ed piece further detailing his position. Failing to reel in crypto rules stateside, Armstrong argued that other countries, notably mainland China, could ta

When DAOs Self-Execute—What Could Go Wrong?

Decrypting DeFi is Decrypt's DeFi email newsletter. (art: Grant Kempster) This past week we got two examples of when self-executing proposals go wrong for DAOs. One proposal on Aave resulted in roughly $110 million in assets freezing after the proposal passed, and another on Tornado Cash saw a crafty proposer make off with roughly 372 ETH, worth over $670,000. The Aave proposal has been fixed, and a new proposal executed the fix. As for Tornado Cash, the proposer has made a new proposal to retur

Tokenized Securities on Ethereum, Polygon, Gnosis Hit $225M Market Cap

The tokenization trend is gaining momentum. A Dune dashboard shows that the niche now boasts a market capitalization of more than $220 million across the six projects measured. Tokenization refers to issuing financial securities, like stocks and bonds, on the blockchain. Firms like Matrixport, Backed Finance, Ondo, and Franklin Templeton have all created ERC-20 tokens, representing government bonds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs)stock. Last month, for example, Franklin Templeton tapped Polygon

Lido Finance is a popular staking platform for cryptocurrencies. Source: Shutterstock

DeFi Heavyweight Lido Finance Mulls LDO Staking, Token Buyback

Decrypting DeFi is Decrypt's DeFi email newsletter. (art: Grant Kempster) Liquid staking giant Lido Finance is finally looking to shake up its tokenomics. Specifically, as alluded to in a new proposal, members of the community are looking to add a staking feature to LDO. Remember: In order to stake directly to the mainnet, users need 32 ETH or nearly $60,000 at today’s prices. Given the high barrier to entry, liquid staking services like Lido have emerged, letting users deposit any amount of ETH

PEPE has stormed the crypto industry as the latest meme coin. Image: Shutterstock.

DeFi Token Synthetix Soars 10% as Community Mulls PEPE Market Launch

Synthetix’s native token SNX is off to a heady start Thursday morning, rising by around 10% overnight. It now trades at $2.42, per CoinGecko, up 9.3% on the day. Despite today’s bullish impulse, the token is still down more than 91% from its all-time high set in February 2021. The token doubles as a governance tool, letting users vote on various proposals and a staking service. One of the original DeFi projects, Synthetix is a decentralized derivatives platform built on Ethereum and Optimism. It

Axie Infinity is the most successful play-to-earn crypto game to date. Image: Shutterstock

Axie Infinity Rolls Out ‘Lite' Version of Crypto Game on Apple App Store

The developers of play-to-earn crypto game Axie Infinity have released a version of their newest game to Apple’s App Store which doesn’t require users to buy NFTs. Axie Infinity: Origins is a card game that will initially give players free non-NFT “starter characters.” It represents a shift away from the original Axie Infinity game, which users had to either buy or rent NFTs to play. “We have been in touch with Apple for about two years now,” Axie Infinity co-founder and COO Aleksander Leonard L

The crypto industry has many ways to earn yield on idle holdings. Image: Shutterstock.

Crypto Lender Compound Deploys on Ethereum Layer-2 Arbitrum

It’s getting cheaper to lend and borrow your idle cryptocurrencies. Compound Finance has announced that it’s deploying its latest iteration on the popular scaling solution Arbitrum. One of the original decentralized finance (DeFi) products, Compound lets users lend and borrow various cryptocurrencies. The platform was also one of the first to experiment with so-called yield farming, distributing its native COMP token to the platform’s users back in 2020. The token currently trades at $34.7 at pr

American investors are still waiting for a Bitcoin ETF. Image: Shutterstock

Valkyrie Files ‘BTFD’ Ticker for Leveraged Bitcoin Futures ETF Application

Valkyrie is putting one of fintwit's favorite memes back to work in a new ETF filing. The investment firm yesterday filed a fresh application for a Bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded fund that’s hoped to trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker “BTFD.” Unlike the firm’s already active BTF fund, this one will be leveraged, letting speculators double down on their exposure to the leading cryptocurrency. The suggestive ticker was first planned to be used for the first fund until the firm amended th

Atlendis is an uncollateralized lending platform. Image: Atlendis.

Polygon-based Crypto Lender Atlendis Taps Fintech Banxa in New V2 Roll Out

Atlendis, a Polygon-based uncollateralized lending platform, it’s launching its latest iteration, adding a host of new features and key crypto on-ramp along the way. The protocol offers credit lines for institutional borrowers, and users can act as pooled lenders for such borrowers, earning interest payments and additional DeFi rewards. Crucially, Atlantis addresses one of the key weaknesses in the crypto space: Uncollateralized lending. Ethereum DeFi Project Teller Facilitates First Uncollatera

Eigen What? How EigenLayer Is Putting $34B in Staked Ethereum Back to Work

Decrypting DeFi is Decrypt's DeFi email newsletter. (art: Grant Kempster) Crypto Twitter has been awash the past few weeks with talk of a strange new protocol called EigenLayer. Some are going as far as calling it the next Ethereum Meta, while others are already whipping up speculative airdrop guides. And at least one person is doing God’s work, helping us all pronounce the project’s name. So, what in the hell is EigenLayer? Well, think of it as being like blockchain security-as-a-service. Inste

Binance is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. Image: Shutterstock

Bitcoin Liquidity on Binance Has More Than Halved Since February: Kaiko

Binance trading volumes and liquidity have been steadily declining in the first quarter of 2023 amid the spate of U.S. banking failures and after ending its zero-fee promotion. The result? It’s led to even more chop for the price of Bitcoin, Kaiko analyst Dessislava Aubert told Decrypt. Aubert said that "Overall, Bitcoin liquidity on Binance has more than halved relative to the start of February from around $45 million to $16 million in early May." The primary reason for the decline in liquidit

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong at TechCrunch Disrupt 2018. Image: Wikimedia

Coinbase CEO Touts UAE as ‘Forward Thinking’ Amid US Crypto Crackdown

In the next stop on his world tour, Coinbase CEO has touted the “forward thinking” crypto regulations in the United Arab Emirates. “The UAE deserves a lot of credit for being forward thinking on crypto,” wrote Brian Armstrong. “First dedicated crypto regulator in the world, a clear rule book published (!), business-friendly plus strong customer protections. Really enjoying my visit so far.” The CEO is attending this week’s Dubai Fintech Summit, a state-sponsored event that brings together local

Ethereum has merged. Image: Shutterstock

Ethereum Staking Deposits Outpace Withdrawals by $189M in ETH

Decrypting DeFi is Decrypt's DeFi email newsletter. (art: Grant Kempster) With Ethereum’s historic Shanghai upgrade completed and the dust (more or less) settled, it's time to revisit some of the key staking takeaways. The Shanghai upgrade allowed Ethereum stakers to finally withdraw their funds from the mainnet. Some had been waiting to do so since the staking feature was first introduced in December 2020. Perhaps the most important development revealed by the event is that Kraken U.S. staking

Pepecoin has become a popular meme coin in the last few weeks. Image: Shutterstock.

Binance Lists PEPE as Meme Coin Market Cap Hits $1 Billion

The world's largest crypto exchange by volume has just added two more meme coins to the casino. Binance today announced it would list both Pepecoin (PEPE) and Floki Inu (FLOKI) in the platform's so-called innovation zone. To enter, traders must first answer two questions correctly regarding how much money they could lose trading in this zone (more or less than 50%?) and whose fault it would be if they do indeed face a "total loss" of funds. FLOKI has since soared 57% and PEPE has risen another 7

SUI is the native token of the eponymously-named blockchain. Image: Shutterstock.

Binance Users Deposited Over $4B to Farm SUI Tokens Ahead of Mainnet Launch

Binance users flooded the exchange with over $4 billion to farm the highly-anticipated SUI token launch. The world’s largest exchange by trading volume added support for the SUI token through its Launchpad for BNB and TUSD holders on Monday with the event ending on Tuesday. Users staked tokens worth over $4 billion to farm SUI tokens. Due to the crowding of the pools, however, an average of one dollar invested in the launchpad only reaped 0.016 SUI. Binance Launchpad is a bootstrapping portal on

UK ‘Moving Fast’ on Crypto Regulations, Says Coinbase CEO

Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong appears as bullish as ever on crypto regulations in the UK. “The UK is moving fast on sensible crypto regulation to both drive economic growth AND consumer protection,” he said in a tweet picturing himself alongside the UK’s Economic Secretary and City Minster Andrew Griffith. “Excited to keep investing in the UK.” The crypto exec also took the occasion to boost a bit of thought leadership from the exchange, which describes the UK as a “Web3 innovation hub.” Griff

ERC-20 tokens are the standard token built on Ethereum. Image: Shutterstock.

$598M in Ethereum Still Waiting on Updated Withdrawal Credentials: Nansen

Decrypting DeFi is Decrypt's DeFi email newsletter. (art: Grant Kempster) Ethereum defied the odds again. With the latest Shapella upgrade executed, developers have again demonstrated that it’s possible to swap out key parts of a $252 billion rocket mid-flight. The last time they pulled off such a feat was last September with “the merge.” Unfortunately, the same can’t necessarily be said for the 18.5% of Ethereum network validators that don’t have the correct validator credentials. Per data draw

$198M in Ethereum Staked to Network in Last 24 Hours

At least a few Ethereum enthusiasts are as bullish as ever on the network. Per data collected from Nansen, gross staking deposits have hit $198.7 million, or 94,800 ETH, over the past 24 hours. Staking has taken center stage following the network’s latest Shanghai upgrade on Wednesday. This change allowed users who potentially had their ETH locked up for two years to finally withdraw their holdings. Staking is when users pledge cryptocurrency to the network to keep it running. Ethereum requires

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Image: Shutterstock

Ethereum Surges 6% Following Successful Shanghai Upgrade

Following the network's latest Shanghai upgrade, Ethereum is soaring. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is currently up almost 6% over the past 24 hours, with ETH trading hands at around $1,980, per CoinGecko. Liquidation data from Coinglass also suggest that bearish traders were proven wrong too, with Ethereum leading the pack at more than $44 million trades liquidated over the past 24 hours. Of that sum, roughly 77% of those positions were short. The successful execut

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Stories by Liam J. Kelly