defi

Swiss Bank Seba Now Lets Customers Earn Yield on Crypto Holdings

13/10/2021 by Idelto Editor

A FINMA-licensed Swiss bank, Seba, has launched a program enabling clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings. In addition, the bank will “provide support for centralized lending and borrowing services, enabling investors to generate yield by lending bitcoin and ethereum directly with Seba Bank.”

Seba Earn Lets Clients Generate Rewards From Crypto Investments

Seba Bank, a digital asset banking platform licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), announced the launch of Seba Earn Wednesday. The Switzerland-based bank described the new offering as “an institutional-grade solution enabling clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings.”

Noting that “The launch of Seba Earn caters to growing demand from institutions to manage a range of digital asset yield use cases from staking to decentralized finance (defi), and centralized lending and borrowing,” the bank elaborated:

Seba Earn’s comprehensive staking management platform will enable institutions and individuals to generate rewards from their crypto investment on networks including Tezos, Polkadot, and Cardano, with more protocols coming in the coming months.

In addition, the announcement explains:

Seba Earn will also provide support for centralized lending and borrowing services, enabling investors to generate yield by lending bitcoin and ethereum directly with Seba Bank.

The bank also noted that it “will continue integrating support for additional coins.”

Guido Buehler, CEO of Seba Bank, commented: “It is clear that as institutional interest in digital assets accelerates, investors have a broader appetite for crypto assets, with a particular interest in earning services like staking, defi and centralized crypto borrowing and lending.”

What do you think about Seba Bank launching a crypto earning program? Let us know in the comments section below.

Defi and Algorithmic Stablecoin Demand Grows in 2021 Despite Large Centralized Competitors

13/10/2021 by Idelto Editor

On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, the market capitalization of all the stablecoins in existence is around $134 billion, which is 5.60% of the entire $2.4 trillion crypto economy. While centralized stablecoin projects dominate the pack of dollar-pegged tokens, a great number of decentralized stablecoins have been moving in on these centralized competitors. Algorithmic or defi-styled stablecoin market caps have accrued billions of dollars this past year.

While Tether and USD Coin Eclipse the Market, Algorithmic Defi Stablecoins Still Shine

Tether (USDT) is one of the oldest and the largest stablecoins by market cap today, while the second-largest stablecoin valuation belongs to usd coin (USDC). Data from Coingecko’s stablecoin-by-market-cap metrics indicates that on October 13, there’s $134 billion in stablecoin assets. A great majority of those funds belong to tether and usd coin as USDT has a market cap of around $70.9 billion and USDC commands $33.3 billion.

Despite controversial discussions concerning the backings of some of these large stablecoin markets, they are the market leaders when it comes to dollar-pegged tokens. Both USDT and USDC combined make up 77.61% of the $134 billion stablecoin economy that exists today. However, decentralized competitors that back their own stablecoins in a myriad of different ways, have started to see their market caps swell.

For instance, the stablecoin DAI has been the most popular decentralized stablecoin and the asset is backed by over-collateralization via the Makerdao project. The stablecoin DAI also commands the fourth-largest market valuation just under Binance’s BUSD stablecoin. DAI’s market cap on October 13, is $6.7 billion and the crypto asset has seen $343 million in 24-hour trade volume on Wednesday. DAI is considered an algorithmic stablecoin that is tied to the value of the U.S. dollar.

Terra USD, Magic Internet Money, Liquidity USD, FEI Rise Below Makerdao’s Algorithmic Stablecoin

Terra usd (UST) is also an algorithmic stablecoin and its market cap is below DAI’s with $2.7 billion today. UST is followed by another decentralized stablecoin called magic internet money (MIM) which holds a $1.5 billion market valuation on Wednesday. The most active trading platform today swapping MIM tokens is the decentralized exchange (dex) Trader Joe. Similar to other decentralized stablecoin projects, magic internet money is issued by users of the lending protocol abracadabra.money.

The ninth-largest stablecoin cap held by liquidity usd (LUSD) is around $658 million today and Uniswap V3 is the stablecoin’s most active exchange. LUSD is issued by the Liquity Protocol which is another decentralized finance (defi) lending protocol. There’s also the defi stablecoin project called Fei which issues a stablecoin called FEI, like the algorithmic stablecoin DAI. The market cap of FEI on Wednesday is $543 million and it commands $79 million in 24-hour trade volume.

The aforementioned decentralized or algorithmic stablecoins that are not backed by a company providing audits and are produced by the crypto community at large, represent 8.95% of today’s stablecoin market cap. That’s only $12 billion of the $134 billion worth of stablecoins in circulation today. For now and for quite some time, it is very probable that centralized competitors like USDC and USDT will not be displaced. However, many of these algorithmic or defi-styled stablecoins have become top contenders in the market and made their mark without corporate backing and little controversy.

What do you think about the stablecoin market today and the 8.95% of defi and algorithmic stablecoins making headway in the crypto economy in recent times? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Total Value Locked in Defi Surpasses $200 Billion — Fantom, Avalanche, Harmony, Arbitrum TVLs Swell

12/10/2021 by Idelto Editor

Decentralized finance (defi) has swelled quite a bit this year and on October 5, the total value locked (TVL) in defi protocols crossed the $200 billion mark. Since January 1, the defi TVL across various blockchains has risen almost 855% from $21.4 billion to today’s $204 billion.

Total Value Locked in Defi Jumps Over the $200 Billion Handle, Ethereum TVL Commands 69% Dominance

The total value locked (TVL) in defi today has jumped nearly ten times higher than the value at the beginning of 2021. On October 5, 2021, the TVL in defi surpassed the $200 billion handle for the first time and the value has remained above $200 billion during the last seven days.

Statistics from defillama.com indicate that the defi protocol Curve has the largest dominance with $15.94 billion, up more than 7% over the last week. Curve’s dominance is 7.80% on Tuesday and it interacts with six different crypto networks including Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polygon.

Metrics show that Aave, Makerdao, and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) command the third, fourth, and fifth positions in terms of defi TVL dominance. Aave commands $14.87 billion on Tuesday while Makerdao holds $13.48 billion, and WBTC captures $11.99 billion in value.

Between Curve, Aave, Makerdao, and WBTC all four defi protocols have $56.28 billion worth of the aggregate TVL, which is 27.53% of the entire TVL today. The entire $204 billion is across blockchain protocols like Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, Terra, Arbitrum, Binance, Celo, and Harmony.

Top Ten Dex Platforms in Mid-October 2021 — Funds Continue to Pour Into Waves, Fantom, Polynetwork, Harmony, Arbitrum, and Avalanche Networks

The top ten decentralized exchange (dex) applications on Tuesday include defi projects such as Curve, Pancakeswap, Sushiswap, Uniswap, Balancer, Uniswap V3, Saber, Serum Raydium, and Bancor, respectively.

The top five blockchains with the most TVL on Tuesday are Ethereum, Binance, Solana, Terra, and Avalanche. The Ethereum chain still commands 69.01% dominance with approximately $141.06 billion total value locked on October 12.

The second and third-largest TVLs for Binance and Solana are below the $20 billion mark but above the $10 billion line. While Ethereum has seen a TVL increase of 1.65% during the last seven days, Fantom has increased the most during the last week.

Data shows Avalanche TVL has spiked 19.64% but Fantom’s TVL jumped a whopping 225% in a week’s time. Other leaders seeing increases in TVL over the last week include chains like Waves ($2.15B), Arbitrum ($1.52B), Polynetwork ($298M), and Harmony ($205.92M).

What do you think about the total value locked in defi protocols crossing the $200 billion mark this October? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

SEC Commissioner: True Decentralized Projects Pose a Challenge to Crypto Regulation

10/10/2021 by Idelto Editor

A commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says that true decentralized projects pose a challenge to crypto regulation. Noting that “decentralized finance carries within itself inherently some ability to self regulate,” the commissioner said, “we need to take that into account as we design a regulatory system.”

SEC Commissioner Peirce Discusses Crypto Regulation and Decentralized Finance

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce talked about cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with Yahoo Finance, published last week. Peirce is also known in the crypto community as “crypto mom” for her knowledge and support of the crypto space.

She was asked about whether the SEC has any trouble catching up with developments in the crypto space and protocols which are advancing and changing very quickly on a daily basis.

“There is certainly difficulty on the part of a regulator to stay on top of developments in defi [decentralized finance] and crypto more generally,” Peirce admitted. However, she noted:

People shouldn’t assume that the SEC can only focus on one thing. The SEC has a lot of resources and can go after a lot of things simultaneously.

“So, be aware of that, and you need to be thinking about whether the securities laws apply to what you’re doing and consulting with lawyers when necessary,” she recommended.

The commissioner added: “The decentralized world is one that is very new to us because we are used to dealing with large, usually large, centralized intermediaries. So true decentralized projects do pose a challenge.” Peirce warned:

I think what I would caution people to be aware of is that sometimes something claims to be decentralized and isn’t, and there is actually a centralized entity, and I think certainly regulators will be looking to that centralized entity.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler also similarly said that many platforms claiming to be decentralized were actually centralized. He told Senator Elizabeth Warren in September that many platforms “are only decentralized in name only,” citing that “There is a user agreement.” In addition, he said many tokens listed on cryptocurrency exchanges are actually securities, telling Congress that they needed more regulation.

Peirce further explained:

Decentralized finance carries within itself inherently some ability to self regulate. And I think we need to take that into account as we design a regulatory system.

Commenting on cryptocurrency regulation, the commissioner said, “It is disconcerting to me that for three years now I’ve been asking for regulatory clarity and we can’t seem to provide any.”

She added: “I think this is really becoming a huge barrier to this industry being able to develop in the way that’s safe but also in a way that allows innovation to happen. And it’s a real shame to me that we are not just taking up the mantle as regulators to develop a regulatory framework.”

What do you think about the comments by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce? Let us know in the comments section below.

Cross-Chain Bridge Value Increases by 89% in Less Than a Month Surpassing $14 Billion TVL

10/10/2021 by Idelto Editor

23 days ago on September 16, cross-chain bridges held around $7.79 billion total value locked (TVL) and since then the TVL has increased 89% since then to $14.75 billion. Currently, the top bridges include network connections like Polygon Bridges with $4.5 billion, Fantom Anyswap Bridge with $4.1 billion, and the Avalanche Bridge with $3.2 billion.

Cross-Chain Bridge Technology Swells

Decentralized finance (defi) and cross-chain bridge technology have continued to grow in value this year. A cross-chain bridge allows users to connect to another blockchain, which in most cross-chain cases the other network has been the Ethereum chain, and users can swap assets back and forth between each blockchain.

Last month, Bitcoin.com News reported on an in-depth study that covers the myriad of multi-chain bridges that exist today. At that time on September 16, metrics from Dune Analytics’ “Bridge Away (L1 Ethereum)” dashboard indicated that bridges held $7.79 billion total value locked (TVL).

Since then statistics show the TVL has increased by 89% to $14.75 billion in value today. The “Bridge Away” dashboard shows bridges stemming from Harmony, Optics, Boba, Zksync, Near, Solana, Fantom, Polygon, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum, Xdai, Celo, BSC, Moonriver, and RSK.

Polygon Holds Top Position, Loopring Transfers Are the Cheapest

During the last 30 days, the records measured 121,882 unique addresses associated with these different bridges. At the time of writing, Polygon holds the largest TVL capturing $4.5 billion and the Fantom Anyswap Bridge commands $4.1 billion.

Fantom’s bridge is followed by Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Zksync, Solana, Harmony, Xdai, and Moonriver respectively. Both WETH and ETH have the top spot in terms of asset rankings while the stablecoin USDC runs in the third position.

USDC is followed by WBTC, USDT, MATIC, and DAI as far as asset rankings are concerned. Chainlink (LINK) holds the seventh position among the top assets leveraged on cross-chain bridges. Data from l2fees.info indicates that the current cost to transfer ether via Loopring is $0.17 per transaction. Polygon Hermez is $0.25 per transfer, Zksync $0.26, Optimism $0.97, and Arbitrum One is $1.88 per transfer.

What do you think about the cross-chain bridge technology swelling in value and the transfer fees tied to specific Layer 2 (L2) protocols? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.