🦄 Recap: DeFi Week of July 4

Hello Defiers! In Greek mythology, the cornucopia was a horn that showered the land with an abundance of crops and other goodies. This week, we had plenty of developments great and small to savor in DeFi. We had conflict — see Owen Fernau’s report in the ...

Hello Defiers! In Greek mythology, the cornucopia was a horn that showered the land with an abundance of crops and other goodies. This week, we had plenty of developments great and small to savor in DeFi.

We had conflict — see Owen Fernau’s report in the dust-up between Chainlink and MakerDAO. We had innovation — Owen also brought us up to speed with London, the much-anticipated Ethereum upgrade, which will hit next month. There was fear — Masha Prusso’s provocative essay on the scams flooding DeFi is a must-read. And there was absurdity… Dan Kahan explained how the once and future Doge-killer meme coin, $SHIB, came back with a howl and has sent gas prices running. Just to round things off Bailey Reutzel unearthed a limited run of nasty NFTs that do things with CryptoPunks that truly don’t belong in a family DeFi news platform…

The Defiant was also delighted to host its debut jam session, Wagging the Tail, on our YouTube channel, hosted by the indomitable Robin Schmidt. The discussion explored the long-term viability of NFTs as artist/creator communities, and what we can learn from Hollywood and major platforms like Beats and the bright future of play-to-earn. Really kick-ass content.

Speaking of NFTs, At the top of the week we explored the maddening duality of DeFi in a research piece by guest writer Arash Ghaemi. It explored the question of why, with such such a steady flow of technology and biz model breakthroughs, crypto prices continue to sag. Not to get too mercenary about it, but is this a bear market or a bull market with bearish mini-cycles or are bear and bull labels kind of inapplicable to crypto, and certainly DeFi? Arash does the heavy lifting in what’s a nice weekend read.

And we’re just scratching at the abundance of stories and analysis that hit this week, so scroll through this recap to click on the links that grab you. Have a super weekend, Defiers!

ALSO, PSA: We are changing up our publishing schedule so that the weekly podcast will go out Mondays, and our jam-packed newsletter will go out Tuesday to Fridays, first thing in the AM.

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🙌 Together with:

  • Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
  • Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
  • Aave, an open-source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets.
  • The DeFi Pulse Index, a capitalization-weighted index that tracks the performance of selected DeFi assets across the market.
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Video

📺 ChainLinkGod vs MakerDAO - BEEF HANDBAGS A-GO-GO (sort of)

📺 Tuesday Tutorial: Partially Collateralized Options using Opyn

📺 Defiant Weekly: Is Ethereum REALLY ultra-sound money!?

📺 First Look: Railgun: The New Weapon in Privacy

📺 Jam Session No. 1: Wagging the Tail | WTF is buying this $#*% and will they be buying it in 2024?

Opinion

🦹🏻‍♂️ Crypto Scams are Out of Control, Again… Here’s How to Stop Them Forever

In this essay, Masha Prusso delves into the underworld of rug pulls, exit scams, and other digital swindles. Her takeaway: they’re endangering the DeFi experiment and need to be stopped. But the good news is there are clear paths to accomplishing this task, and she lays them out, one by one.

Inbox Dump #15

For paid subscribers only — The Inbox Dump is where we include the updates and announcements that flood our DMs each week and didn’t make it to The Defiant’s content platforms. We also include a compilation of DeFi and crypto funding rounds in the past week so you have these in one handy place.

Friday

Markets

  • ShibaSwap Is Dragging Ethereum By the TailFor any Defiers wondering why gas prices on Ethereum have been so high over the past few days, you can blame it on the dog — $SHIB, that is.
  • Crypto Drops Amid Large-Scale Macro SelloffCrypto prices have taken a hit in the past 24 hours with open finance’s leading index DeFi Pulse Index down 8.14% at the time of writing and Ether down 8.9% in that same span. Bitcoin too is down 6.1%.

Dives

Bytes

  • Even Presidents are Getting NFTsFirst it was the art auction houses, then professional sports leagues, followed by media stalwarts such as the Associated Press. Now the president of Israel is the latest denizen of the mainstream world to embrace that most exotic creation of the crypto space — the NFT.
  • Sygnum is the First Bank Offering Eth2 StakingSygnum has become the world’s first bank to offer Ethereum 2.0 staking. The digital asset bank based out of Switzerland will allow clients to securely stake Ethereum through its banking platform. Currently, Ethereum staked through Sygnum can generate yields of up to 7% per annum.
  • The Sushi Community Is Cooking Up An NFT PlatformSushiSwap will likely add an NFT platform soon. The decentralized exchange for swapping Ethereum-based tokens has been branching out into a one-stop shop for DeFi, with spin-off protocols for lending (Kashi), dapp usage (BentoBox), and yield farming (Onsen).
  • Meowshi Boosts Yields for SUSHI Stakers In Run-up to V3It’s shaping up to be a big month for Sushiswap. The decentralized automated market maker (AMM) is slated to release its much-anticipated V3 upgrade, codenamed MIRIN, on July 20. A host of new features are expected including limit orders, improved support for multi-token yield farming, MEV protection, and an upgraded user interface.

Links

Thursday

Markets

Dives

  • MakerDAO Rebuts Accusations of Selling Oracle DataIn the DeFi world, oracles aren’t the seers of Greek myth but handy tools that enable data to flow between blockchains and traditional networks in the form of smart contracts. Now oracles have landed right in the middle of a clash pitting two of the biggest players in the space against one another — Chainlink and MakerDAO.

Opinion

Links

Wednesday

Research

  • The Riddle of Ethereum: Bullish Signals Abound as Price Starts and Stops Bullish news continues to circulate as ETH price keeps dropping or moving sideways at best. Are we merely in an accumulation phase, or has the bear market started, and we’re all in denial?Ethereum’s Ether is down 11% in the past 30 days and has plunged 46% since its $4,357 high reached in May. It has been inching its way up from this month’s low of $1,718 and is trading at around $2,300 currently. So the question investors are asking is: Is the bull market back or are we at the gates of a bearish cycle?Let’s review the last month’s on-chain data from both a bullish perspective and a bearish perspective to find out.

Tuesday

Research

💜Community Love💜

Thanking all the amazing Defiers for the support and love this week (and always)!

the-defiant

Universe.XYZ 🌌 @universe_xyzGreat write up from @DefiantNews on Polymorphs.

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thedefiant.ioInsane Money and a Hype-Drunk Market: Are NFTs the New ICOs? - The Defiant - DeFi NewsThere’s no doubt... a ton of money has been made in NFTs. Some detractors sniff that these new forms of art are just glorified JPEGs and have no real reason to be on a blockchain let alone fetch such eye-watering prices.6:13 PM ∙ Jul 9, 202160Likes14Retweets

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Trevor Jones 🎨 @trevorjonesart10 Top Dogs #giveaway Inspired by @DirSchmidt after the fun @DefiantNews discussion last night with very cool peeps, I picked up 10 dogs with major swag to find good homes for. Draw Mon 12th. To Enter 👇 🐶 Like, Share, & follow @TopDogBeachClub 🐶 Add your Eth address below

the-defiant

10:52 AM ∙ Jul 9, 2021553Likes423Retweets

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Wadé @wadeprosAlways nice to get a shoutout from the best source for objective DeFi news and the person creating the highest quality DeFi content in the game! Obrigado @DefiantNews @DirSchmidt

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The Defiant @DefiantNews📊#DeFi options are far more capital-intensive than their #TradFi counterparts since most trades need to be fully collateralized. But things are changing🚀 In today's #TuesdayTut, @DirSchmidt explores partially collateralized options using @opyn_👇 https://t.co/dydNFDYDIX4:10 PM ∙ Jul 6, 202112Likes4Retweets

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Jess 🌱 @thattallguyBuilding Billion Dollar Communities. ICYMI: I recently sat down with @DefiantNews to talk social tokens and @seedclubhq 🗣️"sooooo good" - said one listener.

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The Defiant @DefiantNews🎙️"There Will be Billion-Dollar Communities on the Internet” - @thattallguy The instigator of @seedclubhq talks to @CamiRusso about the difference between personal, creator, brand, and community tokens, and how value accrues to these instruments👇 https://t.co/JUpTynYZkn https://t.co/JQ47hAYK8D7:42 PM ∙ Jul 5, 202148Likes8Retweets

the-defiant

BORG BRAIN @borg_brainThis is an AWESOME article about the whole $IRON $TITAN fiasco from the always amazing @DefiantNews An absolute must read.

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thedefiant.ioNot Just a Bank Run: New Evidence Shows Iron Finance Crashed Due to Code Exploit - The Defiant - DeFi NewsOne of our hacktivists has uncovered additional details into how the Iron Cash fiasco happened. He identified a “giant re-entrancy vector” in all three masterchef contracts. You can see the proof here if you search for “emergency” in the live source code.9:33 PM ∙ Jul 5, 202136Likes8Retweets

The DDRminator @ddrminatorThis was posted on Jan 22, 2021 by @DefiantNews youtube.com/watch?v=k1W_Gy… Tether-Bitfinex Red Flags, Lies, Frauds, Coverups - just the tip of the iceberg #tetherinvestigation #TetherScam cc: @Bitfinexed @Tethertothe1 @CasPiancey @BennettTomlin @muellerberndt @jimcramer

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youtube.comWe Need to Talk About #TetherTether has faced accusations from many in the digital asset industry that it is a form of privately-issued fiat currency, backed not by “real” dollars in any...3:55 AM ∙ Jul 5, 20215Likes1Retweet

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revert @revertfinanceThis episode of the @DefiantNews podcast with @danrobinson is definitely worth listening to. Loved the following excerpt on how to think about the possible future of LPing vs traditional market making anchor.fm/thedefiant/epi…

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5:38 PM ∙ Jul 5, 202133Likes6Retweets

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NiftyTable @TableNifty@PaulRBerg The DeFi 101 YouTube series by @DefiantNews. Short clips clearly explaining everything from yield farming to AMMs.4:21 PM ∙ Jul 5, 2021

the-defiant

Interaxis - Adam @Interaxis87/ @kevinknielsen has a great article on @DefiantNews on what DAOs are, why they're important, and the current state of DAOs. He covers everything from legality to NFTs

the-defiant

thedefiant.ioWhat is a DAO? Mapping Out the Ecosystem - The Defiant - DeFi NewsThis article offers a 10,000ft view on the ‘Decentralized {Autonomous} Organization’, or DAO tooling and project landscape. It’s intended to be complementary to introductory posts like Linda Xie’s ‘A beginner’s guide to DAOs’. The goal is to help contributors and participants better acclimate themse…4:47 PM ∙ Jul 5, 20213Likes1Retweet

the-defiant

Cristobal Pereira @cristpereiragFeliz domingo a todos! Los dejo invitados a leer el resumen semanal del ecosistema #DeFi o Finanzas Descentralizadas en @DefiantNews Te invito también a suscribirte al newsletter en español para así no perderte este resumen semanal 🙌 thedefiant.io/-recap-defi-…

the-defiant

4:23 PM ∙ Jul 4, 202138Likes9Retweets

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The Defiant is a daily newsletter focusing on decentralized finance, a new financial system that’s being built on top of open blockchains. The space is evolving at breakneck speed and revolutionizing tech and money. Sign up to learn more and keep up on the latest, most interesting developments. Subscribers get full access, while free signups get only part of the content.Click here to pay with DAI (for $100/yr) or sub with fiat by clicking on the button above ($15/mo, $150/yr).

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