👀 ‘Russia’s Ethereum’ Loses Stablecoin Peg as Accusations of Ponzi Schemes Fly

Hello Defiers! Here’s what we’re covering today:

Markets

• ‘Russia’s Ethereum’ Loses Stablecoin Peg as Accusations of Ponzi Schemes Fly

News

• MetaMask Update Allows Apple Pay Users to Buy Crypto
• U.K. Embraces Stablecoins as ‘Valid Form of Payment’
• DeFi Kingdoms Goes Live On Avalanche Subnet

Podcast

🎙Listen to the exclusive interview with Cosmos’ Ethan Buchman in this week’s episode:

Video

• The Defiant Weekly: The Best Ethereum Merge Explainer You'll Ever See
• Quick Take: The EU wants to know EVERYTHING about you and your crypto (+ Pengu news)

Elsewhere

• Does safe DeFi require CBDCs?: BIS Conference
• $15 Billion Rugpull Vulnerability in Convex Finance protocol Uncovered and Resolved: Open Zeppelin
• SEC chair Gensler calls for more regulation on stablecoins and crypto firms' custody, market-making arms: The Block
• Top TVL Gainers in Terra Ecosystem Last 7D: Terra Daily
• Bored Ape #1131 was purchased for 180.0 ETH: BAYC

Trending on The Defiant

• Tesla Taps MakerDAO-Powered Lender for $7.8M Real Estate Deal
• European Parliament Passes Bill Requiring Crypto Firms to KYC Non-Custodial Wallets
• Vitalik Muses on How PoS Could Have Come Sooner

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Market Action

👀 ‘Russia’s Ethereum’ Loses Stablecoin Peg as Accusations of Ponzi Schemes Fly

Waves' Market Turbulence Sparks Worries About Stablecoins

By yyctrader

REVERSAL Waves, a Layer 1 blockchain known as ‘Russia’s Ethereum’, has suffered a reversal of fortune as accusations Ponzi schemes and market manipulation fly in a wild week of action. Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, even got swept into the drama as one of Russia’s major crypto plays went sideways.

SPECULATION The project’s native token WAVES began to surge a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. This led to speculation that Russians were using the platform to circumvent Western sanctions after several of the nation’s banks were cut off from the Swift messaging system.

SOAR WAVES soared 600% to an all-time high of $62 on March 31.

Waves price moves this year. Source: CoinMarketCap

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

Ethereum Wallets

🦊 MetaMask Update Allows Apple Pay Users to Buy Crypto

By Owen Fernau

NEWS Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies just got a boost. MetaMask has announced that the popular crypto wallet will now support direct digital asset purchases with debit and credit cards by way of Apple Pay.

UPSHOT One upshot of the feature is that users will be able to directly seed their crypto wallets with digital assets, rather than having to go through centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Coinbase. CEXs are often seen as a grey area between decentralization and centralization — they are on-ramps to a decentralized economy but their servers are centrally owned just like any traditional company.

DECENTRALIZATION MetaMask is arguably more decentralized than traditional CEXs — Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of Consensys, which develops the wallet, has gone on record saying that MetaMask will “progressively decentralize.” With the new Apple Pay feature, users will be able to enter the crypto ecosystem further on the decentralization side of the spectrum.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

Regulation

🇬🇧 U.K. Embraces Stablecoins as ‘Valid Form of Payment’

London to Mint an NFT and Start Sandbox for Crypto

By Samuel Haig

EMBRACE As an early mover on embracing fintech, the U.K. pioneered the use of sandbox regulatory development for startups. It was an approach that sought to find common ground between entrepreneurs and regulators.

BOLD MOVE Now the British government is trying to do the same with crypto, and while the vote of confidence feels belated the policy’s support for stablecoins may be a bold move. On April 4, the U.K. Treasury recognized stablecoins as a “valid form of payment” as part of its plan to make Britain a global hub for crypto asset technology and investment.

MEASURES The government will also explore measures to bolster “the competitiveness of the U.K. tax system” regarding digital assets. The Royal Mint will even create an NFT to symbolize its commitment to fostering a positive business climate for crypto assets. And officials will study the legal status of decentralized autonomous organizations.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

GameFi

❄️ DeFi Kingdoms Goes Live On Avalanche Subnet

By Owen Fernau

SUBNET One of crypto’s most prominent GameFi projects, DeFi Kingdoms, now has its own subnet on the Avalanche blockchain.

VALIDATORS DeFi Kingdoms (DFK), which originated on the Harmony One blockchain, has deployed to an Avalanche subnet, a scaling solution that involves “a dynamic set of validators working together to achieve consensus on the state of a set of blockchains,” according to the smart contract platform’s documentation.

BRIDGE Synapse, a bridge protocol, has seen volumes surge as users move assets to DFK’s new subnet. Prior to Mar. 31, Synapse had never seen volumes top $157M. After DFK’s subnet launch, it more than doubled to a record $330M and accounted for 82.5% of the total bridging volume on Synapse.

Synapse’s Bridge Volume

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

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The Tube

📺 The Defiant Weekly: The Best Ethereum Merge Explainer You'll Ever See

📺 Quick Take: The EU wants to know EVERYTHING about you and your crypto (+ Pengu news)

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Elsewhere

🔗 Does safe DeFi require CBDCs?: BIS Conference

This conference aims to establish a common understanding on how DeFi-based markets might evolve from their current state, what role central banks might have, and the potential interaction with Central Bank Digital Currencies.

🔗 $15 Billion Rugpull Vulnerability in Convex Finance protocol Uncovered and Resolved: Open Zeppelin

TLDR: In late 2021, as part of a security audit for Coinbase, OpenZeppelin conducted a security review of the Convex Finance protocol.

🔗 SEC chair Gensler calls for more regulation on stablecoins and crypto firms' custody, market-making arms: The Block

The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering new firewalls for custody and market-making businesses at crypto firms and pushing for more SEC oversight of stablecoins.

Terra Daily 🌖 @TerraLUNADailyTop TVL Gainers in Terra Ecosystem Last 7D $PRISM @prism_protocol $LDO @LidoFinance $SD @staderlabs $ASTRO @astroport_fi $STT @StarTerra_io $MARS @mars_protocol $SPEC @SpecProtocol @ApertureFinance @EdgeProtocol $PSI @NexusProtocol #TERRA #LUNATICS #LUNA $UST

1:58 PM ∙ Apr 4, 202210Likes1Retweet

boredapebot @boredapebotBored Ape #1131 was purchased for 180.0 ETH opensea.io/assets/0xbc4ca…12:09 AM ∙ Apr 5, 2022459Likes58Retweets

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Trending in The Defiant

• Tesla Taps MakerDAO-Powered Lender for $7.8M Real Estate DealOn March 30, 6s Capital, a commercial lender powered by MakerDAO, closed a real estate financing deal worth $7.8M for Tesla, the world’s leading electric vehicle company and the second-largest publicly-traded Bitcoin holder.
• European Parliament Passes Bill Requiring Crypto Firms to KYC Non-Custodial Wallets European crypto firms may soon be forced to implement KYC (Know Your Client) procedures for non-custodial wallets that they transact with.
• Vitalik Muses on How PoS Could Have Come Sooner All eyes are on Ethereum’s coming transition to Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus. It’s a historic moment in the history of crypto.

🧑‍💻 ✍️ Stories in The Defiant are written by Owen Fernau, Samuel Haig, DeFiDad, and yyctrader, and edited by Edward Robinson, yyctrader, and Camila Russo. Videos are produced by Robin Schmidt, Alp Gasimov and Daniel Flynn. Podcast is led by Camila, edited by Alp.

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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. Signest, 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)