Recap: DeFi Week of Aug. 24 🦄

Hello Defiers, hope you’re having a great weekend!

Summing this past week up: Aave is now the DeFi protocol with most assets locked; CEO and founder Stani Kulechov spoke about the project’s milestones and DeFi’s future on this week’s podcast. yEarn and Curve token holders decided to funnel part of their treasuries to fund public goods on Ethereum. Fair Launch Capital wants to give out no-strings-attached grants to DeFi teams can audit their code; funded projects can then vote to pay it forward. dYdX launched a LINKperpetual contract and Akropolis launched a yield farming aggregator. Centrifuge’s Cassidy Daly did a Q&A to explain how the project wants to bring real assets to DeFi. And more:)

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Interview

“What We're Building is Very Big and We Should Have the Least Concentration Possible:” Aave's Stani Kulechov

This week’s episode is with Stani Kulechov the founder and CEO of Aave, the DeFi platform with the most assets held in its smart contracts, at over $1B. It’s been an exponential rise from its launch just eight months ago. It’s done so pushing DeFi forward by driving innovation in interest-generating tokens, flash loans and delegated credit lines. We also get into all the recent yield farming craziness. Stani believes projects should build communities first, which can help fund audits, before launching protocols into the wild and risk losing users’ funds. There’s no trade-off between safer launches and fast growth; he believes DeFi can attract an even larger amount of users and funds by providing safer applications. If it doesn’t, it will end up losing credibility and users’ trust.

🎙Listen to the interview in this week’s podcast episode here:

📺 Watch New Video on The Defiant’s YouTube Channel and Subscribe

Check out the just-released video on The Defiant’s YouTUbe channel, covering the latest on this week’s governance wars involving Yearn Finance, Curve and 1inch. The video was produced in partnership with Robin Schmidt of Harmony Protocol.

Friday

Dives

• Centrifuge Wants to Bring Real-World Assets to DeFi: Centrifuge, which wants to bring real-world assets to DeFi, published its design proposal, which you can read here. To break it down, we did a Q&A with Cassidy Daly, who leads token design and research for the project.
• BTC on Ethereum Gets Yield Farming Boost and It’s Just Getting Started: IntoTheBlock digs into the spike of tokenized bitcoin on Ethereum following the yield farming boom. Here’s one insight: Bitcoin deposits on Curve surged faster than stablecoins deposits

Thursday

Dives

• Fed Chair Says Money Printer Will Go Brrr Faster; Bitcoiners Not Surprised: Markets rallied on the Fed’s policy shift, but Bitcoin quickly lost most of its gains, a sign the news was already incorporated in the price. The fact that the Fed can and will make the money printer go brrrr even faster isn’t surprising to the crypto market and only deserved a knee-jerk reaction.
• Yield Farmers Show They’re Not Just Degen Gamblers: Yam Finance - a yield farmers paradise which aggregated $600M in TVL in less than 48 hours - will direct 1% of its future treasury to Gitcoin Grants public goods funding upon its forthcoming V3 migration.

Bytes

• Changes to Accredit Investor Definition Are Laughable: While the new rules broaden the definition a tiny* bit, the accredited investor definition continues to leave the large majority of the population out. ––this is why DeFi.
• DefiDollar Reaches Debt Ceiling Within Hour of Launch: DefiDollar - a new stablecoin index behind DUSD - has hit its $3M debt ceiling within an hour of launch this morning.
• Akropolis Launches A Yield Farming Aggregator: Akropolis launched Delphi, a yield farming aggregator that offers different investment options according to users' risk appetite.

Wednesday

Dive

• DeFi Frenzy Prompts Call for Safer Token Launches: Here's the problem that Fair Launch Capital is trying to solve: In the past few weeks the broad sentiment in DeFi has gone from anti-token; to tokens only when it’s absolutely necessary in a tried and tested platform; to tokens designed to drive (crazy) activity which results in (crazy) speculation; to tokens before there’s even a platform.
• Aave Climbs to the Top of DeFi Amid a List of Firsts: Aave yesterday became the DeFi protocol with the most value held in its smart contracts at $1.5B, overcoming the sector’s founding protocol, MakerDAO.

Bytes

• dYdX Offers the Ability to Short LINK: Non-US users can now trade LINK with up to 8x leverage and no expiry date.
• ConsenSys Acquires J.P. Morgan’s Quorum: ConsenSys

💜Community Love💜

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

stani.eth 👻 @StaniKulechovHad the pleasure to sit down and chat with @CamiRusso on Aave and DeFi. Leaked some of my internal thoughts where we are now with DeFi and where we’re heading towards. https://t.co/Tw6hPmpHSq

The Defiant @DefiantNews🔥 episode with @AaveAave's @StaniKulechov "What we're building is very big; we should have the least concentration possible" "If something bad happens the industry stalls & it would be shameful. I'd like to see the space grow in a healthier direction" https://t.co/Ro7Q7QT9aO5:44 PM ∙ Aug 29, 202087Likes9Retweets

Linda Xie @ljxie@tonysheng @RyanSAdams @spencernoon @kermankohli The space moves so quickly so these aren't up to date anymore but for learning basic concepts in both DeFi and composability I've written 2 posts that might be helpful - lindajxie.com/2019/09/25/int… - nakamoto.com/beginners-guid… Also recommend The Defiant by @CamiRusso for keeping up

nakamoto.comA beginner’s guide to DeFiAn introduction to decentralized finance. Covers stablecoins, composability, decentralized lending, dexes, and identity.12:45 AM ∙ Aug 29, 202028Likes3Retweets

SuperMassive.eth @DirSchmidtThe great governance wars feat. @charlie_eth and @deacix alongside @CamiRusso and of course yours truly (playing the violin). The real story of why governance tokens exist. youtube.com/watch?v=X3K9MI… #thedefiant #harmony #1inch #curve $crv $1inch

8:52 PM ∙ Aug 28, 202039Likes17Retweets

Javier Salomón @javosalomonHuge #DeFi panel at #SmartCon with @CamiRusso from @DefiantNews @fcmartinelli from @BalancerLabs @finestonematt from @loopringorg and @BeTheb0x from @bZxHQ 👏 @chainlink @Smart_Contract #Chainlink

4:37 PM ∙ Aug 28, 202046Likes10Retweets

Perpetual Protocol @perpprotocolOur Favorite DeFi Newsletters: @DefiantNews The definitive DeFi newsletter, @CamiRusso does excellent summaries of all the goings-ons in DeFi @BanklessHQ An educational newsletter, @RyanSAdams and crew teach you how to go "Bankless" What are your favorite newsletters?8:55 AM ∙ Aug 27, 202022Likes5Retweets

Juan David Reyes P. @jdreyespaez@coinosis @e18r_ @Mariandipietra @nad8802 @DaidefiVzla @daiprincipiante Pondría también @DefiantNews gran contenido hecho por @CamiRusso para estar al tanto: thedefiant.substack.com Y otro requisito escuchar el audiolibro de ella:

audible.comThe Infinite MachineCheck out this great listen on Audible.com. Written with the verve of such works as The Big Short, The History of the Future, and The Spider Network, here is the fascinating, true story of the rise of Ethereum, the second-biggest digital asset in the world, the growth of cryptocurrency, and the fu..…9:30 PM ∙ Aug 25, 20209Likes2Retweets

Santiago R Santos @santiagoroelThe @DefiantNews is one of my top go-to sources to stay up to date in the space. In this episode we discuss all things DeFi. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for hosting me @CamiRusso!

The Defiant @DefiantNews🍉 It's easy to shrug off & even scoff at meme coins But you'd be wrong, @santiagoroel says "Creating a community of enthusiasts is extremely powerful. It's not just about money, it's touching a very primal desire to connect w/ others." Interview here: https://t.co/CAKHtFqw4V7:11 PM ∙ Aug 25, 202010Likes4Retweets

Jolly @JollyThis brought tears to my eyes. Bring back more of the old school crypto ethos!

Camila Russo @CamiRusso🌈Very special post in today's @DefiantNews "Crypto-gifting is the yin to crypto-capitalism's yang - intrinsic, the part of the iceberg that's underwater." The story behind my 64 ETH gift. https://t.co/caygxT8ddL12:50 AM ∙ Aug 25, 20209Likes1Retweet

Fulvia 🍵 @fulviamorales5/ We already have some good examples of curation in crypto: Curation of info, data and technical analysis: @DefiantNews @spencernoon's Our Network @MessariCrypto Curation of assets and trading strategies: @matchaxyz @SetProtocol2:03 AM ∙ Aug 27, 20208Likes2Retweets

Coopahtroopa 🔥_🔥 @Cooopahtroopa@itscharliecrown @DefiantNews is a great place to start :) thedefiant.substack.com (I write here pretty frequently)

thedefiant.substack.comThe DefiantThe essential content platform about decentralized finance.8:01 PM ∙ Aug 25, 2020

Psychonaut @Psychonaut4975@mattysino Read this sir 🤠 Great article by @DefiantNews thedefiant.substack.com/p/de-in-defi-q…

thedefiant.substack.com“De” in DeFi Questioned: Teams Accused of Hoarding Tokens and Voting PowerCurve and 1inch are facing community backlash8:51 AM ∙ Aug 25, 20203Likes1Retweet

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 at $10/month or $100/year, while free signups get only part of the content.

About the founder: I’m Camila Russo, author of The Infinite Machine, the first book on the history of Ethereum. I was previously at Bloomberg News in New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires covering markets. I’ve extensively covered crypto and finance, and now I’m diving into DeFi, the intersection of the two.