Recap: DeFi Week of June 15 🦄

Hello Defiers! Hope you’re having a great weekend.

Summing up this past week: This week was all about Compound Finance’s governance token $COMP. The listing highlighted how token-driven incentives can fuel a platform’s growth, as funds flowed into Compound from traders eager to “mine” the new token, which rallied many times its value over the week. Value in Compound has soared to over $600M from about $100M before COMP was listed on Uniswap, overtaking MakerDAO as the DeFi platform with the most value locked. COMP also overtook MKR as the most valuable DeFi token as its market cap soared to ~$3.6B, versus MKR’s ~$500M.

In non-Compound news, Ren Protocol and Curve Finance partnered to launch WBTC, a one-stop-shop for converting BTC to WBTC. Gitcoin grants round 6 kicked off —including with The Defiant’s own grant. The LAO, a decentralized venture fund, Tornado.cash was its first investments. PieDAO introduced its second Balancer Labs-based portfolio, USD++. MakerDAO will likely add ZRX and KNC as new collateral types. dYdX added support for USDT on its pemrissionless Bitcoin perpetual futures. Vance Spencer and Michael Anderson of Framework Ventures talked about their investment theses and style in this week’s interview and podcast.

And much more :)

Also, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to The Defiant’s Gitcoin grant. Please consider supporting quality DeFi-focused journalism as we continue building the media company the new financial system deserves. Magical matching means that even 1 Dai makes a big difference.

Contributors so far are: @emilio-silva, @blockchainresearch, @jlr13, @coopahtroopanew, @nodar, @sneg55, @saldasoro, @emansipater, @mfinestone, @frdra, @owocki, @andrewkeysconsensys, @mattromano, @hadlocna, @laserbach, @rockmanr, @apbendi, @kseniya292, @viniciusfbm, @davidiach, @netzm8, @baraldor, @zeropool-hub, @ukituki, @jasonchewyl, @poapxyz, @misterigl, @daicard, @onkelskrue, @provatidis, @obernardovieira, @d0ck3r, @dystopialabs. 💗 Thank You All So Much! 💗

That was just one week. Subscribe to get the latest DeFi news and analysis straight to your inbox and you don’t miss a thing. Free-signups get partial content, paid subscribers (only $10/month, $100/year) get everything. Click here to pay with DAI ($70/year).

Subscribe now

🙌 Together with Quantstamp, a leading blockchain security firm keeping your money legos safe, Kyber Network, the on-chain liquidity protocol for the tokenized world, and Keycard, the secure, contactless hardwallet & open source API.

Interview

DEX Progress to be a "Landmark Event" Over the Summer: Framework Ventures

This week’s interview is with Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer, co-founders of crypto venture fund Framework Ventures. Michael and Vance live and breathe crypto. It’s how they’ve become some of the deepest thinkers in the space. They talked about how the emergence of token-based business models in the past year has been a breakthrough for crypto, legitimizing the space as a new asset class, they described their investment thesis and, and discussed how they determine whether a protocol will accrue value. Vance believes new developments in decentralized exchanges this year will drive 10% of centralized exchanges’ liquidity. Michael believes the hot new thing, governance tokens, are akin to early startup equity. They also talked about why they love the philosophy driving SNX and discussed why the underdog mentality of LINK Marines is bullish for Chainlink.

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

Thursday

Dives

• How to Maximize Your $COMP By More Than 4x: DeFi Dad shares a powerful way to earn more $COMP tokens by maximizing exposure to lending and borrowing on Compound, using flash loans to build a leveraged position with stablecoins, all thanks to a tool built by Instadapp.

Bytes

• Coinbase Adds COMP Four Days After Uniswap Listing: COMP was listed on Coinbase Pro less than a week after its initial distribution on Monday.
• Bancor Discovers Vulnerability Hours After Code Update: Bancor discovered a vulnerability in its code hours after releasing an update on its smart contracts.
• dYdX Adds USDT for Bitcoin Perpetual Futures Firepower: dYdX added support for USDT on its permissionless Bitcoin perpetual futures, instantly supercharging the platform's flagship product with $5.7B in potential liquidity.
• Wyre Releases Native Apple and Google Wallet Integration: Wyre, a fiat-to-crypto on/off-ramp, launched Wallet Passes for crypto applications to more easily connect with users on their mobile phones.
• Creators, Communities, and Crypto: Fred Ehrsam
• How does DeFi cross the chasm? by Jesse Walden

Wednesday

Dives

• New Round of Gitcoin Grants Program Starts This Week: The sixth version of Ethereum’s public goods funding initiative launched Monday.

Bytes

• Maker Polls to Add KNC and ZRX as Collateral: MKR holders are voting on whether to add Kyber Network’s KNC and 0x Protocol’s ZRX as new collateral types.
• The LAO’s First Investment is in Tornado.Cash: The LAO, one of the first for-profit DAOs since The DAO, announced its first investment will be in Tornado.Cash.
• PieDAO Introduces USD++: PieDAO, a DAO for decentralized market-weighted portfolio allocations, launched USD++, its second tokenized portfolio, or “Pie.”
• No-Loss Lottery PoolTogether Now Takes Apple Pay: PoolTogether users can now buy lottery tickets with Apple Pay and debit cards, making the no-loss lottery application more accessible for those who don’t own crypto.

Tuesday

Dives

• COMP Soars to Become DeFi’s First Unicorn: Compound Finance’s COMP became the most valuable token in decentralized finance on its first day of trading.

Bytes

• $ALEX Holders Can Now Have Say in Alex’s Life: Alex Masmej, the first person to tokenize themselves on Ethereum, launched a simple tool for voting on his life choices, appropriately named: Control My Life.
• ConsenSys Codefi Launches Eth Staking Service: ConsenSys Codefi is launching a staking-as-a-service platform for institutions to offer customers the ability to easily stake ETH on Ethereum 2.0.
• Ren and Curve Finance Simplify BTC to WBTC Swap: Ren partnered with Curve Finance and WBTC to launch WBTC Cafe, a one-stop-shop for converting BTC to WBTC without intermediaries or going through KYC.

💜Community Love💜

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

Jason Williams 🔴 @JWilliamsFstmedThanks to @CamiRusso for dropping absolute DeFi 🔥 on me this morning on Zoom. I am still way down the rabbit hole here. So much to learn. I am going to share my due diligence I am doing on my YouTube channel 🚀 I promise to share what I learn with you! OPTIONS!

5:50 PM ∙ Jun 20, 2020140Likes11Retweets

Jason Williams 🔴 @JWilliamsFstmed@imadness @idlefinance @CamiRusso - check out everything she is doing. Absolute legend.1:53 AM ∙ Jun 21, 2020

Babi @RafaellaBaraldoJust funded some projects on @gitcoin @CamiRusso @TrustlessState @DeFi_Dad @RyanSAdams @antiprosynth @austingriffith @rDAI_dao @jelly_swap @zapper_fi @metagammadelta @Meta_Cartel @gcsfred Wish you all the best! Cheers from Brazil 🤗🇧🇷🎉12:12 AM ∙ Jun 20, 202077Likes6Retweets

Interaxis @Interaxis8@TR401 @RyanSAdams @harrycanuck @Delphi_Digital @CryptoAcevedo @LexSokolin One more...follow @DefiantNews for great reporting on DeFi. @CamiRusso was with Bloomberg and launched Defiant just over a year ago. Top quality...not just cheerleading11:07 PM ∙ Jun 17, 2020

Chris Barrett @ChrisBarrett@tatianakoffman @Forbes Some of my favorites @nlw’s The Breakdown, @DavidJNage Baselayer, @CamiRusso’s podcast The Defiant.10:03 PM ∙ Jun 15, 2020

snxprofessor.eth 博し ⚔️🔑 @nocturnalsheetSpent my Sunday morning listening to this on 1x speed so I can soak it all in. I usually go 2x on podcasts/interviews Lots of great insights from Framework bros "There are only so many @rleshner @kaiynne in this world" Great leaders are a scarce resources indeed 😉

The Defiant @DefiantNews🔥🔥 interview w/ @hiFramework @iam__vance: DEX progress this summer to be landmark event & bring ~10% of CEX vol @im_manderson: It feels like we're fighting an underdog story for @chainlink and @synthetix_io, despite their huge success & much more: https://t.co/qiO6GqC2bb3:14 AM ∙ Jun 21, 202011Likes2Retweets

anniceris @Petts5Great read on the origins of Aragon and what it hopes to achieve with DAOs.

The Defiant @DefiantNews🔥@AragonProject's @licuende: “Events in the world are a cry for help for the tech we're building. It saddens me that we're nowhere ready“ “Open finance is great if it's inclusive. If people can't use it, then we are building an oligarchy again” More👇 https://t.co/nzDx6KtbY83:23 PM ∙ Jun 15, 20204Likes1Retweet

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.

Subscribe now

Click here to pay with DAI.There’s a limited amount of OG Memberships at 70 Dai per annual subscription ($100/yr normal price).

About the founder: I’m Camila Russo, a financial journalist writing a book on Ethereum with Harper Collins. (Pre-order The Infinite Machine here). 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.