📈Traders Move ETH out of Centralized Exchanges and into DeFi

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

News

• Wikipedia Community Pushes Back Against Crypto Donations
• Traders Move ETH out of Centralized Exchanges and into DeFi

DappRadar Research

• How Blockchain Bridges Became Hackers’ Prime Targets

Podcast

🎙Listen to this week’s podcast episode with Defiant’s Robin & Alp:

Video

• $Silo - The hottest DeFi opportunity in the world right now

Elsewhere

• Japan’s most popular social messaging app Line adds NFT marketplace: Cointelegraph
• Crypto Investor Miraculously, Unbelievably Predicts Exact Coinbase List of Favoured Tokens With $US400k Bet: Gizmodo
• Crypto firm Tether to further reduce holdings of commercial debt in stablecoin reserves: CNBC
• Binance poaches French financial regulator's deputy general counsel: The Block
• Apple job ad triggers speculation over tech giant’s crypto plans: Micky

Trending in The Defiant

• Ethereum’s Merge Delayed Despite Successful ‘Shadow Fork’ Test
• Major US Clearing House Experiments with CBDC for Real-Time Settlements
• DeFi Protocols Heed MakerDAO’s Call to Back DAI with Real-World Assets

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ETH Supply Shock

📈 Traders Move ETH out of Centralized Exchanges and into DeFi

By Samuel Haig

Traders are pulling their Ether from centralized exchanges and locking them into DeFi smart contracts, suggesting that traders believe that markets may still climb higher.

Data from Glassnode shows that the number of ETH stored on exchanges is at its lowest level since August 2018, with 20.6M Ether, or 17.1% of Ethereum’s supply, locked on centralized trading venues. On a percentage basis, Ethereum’s centralized exchange balance is at its lowest level since July 2016 — when ETH traded for just $10.

Significant reductions in exchange balances suggests that investors are willing to hold on to their crypto for the long-term, and are placing them into cold storage for safe-keeping or in DeFi smart contracts to earn yields.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

Crypto Donations Rejected

👀 Wikipedia Community Pushes Back Against Crypto Donations

By Samuel Haig

The Wikipedia community doesn’t want your crypto donations.

In a poll between Jan. 10 and Apr. 12, 232 users, or 71% of voters, asked the Wikimedia Foundation to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations.

The Wikimedia Foundation said it will discuss the proposal internally and provide an update by the end of the month.

The proposal, put forward by software developer and Wikipedia editor Molly White, argued that cryptocurrencies are “extremely risky investments”, and that accepting crypto asset donations “signals endorsement of the cryptocurrency space by the Wikimedia Foundation.”

White added that Proof of Work cryptocurrencies likely do not align with Wikipedia’s commitment to environmental sustainability. “We risk damaging our reputation by participating in this,” she said.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

DappRadar Special Report

🌉How Blockchain Bridges Became Hackers’ Prime Targets

By DappRadar

The crypto industry has evolved into an ecosystem interconnecting several Layer-1(L1) blockchains and Layer-2(L2) scaling solutions with unique capabilities and trade-offs.

Networks like Fantom, Terra, or Avalanche have become rich in DeFi activity, while play-to-earn dapps like Axie Infinity and DeFi Kingdoms sustain entire ecosystems like Ronin and Harmony. These blockchains have risen as serious alternatives to Ethereum’s gas fees and relatively slow transaction times. The need for an easy way to move assets between protocols on disparate blockchains became more critical than ever.

This is where blockchain bridges come in.

As a result of the multichain scenario, the Total Value Locked (TVL) across all DeFi dapps skyrocketed. At the end of March 2022, the industry’s TVL was estimated at $215 billion, 156% higher than March 2021. The amount of value locked and bridged in these DeFi dapps lured the attention of malicious hackers, and the latest trend suggests that attackers might have found a weak link in blockchain bridges.

According to the Rekt database, $1.2 billion in crypto assets were stolen in Q1 2022, representing 35.8% of all-time stolen funds according to the same source. Interestingly, at least 80% of the lost assets in 2022 have been stolen from bridges.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

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The Tube

📺 $Silo - The hottest DeFi opportunity in the world right now

Job Board

😆 The Meme Studio: Meme Artist / Shitposter / Illustrator / Designer / Artist

We are a fast growing crypto content agency focused on memes, animation and art. We have a large need for meme makers and illustrators who understand various internet sub-cultures especially useful if you have been or participated in the following:

- /biz/ on 4chan
- DeFi degen meme culture across Telegram & Twitter
- NFT/P2E/DeFi culture in Discords esp. meme channels

For more info, click here.

Elsewhere

🔗 Japan’s most popular social messaging app Line adds NFT marketplace: Cointelegraph

Japan’s largest social media app, Line has officially launched its own non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace called LINE NFT. Partnering with Yoshimoto Kogyo, a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate — the LVC Corporation, Line’s crypto and blockchain manager — will offer approximately 40,000 different NFTs to its 90 million users.

🔗 Crypto Investor Miraculously, Unbelievably Predicts Exact Coinbase List of Favoured Tokens With $US400k Bet: Gizmodo

An unknown crypto investor bet nearly half a million dollars on a slew of alt-coins this week that almost immediately jumped in value. The person in question was either really lucky or, as some on the web see it, a dirty, rotten cheater with insider knowledge.

🔗 Crypto firm Tether to further reduce holdings of commercial debt in stablecoin reserves: CNBC

Crypto firm Tether is planning to reduce its holdings of commercial debt in its reserves, as the issuer of the world’s most-used “stablecoin” continues to face questions about what its digital currency is actually backed by.

🔗 Binance poaches French financial regulator's deputy general counsel: The Block

Binance has hired Stéphanie Cabossioras from France's Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) in the latest example of a crypto exchange poaching staff from a financial regulator. Cabossioras was the AMF's deputy general counsel until March.

🔗 Apple job ad triggers speculation over tech giant’s crypto plans: Micky

Apple has advertised a new crypto-related legal position on its website. The tech giant is looking for a senior legal counsel with blockchain and digital asset experience to join the Apple Pay and Wallet team. According to the job description, the individual would be responsible for assisting and advising on a wide range of Apple Pay and wallet-related issues.

Trending in The Defiant

• Ethereum’s Merge Delayed Despite Successful ‘Shadow Fork’ Test Ethereum developers report that the final tests before the protocol’s transition to proof-of-stake are going well. A major test called “the shadow fork” was “a huge success,” Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden tweeted on Apr. 11. The Merge is currently scheduled for sometime after July.
• Major US Clearing House Experiments with CBDC for Real-Time Settlements The U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation announced that it’s building ‘Project Lithium’, a CBDC prototype that it’s using to explore whether a Federal Reserve-issued digital currency could clear a trade as soon as a brokerage sends the money. “Project Lithium represents the next major step in our exploration of DLT, tokenization, and other emerging technologies,” Jennifer Peve of the DTCC said.
• DeFi Protocols Heed MakerDAO’s Call to Back DAI with Real-World Assets What if DAI wasn’t just backed by crypto, but by real-world assets, like factories, stocks and corporate debt, too? Undercollateralized lending protocols think that diversifying DAI’s backing outside of crypto could add tens of millions of dollars to MakerDAO’s revenue and protect DAI from a crypto bear market.

🧑‍💻 ✍️ 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)