Missing Multichain CEO Is Causing Ripples Across the Industry

Developers Aim To Bring New DeFi Strategies To $17B Liquid Staking Market

The Tornado Sanction. It sounds like the title of the next Jason Bourne movie but it’s no thrill ride for DeFi teams — this may be the most challenging regulatory-enforcement development in the history of crypto.

This week our reporters fanned out to cover the impact of the 

h on Aug. 8. The Feds say the crypto mixer laundered $7B worth of crypto since its inception, including hundreds of millions of dollars hacked by North Korea’s notorious 

For DeFi projects, the sweeping action has spurred a flurry of activity to prevent getting sanctioned themselves. Sam Haig plumbed the arcane world of MEV to show how 

 and open-sourcing more of its code in response to the enforcement emergency. Robin Schmidt and his crew produced 

 on how the DeFi privacy industry is adapting to the new reality, one that takes square aim at one of the core values in crypto. Aleks interviewed devs and lawyers at 

 to get the down-low on steps they’re taking to balance thai business models and compliance. One idea getting a lot of attention: Using 

Meanwhile, Owen Fernau trained his sights on an emerging trend in DeFi: 

. This is the push to derive solid and reliable revenue from on-chain activity that truly serves a valuable purpose. Protocols such as 

Rounding out the week was the latest news from NFT land — and it’s not good. The pop culture juggernaut has hit a serious down cycle, as Sam Haig reports in his story on 

. Still, bright spots remain — yyctrader reports in this week’s 

 that ENS domain names continue to surge.

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The Defiant Weekly: The Great Tornado Cash Debate

Quick Take: Democracy Manifest: $1.6 Billion Burnt

Tuesday Tutorial: Earn and Learn with Vitalik’s favorite stablecoin: RAI

Tornado Sanctions Test Resilience of DeFi Privacy Community

Privacy Mavens Tout ZK-Proofs as Solution for Users and States

 reports on how the privacy industry is scrambling to sidestep a war with the Feds…

In the wake of the U.S. government’s sanction of Tornado Cash last week, it feels like the Feds have declared war on privacy-first crypto projects. Now several of those ventures are hoping for a truce.

Representatives of those projects say there’s a solution that can benefit all parties — users, protocols, and the state. The solution, they argue, stems from technology that allows a user to conceal blockchain-based transaction history but reveal it on demand by law enforcement.

, a self-styled VPN for Ethereum, said that anti-money laundering protections can be put in place without sacrificing user privacy.

“I think the industry would be ignorant not to think that we could get away with technologies that are not proactively compliant, and I think Aztec and many other privacy networks are committed to finding that middle balance,” he said on a Twitter Spaces discussion hosted Thursday by Forta, a blockchain security firm.

SushiSwap May Overhaul its Entire Structure

Drama Builds at DEX as Members Weigh New Revenue Model

 delves into one of the most ambitious reboots in DeFi…

A few weeks ago SushiSwap plunged into controversy when it moved to pay a prospective new “head chef” what many of its members deemed an exorbitant compensation package.

Turns out the drama was only just beginning at the $1.2B decentralized crypto exchange. Now SushiSwap’s community is backing a sweeping proposal to overhaul the project’s DAO, voting process, and revenue model.

 and it aims to do nothing less than revitalize a DeFi project that has been struggling to find its footing after suffering a leadership crisis and losing ground to rivals such as Uniswap and Curve. SushiSwap’s token has dropped 85% this year compared to a 50% decline at Uniswap.

The plan calls for a new DAO funded by protocol fees and directed by voting shares. It also seeks to introduce Curve-style 

 (VE) tokenomics in a bid to motivate tokenholders to lock their assets over the longer term. The idea is this would kickstart SUSHI out of the doldrums.

‘Real Yield’ Emerges As A New DeFi Trend

Protocols Like Redacted, Umami and GMX Share Revenue In ETH and Stablecoins

 chronicles the push to make on-chain activity a true revenue stream…

Whether it’s DeFi 2.0 or ultrasound money, crypto loves its narratives. The latest one is “real yield,” which, like the DeFi trends before it, is being touted in both substantive and vaporous ways.

Real yield is a share of a protocol’s revenue, denominated in a mainstream asset like ETH or USDC, which holders of a protocol’s governance tokens can access by staking or locking them. If this sounds like a dividend, you’re not far off. For many DeFi users left holding 

 down 80% or more off all-time highs, cash flow in ETH or stablecoins is a welcome change.

The concept of real yield contrasts with the ponzi-esque APYs of 2021, when people barely batted an eye at four-digit yields. Those returns were broadly fueled by projects’ native tokens, which would be distributed at unsustainable rates in order to attract users’ deposits.

Flashbots Blacklists Wallets Swept Up in Tornado Imbroglio

U.S. Sanction of Crypto Mixer Prompts MEV Defense Platform to Open Source

 plumbs the arcane world of MEV to show the impact of the Feds move on Tornado…

, the strategy lead at crypto firm Flashbots, 

 wallets sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, sparking outcry from the Ethereum community.

 it would hasten open-sourcing some of its code in response to the U.S. Treasurys sanction of the Tornado Cash protocol last week.

Flashbots specializes in addressing MEV, or Maximal Extractable Value, a maneuver in which validators manipulate the order of on-chain transactions to pocket profits by taking advantage of price differences. Its an arbitrage trading strategy made possible by decentralized blockchains.

 some of its MEV-Boost code in response to the sanctions, highlighting that its U.S.-based team must comply with the legislation. Flashbots said the move will encourage competitions and mitigate a potential single point of failure.

Bored Apes Face Liquidation on BendDAO Amid NFT Bear Market

Lending against NFTs was always going to be a risky affair. But naturally, the idea took off 

 during a crazy bull run in the digital assets.

Fed Instructs Banks To Report Crypto Activity

Regulators just cant get enough of crypto. Just eight days after the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash, the Federal Reserve is asking all regulated banks to keep it informed about all crypto-related activities.

Solend Cranks Up The Risk with Liquidity Pools For All

In a move that’s bound to raise eyebrows, Solend just launched “permissionless liquidity pools” that lets anyone play banker.

 from parent company Gnosis, announced plans to airdrop its SAFE token to almost 22,000 crypto wallets.

Crypto Hackers Bagged $2B This Year as Exploits Jumped 58%: Report

Crypto may be slumping but its a bull market for hackers and other bad actors who stole $1.9B worth of assets from projects this year, according to a report released this week by 

Demand for .eth addresses shows no sign of slowing down. On Aug. 16, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) crossed the milestone of 2M registered domains as the blockchain-based protocol recorded 378,804 purchases in July.

The Chopping Block: Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash? Unchained

‘No Current Plans’ for Scrapped V1 CryptoPunks NFTs, Says Yuga Labs: Decrypt

How a Third-Party SMS Service Was Used to Take Over Signal Accounts: Vice

Over the past months, the AB Team has been adding structure to our Curation Board and our project review process: Art Blocks

Coinbase CEO: Would Exit Staking Biz If Forced To Censor Transactions

After several days of mounting pressure, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong said that he would rather shut down the company’s Ethereum staking service than comply with a government order to censor sanctioned transactions.

Uniswap Foundation Proposal Clears Hurdle

 to create the Uniswap Foundation (UF), a new organization that will, if passed, “support Uniswaps decentralized growth, reinvigorate governance, and serve as an advocate for the protocol.”

Fractional Raises $20M And Rebrands To Tessera

Despite the bear market, institutional investors continue to place bullish bets on NFTs. Tessera, a collective NFT ownership platform formerly known as Fractional, has raised 

, a major venture fund with over $10B in assets under management.

Crypto Markets Falter As Investors Digest Fed Minutes

Crypto markets are on track for a fourth day of losses as investors mull over weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales and minutes from the Feds July meeting.

Solana’s Biggest DeFi Lender is Leaning Into ‘Permissionless’ Loan Markets: CoinDesk

Ethereum Name Creation Doubles In Four Months to 2 Million: Decrypt

Sky Mavis’ Ronin sidechain expands to 17 validators to boost security

Here is the TOP 11 rollups list in ‘New Accounts’ today: Arbitrum

In a sign the NFT market is enduring a brutal winter, OpenSea’s trading volume plunged to its lowest level in 13 months on Tuesday.

Jump Crypto will work with the Solana Foundation to develop a new open-source validator client for Solana in an effort to boost the speed and reliability of the network.

Aave May Shun Post-Merge PoW Ethereum Forks

Aave may shift exclusively to the Proof-of-Stake version of Ethereum that will be rolled out after completion of The Merge on Sept. 14.

Is the Merge Priced In? with Hal Press & Ryan Berckmans: Bankless

US Fed Opens Pathway for Crypto Banks to Tap Central Banking System: Coindesk

The Tornado Sanction. It sounds like the title of the next Jason Bourne movie but it’s no thrill ride for DeFi teams — this may be the most challenging regulatory-enforcement development in the history of crypto.

This week our reporters fanned out to cove...

🦄 Recap: DeFi Week of Aug. 14