Finance Redefined: DeFi protocols lost $1.6B, EU to rethink DeFi approach, and more

The past week in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem saw many new developments from an adoption perspective and protocol developments. The European Commission added a new chapter on DeFi, showing the growing impact of the nascent ecosystem, while a county in the United States State of Virginia wants to put its pension fund in a DeFi yield.

DeFi exploits became the center of attention again as recent research shows that in the first two quarters of 2022, DeFi protocols have lost $1.6 billion to various exploits. Rari Fuze hacker, who got away with $80 million worth of funds, was offered a $10 million bounty.

The DeFi tokens also made a bullish comeback toward the end of the past week. However, the overall weekly performance remained in the red.

European Commission report suggests rethink of the regulatory approach to DeFi

Analysts from the European Commission showed an unexpected understanding of how DeFi functions, having defined it as something different from the traditional financial system and acknowledging that it would require rethinking the approach to regulation.

On Monday, crypto venture adviser at Presight Capital and a long-term expert on European regulation Patrick Hansen shared some crucial details from the European Commission’s “European Financial Stability and Integration Review 2022.” The report, dated April 7, contains a 12-page chapter on DeFi, in which the authors demonstrate a sensible approach to the topic.

Virginia county wants to put pension funds into DeFi yield farming

The Northern Virginia county of Fairfax has already invested a part of its pension funds in crypto and blockchain startups. Now, it’s mulling over deeper involvement with the DeFi yield farming.

The Fairfax County Police Pension System’s chief investment officer Katherine Molnar said on Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference that the system aims to fund two new crypto-focused hedge fund managers in the next three weeks. The next few days will see a decision made, which, if approved, would be the first time pension fund money was used in DeFi.

Rari Fuze hacker offered $10M bounty by Fei Protocol to return $80M loot

DeFi platform Fei Protocol offered a $10 million bounty to hackers in an attempt to negotiate and retrieve a major chunk of the stolen funds from various Rari Fuse pools worth $79,348,385.61 — nearly $80 million.

On Saturday, Fei Protocol informed its investors about an exploit across numerous Rari Capital Fuse pools while requesting the hackers to return the stolen funds against a $10 million bounty and a “no questions asked” commitment.

More than $1.6 billion exploited from DeFi so far in 2022

DeFi space has been rife with hacks, exploits and scams so far this year, with over $1.6 billion in crypto stolen from users, surpassing the total amount stolen in 2020 and 2021 combined.

Analysis from blockchain security firm CertiK revealed the statistics on Monday showing the month of March having the most value stolen at $719.2 million, over $200 million more than what was stolen in all of 2020. The March figure is largely due to the Ronin Bridge exploit where attackers made off with over $600 million worth of crypto.

Solana and Moonbirds help NFT market reach $6.3B monthly trading volume: Report

According to the monthly DappRadar report, the NFT market recorded a multi-month trading volume high of $6.3 billion, surging by 23% from March, breaching the $6 billion mark only for the third time in its history.

Moonbirds contributed half a billion worth of trading volume while Solana blockchain recorded nearly $300 million in NFT trades with a 91% month-on-month increase.

DeFi market overview

Analytical data reveals that DeFi’s total value locked remained in a similar range to last week with $123 billion, despite a bullish surge toward the end of the week. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView reveals that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization registered a week filled with volatile price action and constant bearish pressure.

Majority of the DeFi tokens in the top-100 ranking by turned green on the daily chart, but their weekly performance remained bearish, barring the Curve DAO Token (CRV) that surged by 4% over the past week.

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us again next Friday for more stories, insights and education in this dynamically advancing space.