Plenty of launches last week — from PayPal, Base, Synthetix to DeBank — as we head into yet another exciting week in DeFi. Check out the latest DeFi news and alpha now!
Payments giant, Paypal, enters the stablecoin scene with an entry of their own, PYUSD, on Ethereum. Coinbase L2 chain, Base, officially launches as well, kicking off Onchain Summer, a series of quests and events on Base. Finally, Synthetix releases perpetuals on the stablecoin USDT, allowing traders to long or short USDT perpetual pairs.
A big week for DeFi! Let’s see what went down this past week.
Overview:
Total value locked (TVL) on all chains has recovered slightly after the steep drop the week prior resulting from the Curve Finance exploit. Notable increases include Coinbase’s L2, Base, after its official launch, sending the chain’s TVL to more than $114 million in just 3 days since then. Other significant movers include Thorchain and Kujira, which both saw increases in the 20% range.
Source: DeFiLlama
Welcome to Alpha Central
Arthur from DeFiance Capital shares their view on liquid staking derivative (LSD) protocol, Lido Finance, and where they think it's headed from here.
Artyst shares his tips on trading short squeezes, after a strong squeeze of the token of Yield Guild Games, YGG, over the week.
DeFi Ignas discusses how narratives form and how, as traders and investors, we can find them before they blow up.
Ethereum: Paypal Enters the Stablecoin Race
Traditional finance payments provider, Paypal, unveils PYUSD, their very own stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain in a partnership with Paxos. PYUSD is expected to be used in purchases and transfers on the Paypal app, which will be rolled out over the coming weeks.
Ethereum restaking solution, EigenLayer, will be raising the caps on their staking pools again on 22nd August at 7am PT. A pause will occur once a single liquid staked token hits 100K tokens staked.
Ethereum decentralized exchange (DEX), Sushi, opens testing of their latest Smart Pools to users. Smart pools are powered by Steer Protocol, aiming to help liquidity providers find the optimal range to provide liquidity in to maximize their yield.
Ethereum LSD platform, Stader Labs, introduces Liquid Restaking Token (LRT), in a partnership with EigenLayer, enabling stakers to opt into EigenLayer contracts to increase yield earned by stakers and the security of the overall ecosystem.
DeFi credit platform, Goldfinch, unveils Passkey, a wallet system that removes the need for seed phrases, instead opting to use biometric authentication to secure existing devices such as phones, to be used as hardware wallets.
Decentralized gambling protocol, Rollbit, announces a tokenomics revamp of their token, RLB. RLB will now be bought back and burnt with revenues on Rollbit from the Casino, Sportsbook and 1000x Futures.
Telegram trading bot, Unibot, unveils Unibot Cloud, taking users’ private keys out of Telegram, moving Unibot towards a safer model for its users.
LayerZero-powered blue-chip asset bridge, Altitude, announces their liquidity bootstrapping pool (LBP), which will be open from 22nd August to 26th August. The token sale will be taking place on Fjord Foundry.
Angle Protocol, the team behind agEUR, a Euro-pegged stablecoin, releases Angle V2, further diversifying backing assets to include short-term Euro bonds from Backed Finance, a protocol focusing on real-world assets (RWAs).
L2s: Base Officially Launches
Coinbase L2, Base, officially launches on mainnet for all users, kickstarting the on-chain quest campaign, Onchain Summer, to celebrate art, music, gaming and more on Base, with commemorative NFTs up for grabs.
Portfolio tracker, DeBank, announces DeBank chain, an L2 chain built on the OP Stack. The chain is currently in testnet, with mainnet expected to roll out in early 2024. The chain seeks to be the asset layer for social interactions, boasting low gas fees to support these transactions.
Synthetic asset platform, Synthetix, introduces USDT perpetuals, allowing traders to trade against the price of the USD-pegged stablecoin. The perpetuals are now accessible on Synthetix frontend, Kwenta.
Arbitrum-native DEX, Camelot, releases integrations with Gamma Strategies and DeFi Edge with their concentrated liquidity farms, enabling greater automation over users’ liquidity provision strategies without the time and effort.
Arbitrum-based Curve fork, Saddle Finance, releases a proposal to wind down, with protocol-owned assets to be liquidated into ARB and distributed to holders of their native token, SDL and veSDL.
Perpetuals and options trading platform, Aevo, launches their telegram trading bot, enabling users to trade on Aevo directly via telegram using only their Aevo API keys. Users do not have to give up their private keys for this.
In the same week, Aevo launched Pre-Launch Token Futures, enabling traders to trade on tokens that haven’t begun trading yet. The first market to be listed will be the token of the upcoming Cosmos chain, Sei Network.
Perpetuals DEX, Gains Network, unveils gTrade 6.4, introducing lookbacks to the platform. Lookbacks ensure that all orders are executed at the price set by the trader, even if the order trigger was initially missed. GTrade 6.4 also significantly reduces latency on trade execution and liquidations.
ZigZag deploys Invisible, a privacy-enabled zero-knowledge rollup, with an order book exchange, allowing users to trade on-chain, while maintaining privacy over their trades and fund movements.
Mode Network opens up First Dawn, their public testnet to users. Mode Network is an L2 built on the OP Stack as part of the Superchain. Mode aims to generate growth through rewarding referrals to the chain and building on the chain from sequencer profits.
Cosmos: Osmosis x Celestia
Osmosis integrates with modular data availability layer, Celestia, to facilitate the movement of liquidity across all chains within the modular ecosystem. Cross-chain messaging protocol, Hyperlane has partnered with Osmosis to facilitate part of these operations as well.
Perpetuals DEX, dYdX, wound down the first testnet of their V4 on the Cosmos, deploying their second testnet just days after. The new testnet increases the number of pairs available for trading, introduces dynamic margin and testnet rewards, among others.
Another Week, Another Airdrop
MakerDAO co-founder, Rune, releases alpha on pre-farming for SPK, the token governing SparkDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization that will govern Spark Protocol, MakerDAO’s lending protocol.
Stay updated and stay tuned for next week’s edition, and keep supporting your favorite projects, degens!
This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.
This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be construed as, financial advice.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s [company’s] own and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinMarketCap.
