To the DeFi community,
This week, DeFi had another mainstream moment as the feature story on the cover of Fortune magazine, bringing the ethos of the early days of decentralized finance to the masses. Featuring insights and commentary from leading DeFi traders and developers, it’s another sign that the industry is being taken more seriously by journalists, investors, and common people around the world every day.
1/Many are (rightfully) excited about the cover & emphasis of #DeFi in the recent issue of Fortune. To me this marks amongst the recent shift in narrative of how #Crypto is covered in mainstream financial media. $eth $link $btc $uni $comp $BNT $aave $snx https://t.co/29TB6MO5AR
— Canuck Link 2.0 🍁⬡ (@CanuckLink) July 30, 2021
At ETHCC, Uniswap slyly revealed talks have taken place or are planned with big names in the traditional finance and fintech industries including Paypal, E*Trade, and Stripe. Video of the discussion was initially posted online, but has since been pulled at Uniswap’s request (you can still find it on IPFS) as the talks are ostensibly in the exploratory stage, with no concrete deals to speak of.
1/Notes on Uniswap’s presentation at EthCC 2021 held by @ashleighschap
Ashleigh is the growth lead @Uniswap and an advisor at @LiquityProtocol
She works closely with consumer finance companies such as Paypal, E-Trade, Robinhood and Stripe pic.twitter.com/De1XYoGsVh
— Token Terminal Intern (@tt_intern) July 27, 2021
DeFi tracker DeBank released Rabby, a new Web3 wallet designed for the increasingly multichain world of DeFi. Rabby automatically connects to the appropriate chain when interacting with applications on BSC, Ethereum, and other DeFi protocol network platforms, while also offering pre-transaction risk scanning to warn users when interacting with smart contracts that have previously been exploited or entering an invalid address.
— Rabby (@Rabby_io) July 26, 2021
And 1inch Exchange AMM aggregator announced a new gas refund program for users staking 1inch tokens on the platform, refunding up to 100% of gas spent to execute trades using 1inch. Gas prices are well below the dizzying heights of 2020 and early 2021, and the program requires thousands of dollars worth of 1inch tokens to be staked to get the full refund, but taking a position today could be a big gas saver if and when gas prices rise again.
3/
💡 The idea of such a gas refund initiative was proposed by the #1inch 👥 community members through the 1inch Network’s governance forum.https://t.co/DHVdq5gKQG
— 1inch Network (@1inch) July 27, 2021
Thinking back a few weeks, there was a feeling in the air that DeFi might be dead in the water, a playground for VCs to blow through millions while a few shadowy super programmers got rich and the vast majority of potential beneficiaries were boxed out via byzintine UX and insurmountable gas prices.
If you were feeling that way, take this week as vindication. Some of the most important fintech businesses in the world are talking to the largest DeFi protocol around, communities are coming up with innovative ways to address high gas costs, and new efforts to smooth and de-risk the DeFi experience for novice users seem to be emerging all the time.
If you haven’t been around for a full cycle, the crypto world can seem all doom and gloom when things are quiet on the media and announcements front. But that silence hides an incredible amount of work and discussions going on behind the scenes, often leading to the biggest developments of all – even if they do take months or even years to come to fruition.
Don’t panic, and hang onto tokens from projects you believe in and have strong fundamentals. That’s just about all it takes to make it in crypto land. Even if you can’t always see them, good times are on the horizon. See you there!
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MakerDAO Updates
DAI Savings Rate: 0.00%
Base Fee: 0.00%
ETH Stability Fee: 5.50%
USDC Stability Fee: 0.00%
WBTC Stability Fee: 4.50%
Highest Yields: Celsius at 8.88% APY, Ledn at 8.50% APY
Total Value Locked: $66.46B (up 12.7% since last week)
DeFi Market Cap: $86.59B (up 15.72%)
DEX Weekly Volume: $14.86B (up 20.91%)
Total DeFi Users: 3,106,700 (up 1.42%)
[Ben Giove – Bankless] – WTF is Olympus DAO??
[Anthony Sassano – The Daily Gwei] – Shadowy Super-Coders – The Daily Gwei #301
[Kerman Kholi – DeFi Weekly] – Sushiswap’s Phantom Troupe
[Fabian Klauder – DeFi Times] – Solving the Composability Problem
[Dan Kahan – The Defiant] – ETH Staking Service Lido Aims To Go Fully Decentralized
Alex is a Content Writer at Circle, with previous experience at tech startups, Fortune 500 corporations, and as a freelance writer and analyst. Interests include cutting-edge technologies in blockchain, energy, supply chains, transportation, urban living, and more and he has been in the crypto community since 2014.