Crypto Great | Bitcoin | DeFi

2022-02-16 12:44:00 ​​Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap is a decentralized finance automated market maker (AMM) on Ethereum. It allows users to trade and provide liquidity with any token on the network in a permissionless and trustless way.

With cryptocurrencies being more accepted by regulators and the introduction of a bitcoin futures ETF, we have seen an influx in institution interest into DeFi assets and products.

As of October 26, Uniswap can now acquire more interest from institutional investors thanks to the first Uniswap exchangetraded product (ETP) going live. Valour Inc, a Switzerland-based issuer of digital asset-based exchange-traded products (ETPs), is behind creating the world’s first ETP which tracks the governance token of the leading decentralized exchange in the crypto space, Uniswap.

Valour CEO Diana Briggs stated that, “The future of financial services is being built on open, interoperable protocols.” And her firm has been working hard to bring additional crypto ETPs to market and offer exposure to DeFi assets “via mainstream investment channels.”

The Uniswap ETP is physically backed and will affect the underlying price of Uni. Valour buys and sells a corresponding value of Uni as portions of the ETP are purchased and sold on the exchange.

The growth of Uniswap has been astonishing since its launch in November 2018. In the three years since, Uniswap has eclipsed $500 billion in total trading volume. We are also starting to see significant traction on the Arbitrum and Optimism networks, as the two have contributed to over $2 billion in volume since going live.

Now that Uniswap provides options to save on swapping fees, and institutions are now getting exposure to Uni, we should see the next wave of institutional and individual adoption pushing Uni’s price past its previous all-time-high of $44.92 in May. Open / Comment

2022-02-14 14:01:07 KeeperDAO (ROOK)

KeeperDAO is an on-chain liquidity underwriter for DeFi. Using KeeperDAO, people can pool assets to earn passive income through liquidations, arbitrage, and other opportunities from across the DeFi landscape.

Back in June, the development for Keeper’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) went into production and had the community buzzing about its arrival.

However, the DAO launch was delayed due to significant exploits in the DeFi space that made the developers take a step back and reevaluate the release in order to ensure its security Now, we’re starting to see the strategic development of KeeperDao’s new governance system. The KeeperDao community completed voting on its first two Keeper improvement proposals, KIP-0 and KIP-1. Both proposals were approved in early October, allowing the KeeperDAO community to use their funds to help build the ecosystem.

Thanks to the overwhelming support of the first two proposals, the team is now ready to set proposals KPI-2, 3, and 4 into motion, all of which will greatly improve the value of the Rook token and expand its ecosystem.

KPI-2 aims to reduce the ROOK emission rate, effectively reducing the number of tokens minted each cycle. This will slash emissions by 75%, meaning over 1,200 ROOK tokens will be taken out of circulation each week.

At the current rate, the value of tokens burned monthly is over $1 million, which will reduce the circulating supply and increase price.

KPI-4 is a proposal to use some of the profits from the “ninja” of the protocol to buy back ROOK tokens from the market once a week and burn them. The amount burned is based on net revenue, which is roughly $300,000 a week. Ninja is the team's keeper bot, which executes trades from the web app and completes trades only if profitable.

The KeeperDAO hears the community's concerns and are increasing the value of the ROOK token to keep the community motivated and united, as this was not a priority until now. Since the first KIP passed just over a month ago, the Rook token is up 40%. Open / Comment

2022-02-11 13:05:00 ​​Compound (COMP)

Compound is a DeFi lending protocol built for developers designed to unlock a universe of open financial applications.

Activity on Compound picked up substantially as this year’s third quarter ended, with Compound reaching new all-time highs in both loans & deposits. Between rising collateral values, borrowers returned to the market in droves. We are seeing the price of the Compound token reflect this with a 30% rise to end October.

In Q3, the digital stablecoin USDC became Compound's largest market by loans and was the largest driver of loan growth, up 101%, from $1.1 billion to $2.4 billion. This far outpaced deposit growth, driving utilization up 35% in Q3. USDC accounted for 43% of all loans.

Meanwhile, wETH was the largest driver of deposit growth in the quarter, increasing 119%, from $2.5 billion to $5.5 billion. About 40% of this increase was driven by Eth’s price rising during the quarter, from $2,275 to $3,000, a 32% increase. Elsewhere, wBTC deposits increased 78% in the quarter from $1 billion to $1.8 billion. Similar to Eth, about 45% of this increase was due to Btc’s price rising in the quarter, from $35,047 to $43,825, a 25% increase.

We anticipate wETH & wBTC deposits to keep trending higher as bitcoin & Ethereum continue to set new all-time highs. In addition, Compound added four new collateral assets in the quarter, including Mkr, Aave, Sushi, and YFI. This will lead to more users on Compound and more demand for the token.

The Compound community has much to look forward to over the next few months, with the upcoming launch of Compound Chain– a key pillar of Compound’s multi-chain strategy, as well as Compound Treasury – a key enabler of institutional adoption, both on the horizon.

Similarly, as crypto markets continue to heat up, Compound may continue to benefit from increased demand for leverage. Over $12 billion in total value is now locked on the platform, just 8% away from its all-time high of $12.9 billion. favorable market conditions, and attractive borrowing costs, Open / Comment

2022-02-09 12:44:00 ​​Badger DAO (BADGER)

The Badger DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that’s dedicated to building products to bring bitcoin to DeFi. Badger Dao is gaining recognition within the crypto ecosystem on news that it’s getting listed on major centralized exchanges. On October 14, Coinbase made BADGER available for trading on its platform. The move brings major liquidity and exposure to BADGER as it begins trading on one of the largest exchanges in the world.

Coinbase currently conducts over $7 billion in daily trading volume, with over $3.6 million in BADGER being transacted on Coinbase in the past 24 hours.

The second major exchange to list Badger DAO is KuCoin, announced last month. KuCoin’s exchange is available to investors worldwide and is among the largest crypto exchanges worldwide, exceeding $8 billion in daily trading volume.

And, the most recent notable crypto exchange to list BADGER was Crypto com earlier this month. The Crypto com platform has seen a surge in exposure, as advertising is prevalent in some of the most globally viewed professional sports today. This includes popular leagues like the NBA, Formula 1 racing, and UFC. In fact, the famed Staples Center, the home arena of the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, and Kings, just announced it will become known as the Crypto com Arena in a new 20-year naming rights deal.

Crypto com is another of the world’s leading exchanges, transacting roughly $3.7 billion daily and recently exceeded 10 million users. Badger is available to all Crypto com customers, including the popular Crypto com mobile app available in the U.S.

When three of the most popular centralized exchanges rush to add an asset to each platform, it means that asset, in this case Badger DAO, has clear utility in the crypto space and is succeeding in spreading bitcoin liquidity throughout the crypto ecosystem. There is currently over $1.2 billion locked in its protocol which is up 100% in just the past two months. Open / Comment

2022-02-07 12:41:49 Saffron Finance (SFI)

Saffron Finance is a decentralized protocol that acts as a yield optimizer for liquidity providers. It enables users to select custom risk profiles when lending.

The wait for Saffron Version 2’s (V2) first feature is finally over. Last month, Saffron rolled out V2 staking on Ethereum’s mainnet. Saffron’s V2 perpetual staking is now available on Saffron’s web3 application, with a mobile app soon to be released.

All SFI tokens are generated through the liquidity mining process and Saffron Staking V2 is the only way to earn SFI emissions. Users who stake SFI in any Saffron V2 pool are eligible for enhanced voting power in the governance process and become eligible for new types of non-emissions rewards in the future.

Saffron Staking v2 has been a successful launch in part thanks to the community of beta testers that helped evolve the app with detailed reports that contributed to creating an optimized user interface.

Staking SFI on Saffron’s V2 will encourage more users to the platform with annual percentage yield (apy) rewards as high as 50% on SFI/ETH pairs and as high as 280% on SFI/BTSE (bitcoin sidechain-based settlement network for traders and exchanges). These new pools will increase the demand for SFI, as more tokens are locked up for rewards.

With Saffron Staking V2 now live on Ethereum, the team is concentrating on bringing its products to Polygon to reduce fees on the platform. Last month, the team behind SFI created a community channel on Telegram that allows anyone to discuss and contribute to the ongoing mechanics, developments, and testing of Saffron’s V2 smart contract on Polygon.

Going forward, it plans to launch its services on Avalanche, Fantom, and NEO Global Development, as Saffron Finance has been accepted into NEO’s N3 Early Adoption Program. The program provides $10 million in financial support to project teams chosen to build their technologies on the Neo N3 platform.

Cross-chain integration is vital for the expansion and adoption of DeFi applications. We’ll be watching closely and updating you as Saffron develops more multi-chain capabilities. Open / Comment

2022-02-04 12:44:00 Armor (ARMOR)

The crypto industry is unregulated, and like any valuable industry, can be a target of potential hacks, scams, and exploits. The DeFi insurance industry has responded by creating coverage protocols that are modeled after traditional insurance institutions.

On October 27, Armor Finance released its new white paper that details reciprocally-covered assets – a new coverage model that will soon be implemented on Shield Vaults.

The new white paper proposes a new model that simplifies financial coverage to its most efficient form.

The white paper outlines that Reciprocally-Covered Assets (RCAs) are a DeFi-native coverage method in which assets that are being covered simultaneously underwrite the other assets in the ecosystem. RCAs allow users to cover each other against risk. All policies are accessible with no premiums paid in advance, meaning there is no need for capital in reserve. This removes all of the complications of traditional coverage such as risk-based pricing, premiums, underwriting, supply problems, solvency, and more.

This means participants will only be charged exactly what needs to be charged. RCAs are the first coverage method that is truly unique to DeFi, and the only coverage method with the ability to cover the total value in the sector.

To celebrate, Armor committed to burning 1,000 Armor tokens for every Twitter retweet or quote tweet of the announcement from its Twitter account. In total, 466,800 Armor tokens were burnt, which is worth around $61,800.

Since May, Armor has reached a new all-time high in total value locked (TVL) five out of the past six months. Armor’s ecosystem is growing rapidly and its Armor token is seriously undervalued, as its TVL ratio is also at an all-time high and is sitting around $753.26 million. The Armor protocol is a sleeping giant primed for DeFi mass adoption. Open / Comment

2022-02-02 13:55:00 ​​Mirror Protocol (MIR)

Mirror Protocol is a decentralized financial solution that allows users to create and buy collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) on the Terra blockchain.

A CDO is a structured financial product that is backed by a loan or pool of assets.

Mirror Protocol has provided users a more decentralized take on CDOs, which have become among the most sought-after financial products in traditional finance. And a new era of CDO trading is possible thanks to mirrored assets (mAssets) and the platform’s native token, MIR.

Mirror Protocol allows the creation of synthetic assets (mAssets) that track the price of real-world assets. It also gives traders worldwide 24-hour access to price exposure without the burdens or regulations of owning or transacting real-world assets. These mAssets and the protocol’s native MIR token bring a new look to CDOs, with its revolutionary DeFi solution for speculating traditional assets. Open / Comment

2022-01-31 21:45:23 Panther Protocol TGE Launches the World's First Privacy Preserving and Decentralized Protocol. $ZKP will be available in Huobi Global, one of the world's leading digital asset exchanges with over 10 million users. Deposits start at 00:00 (UTC) on Feb 1st! And trading starts soon after!
http://pantherprotocol.io Open / Comment

2022-01-31 14:44:26 Lido (LDO)

Lido is a liquid staking solution for Ethereum that lets users stake Eth with no minimum deposits and no technical knowledge necessary.

Lido continues to show us it has a large market beyond Ethereum with its recent integrations.

Last month, Lido announced the launch of liquid staking on the Solana mainnet. Solana is a top five crypto by market cap and its DeFi applications have recently gained over $5 billion in TVL, proving its case as an emerging DeFi leader. Lido is now on track to capture some of this enormous value, which will lead to higher token prices for Lido.

Earlier this month, MakerDAO integrated Lido's Staked Eth (wstETH) as a collateral asset. This integration enables users to deploy staked Eth as collateral to borrow assets and maximize staking yield.

The biggest argument against holding stETH used to be the opportunity cost of not being able to use it in Defi. This changes with the Maker integration, which allows anyone to stake their Eth and use it as collateral in a DeFi protocol at the same time. This will help generate more demand for Lido tokens.

Just days ago, MyEtherWallet (MEW) announced iPhone users can now start staking their Eth with no minimum balance required in the MEW wallet. You can check out the guide on using Lido Finance to start earning rewards on your crypto here.With 1 billion iPhone users worldwide, this should bring even more users to the platform.

In other news, this month Lido surpassed $10.95 billion in TVL. That’s a 1,000% increase in just six months. This shows us how fast Lido is being adopted. It also has the biggest vault in the DeFi space with nearly $7 billion in TVL on the Ethereum network and is the 3rd largest DAO treasury in the world. In addition, according to a report published in August by investment firm Delphi Digital, Lido dominates Ethereum staking derivatives, with an 81% market share. The report shows that while Lido currently represents 17.3% of all ETH staked in ETH2, this could start to increase materially given that Lido is now capturing 51% of new ETH2 inflows.

With more Ethereum being staked and Lido capturing a large percentage of the daily inflows into ETH 2, this creates a positive catalyst for Lido's growth and price as we approach the ETH PoS merge. Open / Comment

2022-01-28 13:24:00 ​​Celo (CELO)

Celo gives anyone in the world with a smartphone access to financial services such as banking and lending.

On September 22, Celo added Mysten Labs, a new R&D lab that’s focused on creating the foundational infrastructure for Web3 developers to its ecosystem. Mysten Labs will be a core contributor to the Celo Platform going forward.

This multi-year partnership marks a significant milestone for furthering the usability & scalability of the Celo platform. The move also helps make the platform the fastest EVM compatible blockchain. This will give Celo a competitive advantage over its competitors, which should lead to increased demand for the Celo token.

Celo is also working towards providing more cross-chain services to its users. In October, Ubeswap, a protocol for decentralized exchange and automated liquidity provision on Celo, announced a collaboration with Allbridge to bring both Solana and Saber, Solana’s cross-chain stable swap exchange to Celo. Two of the fastest chains are now available for the first time on CELO via Ubeswap.

Solana is one of the fastest growing blockchains this year. This integration will help further expand Celo’s user base. Celo also recently integrated with Anypad, a blockchain incubator building a multi-chain launchpad & multi-chain automated market maker (AMM) DEX. On November 11, the team announced an initial DEX offering (IDO) built on the Celo network through Resource DAO. Resource facilitates trade networks that allow businesses to turn untapped resources into liquidity.

The offering on November 17 should generate immediate demand for Celo tokens in order to participate in the IDO. More details will be posted on Anypad’s Twitter account as they become available.

Usage on the Celo application has been growing as well. On November 9, the second highest number of daily transactions (805,321) happened in Celo history after the current all-time high occurred last month

Celo also recently announced the amount of projects built on Celo has hit a new all-time high. With over 1 million wallet addresses in over 100 countries, Celo is continuing to grab the mass influx of new users as they enter the crypto universe. Open / Comment