Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of basics decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter designed to bring you the highlights of the past week.
In the second quarter of 2023, over $208 million in DeFi protocols were exploited and hacked, and while only $4.5 million was recovered, the total losses from exploits exceeded $204 million.
The DeFi ecosystem is a constantly growing industry with billions of dollars in daily transaction volume. Still, it remains a niche for a small population in the crypto industry and out of reach for some. For an in-depth overview of DeFi, see a new report from Cointelegraph Research titled: “Investing in DeFi: A Comprehensive Guide.”
DeFi lending protocol Maple Finance has decided to offer direct loans to some borrowers instead of relying solely on fund delegates to provide capital to fill the gap left by failed major lending protocols like BlockFi.
The popularity of the BRC-20 Bitcoin token standard led many leading wallet service providers to add support for the new token standard, and Optimism network transactions increased by 67% after the Bedrock upgrade.
The top 100 DeFi tokens continued their upward trend in the last week of June, with most tokens trading in the green.
Over $204 million lost in Q2 to DeFi hacks and scams: Report
More than $204 million was lost to DeFi hacks and scams in the second quarter of 2023, according to a June 27 report from Web3’s De.Fi portfolio.
Titled “Q2 De.Fi Rekt Report”, the report was partially based on data from De.Fi’s Rekt database. More than $208.5 million was used during the quarter, but $4.5 million was recovered through prosecutions, hack trades, and other recovery methods. According to the report, the number of DeFi hacks increased “nearly 7-fold” year-over-year in Q2, with 117 incidents compared to only 17 in the same quarter of 2022. In total, more than $665 million was lost during the first quarter. mid 2023.
Maple Finance Announces Direct Lending to Fill Void After BlockFi, Celsius
Web3 lending platform Maple Finance has announced the launch of a direct lending program, according to a June 28 fact sheet from the platform’s development team. The program is meant to replace services previously provided by Celsius, BlockFi and other now-bankrupt lenders.
In the past, Maple relied on loan professionals called “associate delegates” to provide capital for these loans. For example Celsius used Maple to create Wrapped Ether (WETH) loan fund in February 2022.
Optimism network transactions increased by 67% after Bedrock — Nansen upgrade
Transactions on the Optimism network surged 67% after the June 7 “Bedrock” update, according to a June 26 Twitter thread by blockchain analytics firm Nansen. The network saw fewer than 300,000 transactions per day before the upgrade, but that number had increased to more than 550,000 by mid-June.
Optimism saw a spike in transactions immediately after the hard fork, rising to over 400,000 from around June 5th to June 9th. Volume grew more slowly after the initial surge, peaking at over 550,000 around June 15th. It then began a slow decline, reaching 500,000 transactions per day by the end of the time the data was collected around June 23, according to a chart posted on Nansen’s Twitter thread.
Wallet providers roll out support for BRC-20 tokens despite market downturn
On June 21, self-custody wallet provider BitKeep announced support for BRC-20 tokens issued on the Bitcoin network. Using this feature, users can view, rate and transfer BRC-20 tokens and non-fungible tokens. The developers also said that swaps in the BRC-20 wallet are coming [the] future.”
Last month, the OKX crypto exchange also announced support for BRC-20 assets through the OKX Wallet app. Many centralized and decentralized exchanges have also implemented BRC-20 support.
DeFi Market Overview
Total DeFi market capitalization saw a bullish surge after three bearish weeks. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the top 100 DeFi tokens by market cap had a bullish week, with most tokens trading in the green. The total value locked in DeFi protocols remained below $50 billion.
Thanks for reading our roundup of this week’s most impactful DeFi changes. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education on this dynamic space.