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DeFi Weekly Update | Coinbase Listing, Regulation of Virtual Currency Operators, Berlin Hard Fork

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DeFi Weekly Update | Coinbase Listing, Regulation of Virtual Currency Operators, Berlin Hard Fork

Dear DeFi enthusiasts,

We apologize for being late this week! Our editors have been busy with a last-minute project, but we believe there will be good news to share with you all soon. This week, we also bring you a new segment: Weekly Coin Picks ✨, where we share the DeFi tokens we are keeping an eye on and the reasons behind our choices.

Congratulations to Coinbase, the first cryptocurrency company to successfully go public! The cryptocurrency and DeFi communities have been buzzing with news this week, so let's quickly review what other important updates you shouldn't miss besides Dogecoin.

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This week's headlines include: Ethereum completes the "Berlin" hard fork; the Executive Yuan identifies 5 major virtual currency operators, requiring exchanges, ICO sales... to implement KYC/AML anti-money laundering measures; MakerDAO approves its first real-world asset financing proposal, adding New Silver Series 2 DROP as collateral for the protocol; Chainlink releases a new whitepaper Chainlink 2.0, aiming to build a new architecture for hybrid smart contracts, and more.

Selected insights for this week include: Ryan Sean Adams, the advocate for Bankless, finds it unbelievable how many people talk about DeFi without actually using it; Compound founder Robert Leshner also had a day where he felt like a "yield farmer" being harvested? And what kind of "non"-investment advice did Binance founder Zhao Changpeng give again?

1. This Week's Highlights

✨ Top Headlines of the Week

Ethereum Completes 'Berlin' Hard Fork!

The Ethereum "Berlin" hard fork was completed on the evening of the 15th, but synchronization issues arose at block height 12244294, causing many services relying on the OpenEthereum client to encounter difficulties (now resolved). This upgrade includes 4 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), namely "EIP-2565": to reduce the cost of ModExp precompiled contracts; "EIP-2929": to increase certain GAS cost factors; "EIP-2718": to introduce a new transaction type; "EIP-2930": to include a transaction type with an optional access list.

Taiwan Acts! Executive Yuan Defines 5 Major Virtual Currency Operators, Exchanges, ICO Sales... Must Implement KYC/AML Anti-Money Laundering Measures

The Executive Yuan officially defined the scope of "Virtual Currency Platforms and Trading Business" under Article 5, Paragraph 2 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, requiring Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to fulfill obligations such as KYC/AML in accordance with the law. This order is mainly based on the guidelines issued by FATF in 2019 to define VASPs, including: the exchange of virtual currency and Taiwanese dollars, foreign currencies, the exchange of virtual currencies among themselves, the transfer of virtual currencies, the custody of virtual currencies or provision of related management tools, participation or provision of financial services related to the issuance or marketing of virtual currencies, etc. The regulation is expected to take effect from July 1.

MakerDAO Passes First Real-World Asset Execution Proposal, Adding New Silver Series 2 DROP as Protocol Collateral

The first real-world asset execution proposal initiated by MakerDAO governors and the smart contract team has been passed and executed. The proposal suggests adding New Silver Series 2 DROP as collateral for the Maker protocol. New Silver primarily provides fixed-rate mortgage services for U.S. real estate. Investing in New Silver Series 2 DROP tokens means financing real estate in 39 states in the U.S.

Chainlink Releases New Whitepaper Chainlink 2.0, Building a New Architecture for Hybrid Smart Contracts

Chainlink has released a new whitepaper titled "Chainlink 2.0: The Next Steps in the Development of Decentralized Oracle Networks." According to the new whitepaper, in addition to providing external data, Chainlink will enhance smart contracts through highly scalable, private, and secure off-chain computation to reduce the cost of decentralized pricing services.

Polygon to Provide Liquidity Mining Rewards for Aave, Offering a Total of $40 Million over a Year

The Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution Polygon has announced that it will provide liquidity mining rewards for the decentralized lending protocol Aave, reserving 1% of its token MATIC's total supply (about $40 million) for a year.

🚀 DeFi Protocols

⛓ Blockchain

🏛 Exchanges, Regulations, Institutions

2. Insights from Industry Experts

Bankless advocate Ryan Sean Adams: Critics of DeFi talk a lot, but it's exaggerated how many of them have actually used DeFi

Compound founder Robert Leshner: I got wrecked buying COIN stocks

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao: Price will always catch up to value, it's just a matter of time

3. Data Indicators

This week's data is sourced from: DeFi Pulse as of 4/23/2021.

Overview of DeFi Market Data

TVL (Total Value Locked) refers to the total market value of assets stored in DeFi platforms; Maker Dominance indicates the market share of the current largest project by market value; DeFi Pulse Index is a DeFi weighted index provided by SetProtocol.

Top Ten DeFi Projects by TVL

4. Weekly Coin Picks (New Section!)

This week coincided with price fluctuations in the coin market, mainly attributed to issues such as power problems in Xinjiang mining areas, core members of Coinbase selling off their holdings, and rumors of the U.S. Treasury Department suing several institutions for cryptocurrency money laundering. Clearly, all three are very short-term bearish news, having no impact on project fundamentals, making it a good "Buy the Dip" opportunity.

Based on the released news this week, we will pay special attention to the following:

    • The main market maker project supported by Binance, DODO, which, despite the continuous improvement of the project's ecosystem, has not seen any price increase. DODO, one of the leaders in the PMM field of market makers, could be a very attractive target

    • Next is the Ethereum L2 project Polygon MATIC, which integrated the lending platform Aave and stablecoin aggregator mStable this week, two very promising projects in the long run

    • Lastly, the stablecoin Dai issuer Maker MKR, whose price has almost linearly increased this week, one reason may be its integration with the mortgage company New Silver, marking the mainstream project in DeFi accepting offline asset collateral for the first time, perhaps the wedge for DeFi to start connecting to real life

5. Weekly Memes