The DeFi Weekly: Solana Blockchain Pauses Block Production, Clearing Banks Urge Central Banks Around the World to Act

Dear DeFier,

This week, the cryptocurrency prices have experienced a major correction in the past month. Have you been thrown off the car? As our old friend Anthony said, "At least the Gas Fee is high..." After the launch of EIP-1559, each extreme market situation can at least burn a certain amount of Ether. However, other DeFi public chains like Solana have shown decent performance even in this market, and let's see what important news we have this week regarding regulatory authorities.

Headlines this week include... Solana blockchain paused block production for hours, officials: verification nodes may need to be restarted; First Ripple, then Coinbase, former federal prosecutor: SEC will spare no effort to control the entire cryptocurrency field; Bank for International Settlements urges central banks around the world to take action: stablecoins, DeFi challenging traditional finance, CBDC is the last hope; Balancer and WSB DApp will collaborate to launch ETP investment portfolio products; Lido Finance integrates with the Solana public chain; Cardano mainnet completes the Alonzo hard fork upgrade and enables smart contract functionality, and more.

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This week's selected insights include: Yearn Finance founder Andre Cronje proposes PVP battles between NFTs? Bankless advocate Ryan Sean Adams tells us how we can benefit from the frenzy of Arbitrum's performance? And Uniswap founder Hayden Adams shares one thing he has learned in the crypto circle in recent years is...?

This Week's Headlines

Solana Blockchain Halts Block Production for Hours, Official Says Validators May Need to Restart

According to Solana block explorer Solana Beach, the Solana block production remained at block 96538485, with the transaction timestamp at 8 p.m. on the 14th, and all transactions failed. The Block's research director believes that it appears some validators' cache RAM was insufficient, preventing normal block production. The centralization issues in Solana's network and token distribution have been overlooked by many, as detailed in this Spotlight on Solana on Rekt.

First Ripple, Now Coinbase – Former Federal Prosecutor: SEC Will Spare No Expense to Control the Entire Crypto Space

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently threatened to sue the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase listed on Nasdaq, and its stance and attitude have raised questions from all sectors. Coinbase stated that the SEC threatened legal action against its lending product, stating, "The SEC told us they consider Lend a security, but they didn't explain why or how they reached that conclusion." Former federal prosecutor James K. Filan stated that the SEC will spare no expense to control the entire crypto space.

Bank for International Settlements Urges Central Banks to Act: Stablecoins, DeFi Challenge Traditional Finance, CBDCs Are the Last Hope

BIS Innovation Hub Head Benoit Coeure urged central banks worldwide to take immediate action in the cryptocurrency and DeFi space, claiming that stablecoins, DeFi, and payment innovations are challenging traditional financial systems. Countries need to step up their efforts and develop CBDCs to address the digital future. "The introduction of CBDCs will take several years, while stablecoins and crypto assets are already here, making time more pressing."

Lido Finance Integrates with Solana Mainnet

Ethereum 2.0 staking liquidity solution Lido Finance has expanded to the Solana network and supports the SOL token, allowing users to stake SOL to receive liquidity staked tokens stSOL, introducing liquidity staking to Solana and integrating stSOL into the Solana DeFi ecosystem and beyond.

Cardano Mainnet Completes Alonzo Hard Fork Upgrade and Enables Smart Contract Functionality

The Cardano mainnet has completed the Alonzo hard fork upgrade, deploying Plutus smart contract functionality to the Cardano mainnet through the Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) protocol. The Cardano team stated that in the coming months, they will continue to release code updates every two weeks and regularly maintain and upgrade major quarterly HFC events. Within hours of the HFC event, the first simple smart contract script will be deployed on Cardano, with more complex DApps taking longer to launch through public testnets.

Decrypt Plans to Establish a Media DAO, Aims to Migrate Reader Tokens to Governance Tokens

Blockchain media Decrypt is establishing a media DAO to decentralize the content creation and distribution process, paving a better path for content creators to strengthen connections with the projects they cover and compensate community members for their time and insights.

Balancer and WSB DApp to Collaborate on Launching ETP Portfolio Products

Decentralized exchange Balancer and decentralized investment application WSB DApp are collaborating to launch ETP portfolio products (Exchange-Traded Portfolios). This product allows users to freely create token pools on Balancer, with pools accommodating up to 8 different assets, and users will receive a token representing their share in the corresponding pool. Users can sell this share token at any time, or even use it on other blockchains.

Industry Insights

Bankless advocate Ryan Sean Adams: Arbitrum Surges to $1.5 Billion TVL, How to Benefit from Its Growth?

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams: One Thing I Learned Over the Years...

On-Chain Data

DeFi: TVL Surges on Competing Public Chains

According to DeFi Llama data, the TVL of two major smart contract public chains, Fantom and Solana, has surged over 100% in the past 7 days, indicating a recent movement towards these two public chain projects. Data from automated market makers on Solana also shows that Saber liquidity has increased by 218% and Raydium by 35%.

Ethereum: Active Ethereum Users Reach New High in a Month

According to Glassnode data, active users on Ethereum have reached a new high in a month. The last peak was on August 23rd. Active users, previously only representing how many users were using Ethereum, can now also burn Ethereum circulating supply after EIP-1559.

Bitcoin: Bitcoin Exchange Reserves Hit Lowest Level in Three Years

According to CryptoQuant data, the total Bitcoin reserves on global exchanges have reached the lowest point in nearly three years. Generally, this reflects a decrease in the supply of Bitcoin available for sale, potentially leading to price growth.

Nasduck Index: 3.25

Project Development 4, Institutional Attitude 3, Regulatory Attitude 2, On-Chain Data 4

Nasduck Index is a long-short indicator we compile weekly based on the news and data aspects of the cryptocurrency market, aiming to provide a simple forecast for the upcoming crypto & DeFi market trends. A score of 1 indicates a bearish trend brewing, while 5 indicates a bullish trend ahead. The Nasduck Index is averaged weekly based on project development, financial institutions' attitudes, regulatory agencies, and on-chain data analysis. (Note: Optimistic news is more prevalent, so the Nasduck Index is more suitable for comparison with the past and future, rather than considering any score above 3 as bullish).

Weekly Memes

i had this meme ready but we were all too euphoric for me to post it

i still think Loot is cool btw but it made me laugh a lot pic.twitter.com/B9iNFYVZFc

— mewny (@mewn21) September 4, 2021