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DeFi Protocol Harvest Finance Takes Full Responsibility of Economic Attack

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Decentralized finance [DeFi] Harvest Finance suffered a $24 million economic attack on October 26. A day later, the platform published its post-mortem report, in which it took full responsibility for the engineering error and ensured that such incidents would be mitigated in the future.

Following the breach, Harvest Finance reportedly withdrew all the funds from the shared pools which included DAI, USDC, USDT, TUSD as well as WBTC and renBTC.  The report further claimed that the funds were currently present in the vaults and cannot suffer from further market manipulation while notifying that the attack did not involve DAI, TUSD, WBTC, and renBTC, and the depositors in these vaults were not affected.

According to Harvest Finance, the share price of the USDC and USDT vault decreased from 0.980007 to 0.834953, and 0.978874 to 0.844812, respectively. Nearly $33.8 million value was lost during the entire episode which corresponded to roughly 3.2% of the total value locked in the protocol at the time before the attack.

As possible remediation techniques, Harvest Finance is planning to implement a commit-and-reveal mechanism for deposits which would remove the ability to perform deposits and withdrawals within a single transaction. This, in turn, would make flash-loan-based attacks infeasible.

The company was also planning to deploy a stricter configuration of the existing deposit arb check in the strategies. Since the current threshold, which was set to 3%, was not sufficient to protect the vault against tye economic attack, Harvest Finance opined that a stricter threshold could make such an attack “economically infeasible”.

Some of the other steps include withdrawals in an underlying asset to prevent the attacking entity from generating a profit and using oracles for determining asset price. Besides, it asserted that additional remediation methods will be analyzed and voted on in governance in the coming days.

The DeFi platform had previously stated that there was a “significant amount of personally identifiable information on the attacker”, and that the attacker was “well-known” in the crypto community. Harvest Finance concluded,

“We made an engineering mistake, we own up to it. Thousands of people are acting as collateral damage, so we humbly request the attacker to return funds to the deployer, where it will be distributed back to the users in its entirety.”

Tron-based Tokens SUN and JUST To Get Listed by Yet Another Platform

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Tron-based tokens have become quite popular over the last few months. Thanks to the ongoing demand for decentralized finance [DeFi], Tron Blockchain has emerged as one of the main contenders in a space dominated primarily by Ethereum.

In the latest news, VirgoX, which happens to be a stablecoin focused digital asset trading platform, has announced its plans to list Tron-based SUN token and JUST [JST] and the initiation of trading with SUN/USDT and JST/USDT soon after.

SUN was essentially designed to further the development of DeFi on Tron’s blockchain. It was described as “the quintessential Bitcoin equivalent on TRON,” by the Tron Foundation. In addition, SUN is a voluntary project that runs on Tron’s TRC-20 token standard with a dedicated community administering operations via smart contracts. SUN also became the first token listed on Binance newly-launched Innovation Zone.

JUST [JST], on the other hand, is Just Platform’s Governance Token which was launched in May this year, during the Poloniex LaunchBase [Token Sale]. It is basically a two token system that aims to create a decentralized financial system that offers stablecoin lending and governance mechanisms for users around the globe. In addition to this, JUST was also listed for trading on the digital asset management platform, Bitrue.

Meanwhile, Coinbase Custody also recently announced that it was exploring to support multiple digital assets
such as Tron [TRX] and five popular TRON based tokens which included BitTorrent [BTT], Just [JST], Just Stablecoin [USDJ], WINK [WIN] and Sun Token [SUN]. Considering the fact that Coinbase Custody is a trusted crypto custodian with its core clients being institutional investors, potential listing development is crucial not only for the Tron ecosystem but also for the price of the individual tokens.

Support on Coinbase Custody could eventually open doors for Tron [TRX] and other Tron-based tokens being listed on the leading exchange, Coinbase.

Filecoin Miners Goes on a Strike to Protest Against Unfair Economic Model

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Miners complained about Filecoin’s mining economic model even before the mainnet was launched. Despite the fact that the normal functioning of the network hasn’t affected, the existing economic model for the miners have triggered a dispute in the Filecoin community.

According to the latest reports, five prominent miners have switched off their machines to protest the project’s economic model which they claim to be “unfair” since it requires a massive amount of FIL tokens to start mining operations.

Conflicting Economic Model

Filecoin network was essentially built to be a next-generation marketplace for the purpose of data storage and retrieval, a space that has been mostly dominated by industry behemoths such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. An edge that Filecoin has, in this case, is that it provides its users with data storage and transmission services in a decentralized mechanism through various servers offered by its miners with commodity hardware.

Here’s the catch. Filecoin miners need to stake a large amount of its native FIL tokens as ‘Initial Pledge Collateral to initiate their mining operations. Despite the fact that the platform utilizes the collateral as leverage, as it turns out the miners do not have the required tokens in the first place.

And none of the other ways to get more FIL tokens are viable. On a similar note, Julien Bouteloup, the Founder of the DeFi investment firm Stake Capital, said it appears impossible for the Filecoin miners to economically participate in the ecosystem at the current valuation.

Nico Deva, a Twitter user, claimed,

“Miners provided huge support to the Filecoin team during the dev years, and now are rekt. The much anticipated Filecoin launch has turned to a shit show and disappointment. Mood is gloomy around here.”

FIL’s Price Fluctuation

FIL token had a tough rise as well. The coin jumped to saw an increase if over 250% even before the mainnet went live. This could be attributed to the leading cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, Gemini among others flocking in to list the token of the popular platform.

However, shortly after the launch, FIL fell from more than $110 to the press time price of $32.27 slashing over 70% in a span of just three days.

Uniswap Witnesses Staggering 4,700% Growth in Q3 2020

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DeFi is the deal

Q3 2020 has been the best quarter of decentralized finance [DeFi]. Although this space is not a 2020 invention, its popularity reaching the peak was primarily catalyzed by the significant growth was the yield farming trend. This quadrant not only underscored Ethereum’s role as the underlying technology but also paved the way for its competitors, such as  TRON and EOS.

Out of all the DeFi platforms on Ethereum, it was undoubtedly Uniswap that saw the most impressive quarter among the top five. According to the crypto-analytic platform ‘The TIE’, Uniswap started the quarter ranking 5th in the DeFi ladder with just $45 million TVL. At the end of the third quarter, it was positioned in the 1st place at $2.1 billion, an increase of 4,700%. Furthermore, in September, Uniswap became the 4th largest crypto exchange by monthly volume.

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More broadly, in the third quarter, the TVL has skyrocketed from just $2 billion to $11 billion, noting an appreciation of more than 453%. And it’s up 1,560% year-to-date.

Assets and decentralized exchanges [DEX] saw the biggest growth. Both the sectors were up more than 1500% in TVL. In addition, all four main sectors, such as lending, DEX, assets, and derivatives, increased by triple-digit percentages. Leading the charts was the ‘lending’ market standing at a TVL of a whopping $4.5 billion while derivatives had the smallest increase in Q3.

TheTie

Closely mimicking Ethereum’s price action, several DeFi tokens grew significantly. What further catalyzed the traction was the listing announcements of the tokens by popular cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, OKEx among others. DeFi tokens tanked shortly after the crypto market underwent several corrections.

But despite this, the returns were positive. Along the same line, The Tie mentioned,

“Returns were positive for 13 out of the top 20 DeFi tokens. The median DeFi asset is up more than 32% in Q3, while YFI saw astronomical returns of over 2,000%! The total DeFi market capitalization sits at $9.3 billion and represents 2.75% of the total cryptocurrency market cap.”

 

Tether Dips by 80% Despite Stablecoins Supply Hitting $20B as USDC Bolsters

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While the cryptocurrency market was on a rollercoaster ride this year, it was the stablecoins that witnessed exponential growth. The market has recently touched the coveted $20 billion mark with respect to the total volume of stablecoins in circulation. Tether [USDT] continued to dominate the charts despite a minor slip and still had a large fraction of supply share, while other stablecoins were starting to make up the ground.CM

This was revealed by the latest edition of Coin Metrics’ State of Network report which further noted that it was the growth of the second-largest stablecoin USDC growth that has been outpacing Tether causing its fall below 80%, a level unseen in the modern era of stablecoins.

Despite the fact that the values of all other stablecoins combined pales in comparison to the supply of USDT, which currently stood at $15.46  the growth of the contenders market cannot be ignored.

skew stable coins market cap bln e1601452550277

USDC Sets out to Eclipse USDT

The Coinbase-backed stablecoin has recorded massive gains this year. The total supply has topped $2.53 billion and is showing no signs of slowing down. USDC is essentially a centralized dollar-pegged stablecoin which is issued by the Centre Consortium, a collaboration between crypto exchange Coinbase and payment service firm Circle.

The growth was potentially triggered due to the recent explosion in DeFi’s yield farming popularity, in which the liquidity providers are incentivized for staking stablecoins and other digital assets in decentralized protocols for the use of financial activities such as loan issuance, etc.

USDC always had an edge over other stableccoins since it was the first Ethereum-based stablecoin that was launched after Tether in 2018. Furthermore, USDC already issued a supply of over $400 million before its rivals such as Huobi’s HUSD and Binance’s BUSD which were released a year later.

What further spurred the growth was the release of USDC version 2.0 in August this year which added additional security infrastructure to the USDC smart contract. With the association of industry giant such Coinbase, the stablecoin has become increasingly popular among the newcomers as well as experienced traders of the platform. And hence, USDC has managed to establish itself as a go-to asset in the DeFi sector, a major onramp within the ecosystem.

Visa Sheds Light On Its Exit From The Libra Project

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The crypto-verse is luring in several mainstream platforms into exploring the prospects of cryptocurrencies. After payments giant, PayPal expressed its interest in crypto, another popular financial service company, Visa seems to have jumped the bandwagon.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Cuy Sheffield, the senior director, head pf crypto at Visa along with Terry Angelos, SVP global head of fintech at Visa addressed several elements and elaborated on the incorporation of crypto in Visa. Sheffield pointed out that, Visa was working on both the product as well as the research side of digital currency. Despite, this the platform is reportedly yet to discuss new strategies.

Back in February 2020, San-Fransico’s prominent cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase revealed its association with Visa by unveiling the Coinbase Card. This card is a Visa debit card that permitted users to withdraw their cryptocurrencies. The entire partnership put both the parties under the crypto spotlight as it was the first of its kind.  Revealing that Visa had onboarded about 25 companies, Angelos added,

“We are seeing significant interest in demand from crypto companies that want to work with Visa and connect their clients to our network of 60-plus million merchants.”

Visa To Work On CBDC?

Central Bank Digital Currencies have drawn the attention of several governments across the world. China’s advancement in the same has turned several heads. Speaking about the integration of CBDCs into the economy, Sheffield pointed out that Visa’s relationship with central banks is not news. Visa has been working with several central banks across the globe and discussions about CBDCs has reportedly gained more traction. While several continue to diss stablecoins formulated by private companies, Sheffield believes that CBDCs would have to deal with similar prospects.

Stressing on the process of including CBDCs into the global economy, he added,

“[…]We think there’s a big opportunity for Visa to leverage our existing network and assets and expertise to add value to both central banks as they think about CBDCs, as well as to other private sector entities that are exploring these privately issued stable coins.”

Exiting The Libra Project

Facebook’s crypto venture, Libra had stirred the entire globe. As the regulatory pressure around the project surged, several members of the project walked out of the door. Shedding some light on the same, Sheffield put forth a conjecture that the payments platform was keen on aiding digital asset projects that the “diverse set of clients demand.” The focus was more on delivering a service that worked with a wide variety of digital currencies and networks, he added.

Furthermore, Angelos said,

“If we join a consortium, it’ll be because we want to influence and help some of those principles that we believe in be executed.”

DeFi Project Yearn.Finance’s Founder Wants to be Uniswap Protocol’s Delegate

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Uniswap has been making quite a buzz in the DeFi space. The popular lending protocol recently announced the launch of its highly anticipated UNI governance token on Ethereum mainnet, which has already had a massive impact with the token’s price skyrocketing followed by several centralized cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase Pro opening trades for it.

This Ethereum-based protocol’s popularity has caused even its contemporaries to jump into the UNI bandwagon. Uniswap had earlier noted that it wants a “diverse and high-quality set of protocol delegates”, for the purpose of discussions and communications around potential governance proposals. In this regard, another decentralized platform, Yearn Finance’s Founder Andre Cronje expressed his intention of becoming a delegate on Uniswap with hopes of influencing its governance.

https://twitter.com/AndreCronjeTech/status/1307236337276407808

In a recent tweet, Cronje stated,

“At this point, I do not think it should be a rush to incentivize liquidity pools (this can be abused). I believe we have an opportunity to re-evaluate the tokenomics and distribution. We can help DAI or sUSD reach peg. We can provide support for further development.”

When asked if he would want to push for the YFI-ETH pool to be included for the protocol’s LP reward, the developer revealed,

“At this time, no, it would attract YFI holders to provide liquidity instead of using it for its intended purpose (such as governance). I believe there is better value add that can be done for the overall ecosystem by utilizing UNI incentives in other proposals.”

According to the protocol governance structure, Uniswap team members will not participate directly in governance for the foreseeable future, but the members could, in fact, delegate votes to protocol delegates. Additioanlly, all UNI holders will have ownership of the entire governance process.

Besides, Cronje’s tweet for delegation comes days after the developer questioned whether the “unexpected” launch of UNI on the ETH mainnet was in response to the Sushiswap clash and criticized the network for letting the latter influence its announcement date.

https://twitter.com/AndreCronjeTech/status/1306448297285087232

Payments Giant PayPal Probes Incorporation Of Crypto Into The Fold

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Several mainstream companies have been looking at the prospects of cryptocurrencies and have been venturing into the industry. While the social media giant, Facebook’s Libra project has been a great example of the same, several other platforms have been making use of the existing currencies. PayPal is reportedly the latest company to delve into the acceptance of crypto.

PayPal Steers Towards Crypto

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Sandi Bragar, the Managing Director at Aspiriant hinted that online payments company, PayPal was working on incorporating crypto into their platform. The COVID-19 pandemic has put the entire globe in shackles, however, the virus hasn’t restrained individuals from engaging in activities pertaining to e-commerce. Bragar pointed out that this cycle would prolong even after the pandemic and PayPal has been evidently been at the forefront of e-commerce and digital payments.

Revealing details regarding PayPal and its interest in crypto, Bragar further added,

“We also like that PayPal is working with merchants to bring crypto into the fold, and we think that’s gonna be really important as cryptocurrencies become more mainstream in the years ahead.”

While Bragar did not provide any further details about PayPal working with its merchants to incorporate crypto, the payments platform isn’t a new name to the crypto-verse. PayPal made news back in June, as rumors pertaining to the platform launching a crypto-centric trading service surfaced the internet. However, a recent letter that the company presented before the European Commission highlighted that PayPal intends to carry forward its presence in the crypto-verse by aiding regulations. The letter further read,

“Of particular interest for us is how these technologies and crypto-assets can be utilized to
achieve greater financial inclusion and help reduce/eliminate some of the pain points that exist today in financial services.”

PayPal has already established its support for the crypto-verse as it provides payment services to cryptocurrency exchanges like Local Bitcoins, Coinbase as well as Paxful.

Additionally, PayPal’s latest move could prove beneficial to the crypto industry as the company hoards a user base of 325 million.

Bitcoin, Tron, DASH Technical Analysis on 18th September 2020

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The cryptocurrency market as a whole was a little bit erratic at the moment. With major altcoins displaying different trends, there was a sense of uncertainty in the charts. Bitcoin, Tron, and Dash followed separate market trends over the last day as the threat of another bearish pullback loomed large in the industry.

Bitcoin hourly chart

bitcoin hourly chart

While all the other assets underwent a drop in the past week, the king coin managed to keep its price position at the top of its recovery. However, the current position of Bitcoin feels very temporary at the moment. All the market indicators are hinting towards a correction at press time. Bitcoin‘s rising price has been coupled with the Relative Strength Index consistently declining.

It is a clear sign of a bearish diversion in the charts which will pan out towards a pullback. At the moment, Bitcoin was getting the support of the 50-day Moving Average but the Awesome Oscillator suggested that diminishing bullish momentum in the charts.

Bitcoin had a market cap of $202 billion at press time with a trading volume of $28 billion in the last 24-hours. With a minor growth of 0.43%, Bitcoin was valued at $10,958.

Tron hourly chart

tron technical analysis

With Tron, the past-day was relatively positive. A growth of 9.54% was exhibited, outperforming top assets in the 24-hour window. The asset also managed to sustain a position above the 50-Day Moving Average, which a positive sign in the short term. At the moment, Tron was ranked 15th in the charts with a market cap of $2.08 billion. Tron registered a high trading volume of $3.20 billion, indicating activeness in the ecosystem.

According to Chaikin Money Flow or CMF, the capital coming in Tron was more than the capital going out, as interest from traders showed promise. Bollinger Bands appeared to resemble a parallel flow, which might suggest that the volatility will remain stagnant over the next few hours.

Dash hourly chart

dash technical analysis

Lastly, Dash‘s price movement suggested extreme sideways movement over the past few days but the bearish undertone was evident. With a minor growth of 0.05% in the charts, Cardano exhibited a market cap of $707 million, coupled with a formidable trading volume of $591 million. At press time, Cardano was ranked 31st in the list of digital assets.

For Dash, the trend was slowly inclining towards a bearish nature, as the MACD line suggested a crossover with the signal line. According to Parabolic SAR, the trend indicated an increase of selling pressure as the dotted lines hovered over the candlesticks. The convergence of Bollinger Bands also suggested the fall in volatility, eliminating the chance of outburst towards the top.

Algorand Becomes Official Chain For USDC After Stablecoin’s Launch On Mainnet

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Goldman Sachs-backed global fintech firm Circle announced the launch of its stablecoin USDC on Algorand’s mainnet. In collaboration with the Centre Consortium, the platform announced that Algorand is now an official blockchain for USDC.

Following this development, Algorand becomes the second major blockchain to have the two most popular stablecoins- Tether [USDT] and Circle’s USD-pegged stablecoin USD Coin [USDC] after Ethereum.

According to the official blog post, the Algorand implementation of USDC will allow on-chain transactions that provide nearly instant settlement finality [5 seconds], with a transaction throughput approaching 1000 tps and current average transaction fees of nearly 1/20th of a cent [USD]. Using public APIs, developers can also swap USDC across Ethereum and Algorand.

Commenting on the new launch, cryptography pioneer and Turing award winner Silvio Micali, Founder of Algorand, Inc stated,

“This is a defining milestone for frictionless mainstream payments as well as sophisticated financial applications. This launch brings together the convenience of USDC and an advanced protocol for global financial exchange in which Layer-1 smart contracts are as simple and secure as ordinary payments.”

Previously in June this year, Circle had partnered with the not-for-profit organization, Algorand Foundation to bring fiat-backed stablecoin capability to the Algorand blockchain, as part of the broader effort from Centre Consortium for the development of Multichain USDC.

skew main usdbacked stable coin contenders market cap usd

Besides, over the past year, USDC has grown significantly making it one of the largest stablecoins in the world. Its market cap stood at $1.83 at the time of writing. Having the two most popular stablecoins is likely to attract more high-value stablecoins on Algorand. Additionally, this launch also opens doors for the foundation to get a boost from Circle’s extensive list of investors with industry giants, such as Bitmain, and Goldman Sachs.

While stating that the launch represents a significant improvement to the stablecoin’s scalability, improving its utility and making it a significantly more useful protocol for solving real-world financial problems, Alesia Haas, Chief Financial Officer at Coinbase also added,

“Expanding USDC from Ethereum to additional blockchains like Algorand will ensure USDC has the flexibility to support everything from emerging DeFi projects to large-scale financial institutions.”