Decentralised Finance News | Blockchain DeFi News

A16z State of Crypto: “It is still early days for web3”

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a prominent venture capital firm investing heavily in the web3 sector, has published its first “State of Crypto” report exploring current trends in the market.

The overarching takeaway from the report is that web3 and the crypto market develop in cycles.

As prices climb, interest in the sector grows to the point where it can no longer be sustained. Following a (usually steep) falloff in prices, innovators develop new projects that revive...

18 May 2022 | Blockchain Applications

Tether depegs from $1 mark following TerraUSD and LUNA collapse

It has been a rough week for crypto, but an even rougher week for stablecoins.

Tether (USDT), the stablecoin mainstay of the crypto space, snapped as low as $0.95 in the early hours of May 12 amidst wider market fears surrounding TerraUSD (UST).

Earlier in the week, UST depegged from its intended $1 mark, falling as low as $0.29. In a desperate bid to restore UST’s price, Terraform Labs have been printing and selling millions of its stabilising token, LUNA, causing it...

12 May 2022 | Bitcoin

Terra network suffers massive losses as UST falls below dollar peg

Whilst the whole cryptocurrency sector is tanking to lows not seen since last summer, few coins are having a worse time than TerraUSD (UST), the largest algorithmic stablecoin on the market.

UST, which is supposed to always be worth $1, briefly fell to $0.98 on May 7 following a number of major withdrawals from decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols on the Terra network.

The situation worsened on May 9 when UST’s price plummeted to $0.68 amidst a wider market selloff...

10 May 2022 | Cryptocurrency

Cronos partners with Chainalysis for security and compliance support

Cronos, the native token of Crypto.com’s ecosystem, has partnered with leading blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to bring security and data services to its token.

Previously known as Crypto.com Coin, Cronos (CRO) runs on the first Ethereum-compatible blockchain network to use Cosmos SDK technology. It fluctuates towards the end of the top twenty cryptocurrencies in terms of its market capitalisation.

The partnership has already added Chainalysis KYT (Know Your...

19 April 2022 | Altcoins

Circle bags £300m from BlackRock to compete with top stablecoin Tether

Web3 finance firm Circle has agreed to a $400 million (£307m) funding round as part of a broad strategic partnership with BlackRock.

As the issuer of stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), Circle is responsible for the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap alongside a host of decentralised finance (DeFi) tools.

The funding round is expected to close in the second quarter with other investors including Marshall Wace LLP and Fin Capital.

In addition to the capital...

13 April 2022 | Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

Terra buys another 4,550 Bitcoin worth over $206M

Blockchain project Terra continues to amass Bitcoin by taking another 4,550 off the market, worth over $206 million.

Terra has been following a number of companies – including MicroStrategy, Tesla, Square, and others – in adding Bitcoin to its reserves.

Do Kwon, CEO of Terraform Labs, has said his ultimate aim is to have Terra’s reserves of Bitcoin rival that of Satoshi Nakomoto...

6 April 2022 | Altcoins

Axie Infinity network loses £468m in largest ever DeFi hack

Axie Infinity, one of the biggest success stories in the world of blockchain-based gaming, has become the victim of the largest decentralised finance (DeFi) hack in history.

The Pokémon-style NFT battler saw $615 million (£468m) stolen from its Ronin Network – the Ethereum sidechain created to run the game’s transactions – on March 23.

It took a user being unable to withdraw 5,000 ether (£12m) on March 29 for Ronin to realise that 173,600 ether (£448m) and 25.5...

30 March 2022 | Cyber Security

ConsenSys to hire 600 employees after £344m Series D doubles valuation

Ethereum software leader ConsenSys has doubled its valuation in less than four months following a $450 million (£344m) Series D round of funding.

Known for products such as MetaMask, CodeFi, and Infura, the New York-based start-up is charting an astronomical takeover of the Web3 ecosystem.

Back in January, MetaMask, a token wallet and exchange offered as a browser extension or mobile app, surpassed 30 million monthly users. Meanwhile, its Ethereum development platform,...

16 March 2022 | Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

LUNA flips Ethereum for staked value after bullish recovery

Terra’s native token, LUNA, has flipped Ethereum to become the second-largest blockchain network in terms of staked value.

LUNA captures value for Terra’s stablecoin, UST, which functions as part of a network of decentralised finance protocols.

The coin has increased in value ten-fold over the past year as the popularity of the Terra network continues to grow, holding the position of seventh largest crypto by market cap as of March 7.

With 226,408 stakers...

7 March 2022 | Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

Slope Finance rakes in £6m Series A for cross-chain Solana wallet

Slope Finance, a decentralised exchange and wallet based on the Solana network, has raised $8 million (£6m) in Series A funding.

The round was led by Solana Ventures and Jump Crypto, with further support from Circle, Huobi, Sequoia China, Genesis Trading, CMS Holdings, Spark Digital, and more.

Following on from a successful seed round in August last year, the start-up has raised $10.3 million (£7.8m) overall.

With cross-platform functionality, the wallet...