DeFi | Crypto

Lighter’s LIT token launch sparked debate over insider ownership, while prediction markets and whale trades revealed divided expectations regarding valuation. Lighter, one of the fastest-growing perpetual decentralized exchanges (DEXs), drew mixed reactions in the decentralized finance (DeFi) community after unveiling the tokenomics of its new Lighter Infrastructure Token (LIT). Under its structure, 50% of LIT’s supply is reserved for the ecosystem, while the remaining 50% is allocated to the team and investors, with a one-year cliff and a multi-year vesting schedule. As part of the rollout, Lighter said it had already distributed 25% of LIT’s total supply through an airdrop tied to its first two points seasons, which ran throughout 2025. Read more

RWA protocols have overtaken decentralized exchanges by total value locked, as tokenized Treasurys, private credit and commodities become core onchain building blocks. Real-world asset (RWA) protocols are one of decentralized finance’s (DeFi’s) winners in 2025, overtaking decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to become the fifth-largest category by total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama.  RWAs now account for about $17 billion in TVL, up from $12 billion in Q4 2024, highlighting how quickly tokenized Treasurys, private credit and other real-world claims have moved from niche experiments to core DeFi plumbing. As DefiLlama noted, “At the start of this year, they weren’t even in the top 10 categories.”  Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, told Cointelegraph that RWA growth is being driven by “balance-sheet incentives rather than experimentation,” with higher-for-longer rates making tokenized Treasurys and private credit attractive as onchain, yield-bearing assets, amid improving regulat...

David Sacks announced on Dec. 18 that Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott and Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman confirmed a January 2026 markup for the CLARITY Act. “We look forward to finishing the job in January!” The problem: a January markup isn't finishing anything. It's the opening move in a multi-year pipeline where the most […] The post CLARITY Act explicitly leaves DeFi rules blank, risking a total retail protection collapse if negotiations fail appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Maple Finance CEO says institutions will stop distinguishing between DeFi and TradFi as private credit moves onchain, and stablecoins process $50 trillion in payments.

Arthur Hayes rotates over $3M from Ethereum into DeFi tokens as ETH consolidates, signaling a liquidity-driven shift toward yield-focused crypto opportunities. The post Ethereum Price Prediction: Hayes Moves $3M as ETH Loses Momentum to DeFi appeared first on Cryptonews.

Securitize plans to launch compliant, natively tokenized stocks in early 2026, enabling real equity ownership to trade 24/7 fully onchain. Securitize, a company focused on tokenizing securities, said Tuesday it plans to launch what it calls the first compliant, onchain trading experience for public stocks that are issued as tokens representing real share ownership. According to the announcement, Securitize’s stock product is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2026. The company said the offering is designed to avoid structures that mirror stock prices without conveying ownership, and instead, the tokens “are real, regulated shares: issued onchain, recorded directly on the issuer’s cap table.” It also said trading will be presented in a “swap-style” interface familiar to users of decentralized finance (DeFi). Read more

As crypto platforms explore prediction market integrations, retention data highlights why sustaining user engagement remains one of the industry’s most challenging tasks. While attracting new users may not be a core challenge for crypto, keeping them active beyond the first month is far more difficult, and data from prediction markets is spotlighting the issue.  Polymarket retention data, compiled by analytics company Dune and market maker Keyrock, tracked monthly cohorts of new active users and measured the number of users who returned to trade in subsequent months.  According to the report, which sampled 275 crypto projects spanning networks, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, wallets and trading apps, Polymarket’s average retention outperformed over 85% of protocols.  Read more

For two years, decentralized finance operated on the concept that purely crypto-native assets could serve as the monetary base for a parallel financial system. Ethereum staked through Lido anchored billions in DeFi loans, wrapped Bitcoin backed perpetual swaps, and algorithmic stablecoins recycled protocol emissions into synthetic dollars. The entire edifice assumed crypto could bootstrap its […] The post How tokenized US Treasuries are replacing DeFi’s foundation appeared first on CryptoSlate.

With the US Senate set to break for the holidays, Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Justice and Treasury Department officials to disclose any potential investigations into the DeFi platform. US Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the more outspoken voices against digital assets in Congress, is calling for answers from Justice Department and Treasury Department officials about a potential investigation into decentralized crypto exchanges, citing concerns over PancakeSwap and Uniswap.  In a Monday letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Warren asked whether their respective departments were “investigating significant national security risks posed by decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges like PancakeSwap.” The Massachusetts senator raised concerns about “improper political influence” from the Trump administration over the selective enforcement of crypto companies and reports of money laundering tied to North Korea, asking for a response by Jan. 12. Read more

The UK's FCA launched three consultations on new crypto market rules covering exchanges, staking, lending and DeFi, with feedback due Feb. 12, 2026. The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched a series of consultations on proposed rules for digital asset markets, marking the next phase in the government’s effort to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets. The proposals, published across three consultation papers, cover crypto trading platforms, intermediaries, staking, lending and borrowing, market abuse, disclosures and decentralized finance (DeFi). The FCA said consultation responses will be open until Feb. 12, 2026. The regulator said the proposals aim to support innovation while ensuring that consumers understand the risks associated with crypto investment. It added that regulations should not eliminate risks entirely, but should ensure that participants operate responsibly and transparently.  Read more

The DeFi Education Fund has led a rebuttal to Citadel Securities’ call for the SEC to bring DeFi platforms under securities laws if dealing in tokenized stocks. A group of crypto organizations has pushed back on Citadel Securities’ request that the Securities and Exchange Commission tighten regulations on decentralized finance when it comes to tokenized stocks. Andreessen Horowitz, the Uniswap Foundation, along with crypto lobby groups the DeFi Education Fund and The Digital Chamber, among others, said they wanted “to correct several factual mischaracterizations and misleading statements” in a letter to the SEC on Friday. The group was responding to a letter from Citadel earlier this month, which urged the SEC not to give DeFi platforms “broad exemptive relief” for offering trading of tokenized US equities, arguing they could likely be defined as an “exchange” or “broker-dealer” regulated under securities laws. Read more

Coinbase has plugged directly into Solana’s fast-growing DeFi ecosystem, letting users trade any Solana token via DEX rails without a formal listing. Coinbase is moving deeper into the Solana ecosystem, letting users trade native Solana tokens through a decentralized exchange integration rather than traditional listings. Andrew Allen, Coinbase protocol specialist, said in an X post that Coinbase now allows its users to trade all Solana (SOL) tokens through a decentralized exchange (DEX) integration, “without listings,” he noted, adding that “very soon you will be able to open the Coinbase app and see native Solana assets on Coinbase.” “For issuers and builders, if your token has sufficient liquidity, this means you can be accessible to the millions of users on Coinbase without getting listed,” Allen said. Read more

The proposal, with input from major industry players, aims to bring tax rules in line with how DeFi works, reducing outcomes that don't reflect reality.

Despite a sharp $55 billion decline in total value locked since October, the DeFi sector remains structurally strong, with rising DEX activity and steadily growing protocol fundamentals.

Federal Decree Law No. 6 expands the UAE central bank’s authority over DeFi, ending the “just code” defense and imposing penalties of up to $272 million. A new financial law in the United Arab Emirates is set to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) and the broader Web3 industry under regulatory parameters, signaling an important shift for the industry. The UAE’s new central bank law, Federal Decree Law No. 6 of 2025, introduces “one of the most consequential regulatory shifts” for the crypto industry in the region, Irina Heaver, a local crypto lawyer and founder of NeosLegal, told Cointelegraph. “It brings protocols, DeFi platforms, middleware, and even infrastructure providers into scope if they enable activities such as payments, exchange, lending, custody, or investment services,” Heaver said. Read more

Tokenizing stocks and physical assets could let investors self-custody, borrow in DeFi, and easily transfer ownership, says Superstate CEO.

Superstate founder and CEO Robert Leshner (@rleshner) said tokenization will hit velocity when end users start to get excited about applications, like borrowing cash against stock to help fund a vehicle purchase. But we're not there yet, he said 00:00 - An Intro to Robert & his story in DeFi 02:05 - Tokenisation now vs it’s ideal state 07:40 - Has the stablecoin explosion impacted other RWA’s moving on-chain? 11:25 - Robert’s Tokenisation “Wish List” 15:35 - What problems were you hearing from issuers? 22:46 - Where do you expect you toughest competition to come from? 24:22 - Predictions for the end of the year?

Superstate founder and CEO Robert Leshner (@rleshner) said tokenization will hit velocity when end users start to get excited about applications, like borrowing cash against stock to help fund a vehicle purchase. But we're not there yet, he said 00:00 - An Intro to Robert & his story in DeFi 02:05 - Tokenisation now vs it’s ideal state 07:40 - Has the stablecoin explosion impacted other RWA’s moving on-chain? 11:25 - Robert’s Tokenisation “Wish List” 15:35 - What problems were you hearing from issuers? 22:46 - Where do you expect you toughest competition to come from? 24:22 - Predictions for the end of the year?

The DeFi Education Fund estimated that decentralized finance technology could potentially save people up to $30 billion annually by reducing remittance costs. The DeFi Education Fund, an advocacy organization focused on decentralized finance, has proposed utilizing the technology to reduce costs, aiming to address poverty in the United States and globally. In a Wednesday blog post, the group said DeFi infrastructure could potentially save unbanked and underbanked people around the world about $30 billion annually through reducing remittance costs. The organization cited examples of workers sending funds home and paying fees to do so, which could be reduced “by up to 80%” with DeFi. “The poverty premium [the expenses incurred by low-income households that wealthier individuals are often able to access at a lower cost] persists because the current, layered, antiquated financial infrastructure makes it expensive to serve low-income customers profitably,” said the DeFi Education Fund, adding: Read more

For more than a decade, the DeFi sector has operated on a fractured promise. The theoretical pitch of a fairer, more accessible global financial system has consistently crashed against the rocks of practical reality. In practice, DeFi has delivered a user experience defined by hostility of confusing interfaces, punitive gas fees, risky workflows, and the […] The post Aave launches first DeFi app that feels like a real bank — and it might finally bring crypto to everyone appeared first on CryptoSlate.