DeFi | Crypto

The two entities requested that the financial regulator provide a "safe harbor" for certain applications under the SEC's broker-dealer registration requirements. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and the advocacy organization DeFi Education Fund have asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to set up a safe harbor program for non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications from the agency’s broker-dealer registration requirements. In a Wednesday letter to SEC Commissioner and Crypto Task Force head Hester Peirce, a16z and the DeFi group said they were following up on US President Donald Trump’s Working Group on Digital Assets call to “provide relief for certain DeFi service providers from the broker-dealer [...], exchange [...], and clearing agency [...] registration provisions of the Exchange Act.” In July, SEC Chair Paul Atkins also said he had directed the agency’s staff to “update antiquated agency rules and regulations” concerning certain crypto and blockchain applications.  ...

Coinbase has revived its fund to boost USDC liquidity in DeFi, starting with supporting the stablecoin on Aave, Morpho, Kamino, and Jupiter. Coinbase is relaunching its Stablecoin Bootstrap Fund first introduced in 2019 to boost the liquidity of the stablecoin USDC in a range of popular and emerging decentralized finance protocols. Coinbase said on Tuesday its first placements will provide USDC (USDC) liquidity into Ethereum-based lenders Aave and Morpho, and Solana-based trading platforms Kamino and Jupiter. “As we scale the fund over time and distribute liquidity across more protocols and stablecoins, we’re particularly eager to collaborate with pre-launch teams or those seeking to drive stablecoin growth from day one,” it added. Read more

Coinbase launched a second Stablecoin Bootstrap Fund to provide additional liquidity for the DeFi ecosystem via USDC. According to an Aug. 12 announcement, the initiative will target protocols across multiple blockchains, starting with Aave, Morpho, Kamino, and Jupiter. Coinbase also invited protocols seeking liquidity to reach out to the exchange.  The fund represents Coinbase’s renewed commitment […] The post Coinbase facilitates DeFi funding via USDC amid $40.7B active loan record appeared first on CryptoSlate.

S&P Global’s credit rating of Sky Protocol reflects key concerns over governance centralization, weak capitalization and regulatory uncertainty. S&P Global Ratings assigned a “B-” issuer credit rating to Sky Protocol, formerly known as Maker Protocol, marking the first time a major agency has issued a rating for a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform. The rating is part of S&P’s ongoing assessment of stablecoin issuers, which began in 2023 to evaluate their ability to maintain a stable value relative to fiat currencies. The review covers the creditworthiness of Sky’s liabilities, the USDS (USDS) and DAI (DAI) stablecoins and the sUSDS and sDAI savings tokens.  Sky Protocol, evaluated for the first time, received a 4, labeled “constrained,” for the ability of USDS to maintain its peg to the US dollar. The scale runs from 1 for very strong to 5 for weak. Read more

NFT DApps drew slightly more active users than DeFi in July, even as DeFi liquidity hit a record $270B. Locked liquidity on decentralized finance (DeFi) applications reached a record $270 billion in July, partly driven by tokenized stocks growth.  DappRadar’s data shows the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols jumped 30% month-over-month, while active wallets for tokenized stocks soared from roughly 1,600 to more than 90,000, pushing their market cap up 220%. Meanwhile, NFT trading volumes jumped 96% to $530 million during the month. The average NFT price also doubled to around $105 as more users engaged with the market. Read more

The NFT market saw a remarkable resurgence in July, outpacing DeFi in terms of user activity, according to an Aug. 7 DappRadar report. The shift marks a significant milestone and could indicate that NFTs are once again capturing the public’s attention following significant lull that has lasted since their fall in the 2022 bear market. […] The post NFTs stage comeback with $530M in July trades, flipping DeFi user activity appeared first on CryptoSlate.

DeFi promised to rebuild the financial system from the ground up. Moving from early experiments to everyday utility demands an upgrade. Opinion by: Vikram Arun, co-founder and CEO of Superform DeFi already moves billions of dollars daily, lets anyone create new assets in minutes and rewards users with yields that banks can’t match. Using one app to find opportunities, another to bridge, a third to swap, a fourth to deposit and yet another to track your position — all while juggling wallets, chains and gas settings — doesn’t feel like a financial revolution. It’s more like a flight simulator where most pilots crash on the runway. That complexity must disappear if crypto upgrades global finance and surpasses the earliest risk-takers. But the answer isn’t just another protocol. It’s a re-architecture of how DeFi is built and used. One that pairs ownerless, composable infrastructure with productized, intuitive interfaces. Read more

DeFi’s future depends on embracing institutional investors, whose capital, credibility and demand for stability are shifting DeFi from a speculative playground into a mature, trusted financial ecosystem. Opinion by: Kevin Rusher, founder of RAAC Crypto is a movement born from a cultural rejection of traditional finance, driven by the belief that transparency, decentralization and code can build a better financial system than the one that led to the 2008 financial crisis. Indeed, for many, the creation of Bitcoin was a rebellion against the traditional financial gatekeepers that siphoned all value out of the market. That foundational spirit still matters for crypto, but the landscape has changed drastically after 15 years. Today, BlackRock is the second-largest holder of Bitcoin (BTC), beaten only by its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. At the same time, almost every major traditional asset manager has some interest in the industry through BTC, Ether (ETH) and real-world assets (RWAs) like tokenized private credit a...

Between July 21 and 25, the total stablecoin market cap increased by $4.505 billion to reach $265.22 billion, a 1.73% expansion. Over the same timeframe, total value locked (TVL) in DeFi dropped from $140.804 billion to $135.934 billion, a 3.46% drawdown. While the rise in stablecoin supply could be interpreted as a sign of incoming […] The post Capital shifts to stablecoins as DeFi protocols bleed TVL appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Solana-based tokenized stocks surpassed $100 million in market capitalization less than one month since their official launch on June 30. According to rwa.xyz data, the tokenized stock market on Solana is valued at nearly $102 million as of July 22, representing a 242% increase from its $29.8 million size at the debut date. This market […] The post Solana’s tokenized stocks surpass $100M in less than a month, yet DeFi use still lags appeared first on CryptoSlate.

1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz told Cointelegraph that DeFi’s user experience, wider collateral range and optimized fees give it an edge over TradFi in the lending race. As traditional finance (TradFi) eyes the crypto lending market, community members explained how decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocols can compete with what mainstream financial institutions bring to the table.  On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, was reported to be exploring lending directly against crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), according to the Financial Times. An unidentified source said the bank may launch the offering as soon as 2026, though the plan is still in its early stages. With a major TradFi player eyeing the crypto lending market, the pressure on DeFi lenders to remain competitive is increasing. However, 1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz told Cointelegraph that crypto lending in DeFi has undeniable advantages over traditional finance institutions.  Read more

LINK price is on the verge of confirming a historically bullish pattern, which could send the altcoin’s price above $18. Key point: Convergence of TradFi and DeFi could propel LINK past $18 and start a new uptrend. At the RWA Summit Cannes, Nelli Zaltsman, JPMorgan Kinexys’ head of blockchain payments innovation, said that decentralized finance and traditional finance are converging rapidly. The banking giant, Chainlink (LINK), and Ondo Finance (ONDO) recently completed a crosschain Delivery versus Payment (DvP) test transaction, involving a permissioned payment network and a public testnet. Read more

Programmable regulation could be the solution to legacy regulatory frameworks struggling to keep pace with DeFi’s rapidly evolving ecosystems. Embedding compliance in code can bring legal clarity, reduce risk and foster innovation in DeFi. Opinion by: Raks Sondhi, chief operating officer of Freedx Governing composable, borderless and programmable ecosystems with rules made for simple, static financial systems presents a fundamental challenge. In the past year alone, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms held over $60 billion worth of crypto assets locked in their protocols. Yet most jurisdictions still lack a clear definition of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). This confusion is slowing innovation and undermining the credibility of regulatory institutions. Read more

The following is a guest post and opinion from Michael Egorov, Founder of Curve Finance. As DeFi edges closer to mainstream finance, it must balance neutrality, security, and throughput. In 2025, that balance is increasingly defined by two competing architectural visions. The evolution of DeFi has always hinged on one core question: what kind of […] The post Ethereum vs. Solana in 2025: Why decentralization may surpass speed in DeFi’s next chapter appeared first on CryptoSlate.

DV8 Public Company Limited, a publicly listed firm in Thailand looking to reinvent itself as a Bitcoin Treasury firm, has appointed Thai business magnate Chatchaval Jiaravanon as its new Chairman, according to a July 11 statement shared with CryptoSlate. Jiaravanon, best known internationally for acquiring Fortune Magazine in 2018, is part of Thailand’s influential Charoen […] The post Fortune Magazine owner to lead Thai firm’s pivot into Bitcoin and DeFi banking appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Beijing Internet Finance Industry Association (BIFA) issued a notice on July 9 urging retail investors to reject pitchbooks that wrap old-style pyramid sales in crypto terminology. According to local news outlets, BIFA said promoters have begun advertising “stablecoin wealth plans,” “Web 3.0 dividends,” and similar offers that promise fixed returns.  The circular listed five […] The post Chinese industry group warns Web3 and DeFi high-return deals hide classic Ponzi engines appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Rails, Yupp, Beam, Frachtis, Interface Labs, Gradient Network, Story, Blueprint Finance and Units Network headline the latest VC Roundup. Venture capital funding in the crypto industry has shown signs of stagnation in recent months, with some firms struggling to close new funds — a trend highlighted by Sarah Austin, co-founder of the real-world asset (RWA) platform Titled, which raised a $1.3 million seed round earlier this year. Despite this challenging macro environment, “Blockchain infrastructure remains the lead story in the crypto space,” said Kaden Stadelmann, chief technology officer at Komodo Platform. He noted that the key crypto themes still attracting investment include AI, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), tokenization, payments and RWAs. In June, several high-profile funding deals reflected this continued interest, with decentralized finance (DeFi), trading platforms, pre-seed growth funds and projects at the intersection of digital assets and artificial intelligence all sec...

The following is a guest post and opinion of Jeff Garzik, Co-founder of Hemi Labs. Ever since Bitcoin stopped being the one and only crypto, a group of its stalwart devotees emerged called “Bitcoin maximalists,” arguing that BTC is the only “true” digital asset. As the crypto industry moves toward all-pervading decentralized finance (DeFi) interoperability, […] The post DeFi Is outpacing Bitcoin’s maximalist mindset appeared first on CryptoSlate.

JPMorgan’s blockchain lead says merging TradFi with DeFi is accelerating, as the bank’s pilot with Chainlink and Base shows traditional institutions moving onchain. The divide between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi) could disappear within the next few years, according to Nelli Zaltsman, head of blockchain payments innovation at JPMorgan’s Kinexys. Speaking alongside Chainlink Labs co-founder Sergey Nazarov at the RWA Summit Cannes 2025, Zaltsman said JPMorgan is pushing to merge institutional-grade payments infrastructure with emerging onchain assets, signaling what could be a tipping point for mainstream blockchain adoption. “Our goal has always been to find the best way to work with the public blockchain, regulatory environment permitting,” said Zaltsman. She described JPMorgan’s blockchain strategy as “asset agnostic,” aiming to give clients real-time access to multiple networks while minimizing friction. Read more

The DeFi market has rebounded at the beginning of July, with total value locked (TVL) rising to $116.416 billion, a level last seen in April. The 24-hour increase of 4.95% reflects rising crypto asset prices and renewed deposit flows into lending protocols, restaking services, and yield-bearing primitives. As Ethereum and Solana continue to absorb most […] The post DeFi TVL breaks above $116B as lending roars back appeared first on CryptoSlate.