DeFi | Crypto

The crypto exchange integrates Morpho lending into its app, letting USDC users tap DeFi yields of up to 10.8%. Coinbase is rolling out a new way for users to earn yields on their USDC holdings, marking one of the exchange’s first large-scale integrations with decentralized finance (DeFi) at a time of accelerating stablecoin adoption. The company announced Thursday that it is integrating the Morpho lending protocol, with vaults curated by DeFi advisory company Steakhouse Financial, directly into the Coinbase app. The move will allow users to lend USDC (USDC) without navigating third-party DeFi platforms or wallets. Coinbase already pays up to 4.5% APY in rewards for holding USDC on its platform. With the new DeFi lending option, however, users can tap into onchain markets and potentially earn yields of up to 10.8% as of Wednesday, according to Coinbase. Read more

The DeFi market is stabilizing at $160.56 billion in TVL, but data shows a liquidity split between spot and derivatives, while collateral remains clustered in just a few major venues. Meanwhile, spot, perpetuals, and stablecoin bases are expanding in parallel, suggesting that order flow and collateral are recycled across fewer but more efficient protocols. The […] The post DeFi looks vast with $160B in TVL but capital concentrates in a handful of protocols appeared first on CryptoSlate.

AI-powered DeFi creates new security risks. This calls for transparent, rigorous auditing to protect decentralized systems. Opinion by: Jason Jiang, chief business officer of CertiK Since its inception, the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem has been defined by innovation, from decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to lending and borrowing protocols, stablecoins and more.  The latest innovation is DeFAI, or DeFi powered by artificial intelligence. Within DeFAI, autonomous bots trained on large data sets can significantly improve efficiency by executing trades, managing risk and participating in governance protocols.  Read more

Arbitrum, the largest Ethereum layer-2 protocol, has launched a new initiative designed to channel liquidity into decentralized finance. The DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program (DRIP), announced on Sept. 3, will allocate up to $40 million in rewards to users performing targeted on-chain actions rather than simply generating attention. The program, structured by Entropy and powered by […] The post Arbitrum launches $40M DeFi incentive amid intensifying L2 race appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Federal Reserve Board announced on Sept. 3 that it will host a payments innovation conference on Oct. 21, where it will discuss stablecoins, DeFi, and tokenization. The conference will feature panel discussions on the convergence of traditional and decentralized finance, emerging stablecoin use cases and business models, artificial intelligence applications in payments, and tokenization […] The post Fed includes stablecoins and DeFi in October conference on payments innovation appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The following is a guest post and analysis from Vincent Maliepaard, Marketing Director at Sentora. 2025 has marked a turning point for XRP, combining explosive price gains with transformative shifts in its core narrative. In July, the token hit an all-time high of $3.58, propelled in part by decisive legal victories. Beyond price action, Ripple’s […] The post What’s behind XRP’s move to DeFi? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The following is a guest post and opinion from Slavik Baranov, CEO at STON.fi Dev. From Gaming Phenomenon to Financial Ambition In 2024, the TON blockchain became one of the most talked-about ecosystems in crypto — not because of a groundbreaking DeFi protocol, but thanks to the meteoric rise of viral tap-to-earn games on Telegram. […] The post Is TON’s DeFi ready to lead a true financial revolution? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Permissionless financial protocols will survive government and corporate efforts to impose traditional financial controls on DeFi. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols will survive government and corporate efforts to impose traditional financial regulations designed to create a walled garden of permissioned digital systems, according to Will Reeves, CEO and co-founder of Bitcoin (BTC) rewards company Fold.  Reeves told Cointelegraph that regulatory proposals requiring DeFi protocols to embed biometric identity checks within smart contracts, or other similar traditional financial (TradFi) regulations, will backfire, as did efforts to control the spread of information on the internet.  He also warned that governments and legacy financial institutions will use TradFi incentives to drive people to permissioned custody through traditional investment vehicles like exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have benefits over holding crypto directly, including use as collateral for loans. He added: Read more

Crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers are likely to partner with centralized staking providers following approval, but will eventually pivot to decentralized protocols as regulatory frameworks mature. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Aug. 5 statement that liquid staking activities and staking receipt tokens do not constitute securities offerings removed the final regulatory hurdle for staking-enabled […] The post Crypto staking ETF launch strategy prioritizes centralized partners over immediate DeFi adoption appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The following is a guest post and analysis from Shane Neagle, Editor In Chief from The Tokenist. Although the Terra (LUNA) collapse pricked the crypto bubble in May 2022, it took the FTX exchange catastrophe to firmly pop it at the year’s end. Ever since, the blockchain narrative has been supplanted by the AI hype. […] The post DeFi resurgence 2025: Layer-1 leaders poised for a post-Biden comeback appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Critics warn the US Treasury’s push to embed ID checks into DeFi smart contracts could erode privacy and hollow out permissionless finance. The US Treasury is exploring whether identity checks should be built directly into decentralized finance (DeFi) smart contracts, a move critics warn could rewrite the very foundations of permissionless finance. Last week, the agency opened a consultation under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), which was signed into law in July. The Act directs the Treasury to evaluate new compliance tools to fight illicit finance in crypto markets. One idea was embedding identity credentials directly into smart contracts. In practice, this would mean a DeFi protocol could automatically verify a user’s government ID, biometric credential, or digital wallet certificate before allowing a transaction to proceed. Read more

Aave enters a blockchain with few competitors, with only one top-five Aptos protocols having a TVL of $1 billion or more. Aave, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol with $70 billion in net deposits, has launched on Aptos, a layer-1 blockchain founded by former Meta employees. The move may deepen stablecoin and liquid staking token liquidity on the blockchain, two asset classes subject to regulation in 2025. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Aave will support four coins native to the blockchain at launch: stablecoins USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT), Aptos (APT), and Ethena Staked USDe (sUSDe). The Aptos Foundation will provide users with rewards and liquidity incentives to promote the use of Aave on the Aptos blockchain. The arrival of Aave could deepen stablecoin liquidity on the blockchain, as the fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies are experiencing a breakthrough and are one of the industry’s most-discussed use cases. On Aptos, the stablecoin market cap has surged in 2025, jumping to $1.27 bil...

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller urged policymakers and bankers to stop fearing DeFi and stablecoins, saying they will drive the next wave of innovation in the US payments system. US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told his peers and the private banking sector that there’s “nothing to be afraid of” about crypto payments despite it operating outside the traditional banking system. “There is nothing scary about this just because it occurs in the decentralized finance or DeFi world — this is simply new technology to transfer objects and record transactions,” he said during a speech at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025 on Wednesday. Leveraging innovative tech to build new payment services isn’t a “new story,” Waller said as he pitched policymakers and the private banking sector to work together on crypto payment infrastructure. “There is nothing to be afraid of when thinking about using smart contracts, tokenization, or distributed ledgers in everyday transactions.” Read more

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller declared that “there is nothing scary” about DeFi simply because it operates outside traditional banking infrastructure. Speaking at Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025, Waller framed blockchain-based transactions as a natural technological evolution rather than disruptive threats. He compared DeFi operations to conventional purchases, noting that buying crypto with stablecoins through smart […] The post Fed Governor Waller says ‘there is nothing scary’ in payments using DeFi rails appeared first on CryptoSlate.

A DeFi investor was hit with a $10.5 million tax bill after the Spanish tax agency classified a crypto-backed loan as taxable gains. A Spanish decentralized finance (DeFi) investor was hit with 9 million euros ($10.5 million) in back taxes for taking out a crypto-backed loan, according to a local media report. In a Thursday report, Spanish news outlet Periodista Digital said it obtained documents showing the investor had already declared all cryptocurrency operations and paid $5.84 million in taxes. Three years later, authorities issued an additional bill tied not to undeclared profits, but to the act of depositing assets into a DeFi protocol in exchange for a loan. The assets were not sold, and no profit was realized, the report said. Read more

The Treasury is considering embedding digital identity checks into DeFi smart contracts as part of its GENIUS Act consultation on crypto compliance tools. The US Department of the Treasury is seeking public feedback on how digital identity tools and other emerging technologies could be used to fight illicit finance in crypto markets, with one option being embedding identity checks into decentralized finance (DeFi) smart contracts. The consultation, published this week, stems from the newly enacted Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), signed into law in July. The Act, which sets out a regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuers, directs the Treasury to explore new compliance technologies, including application programming interfaces (APIs), artificial intelligence, digital identity verification and blockchain monitoring. Read more

S&P Dow Jones Indices is exploring partnerships with major exchanges, custodians and DeFi protocols to launch tokenized versions of its benchmarks. S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) is in discussions with major exchanges, custodians and DeFi protocols to license and list tokenized versions of its benchmarks, according to Stephanie Rowton, the firm’s director of US equities. Rowton told Cointelegraph that the index provider is taking a “strategic approach” to ensure tokenized S&P products are launched only on platforms that meet high standards for transparency, security and regulatory compliance. “By establishing these types of relationships, we hope we can work together to participate in a robust infrastructure that supports the trading and accessibility of tokenized versions of our indexes, ultimately enhancing the investor experience,” she said. Read more

Solana (SOL) trading activity contracted sharply in the second quarter while the network’s core infrastructure metrics strengthened across multiple dimensions. According to an Aug. 15 report by Messari, the total application revenue generated on the network fell 44.2% quarter-over-quarter to $576.4 million from $1.0 billion.  Furthermore, average daily spot decentralized exchange (DEX) volume dropped 45.4% […] The post Solana trading activity falls 44% in Q2 despite network fundamentals strengthening with rising DeFi adoption appeared first on CryptoSlate.

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