Last Week in DeFi - Base Launches Onchain Summer, Projects Wind Down, SEC Delays Bitcoin ETF, and More...

Recap: Week of Aug 7th

Product Launches 🚀

• Base Mainnet Live
  Base mainnet is now open to the public, with 100+ dApps available.
  The team launches the Onchain Summer campaign, encouraging engagement with daily NFT mints.

• PayPal PYUSD
  PayPal launches a USD-pegged stablecoin PYUSD, and will gradually roll out PYUSD to eligible US PayPal balance accounts. PayPal charges no fees to buy, sell, hold, or transfer PYUSD, yet there is a fee for converting between PYUSD and other cryptos.

• Ondo USDY
  Ondo launched USDY, a tokenized note secured by US Treasuries and bank deposits. USDY can be used as a stablecoin, and holders will earn a yield of 5% APY.

• Angle V2 Live
  Angle has deployed V2. The agEUR stablecoin will now include more diversified assets, including bC3M, a tokenized short-term and risk-free Euro bonds ETF.

• Tenet Bridge Live
  The bridge between Tenet L1 and six chains supported by LayerZero, is live. Tenet bridge allows bridging major LSDs, such as stETH, rETH, MaticX, and ankrBNB, as well as stablecoins such as USDC, USDT, and DAI.
  Tenet is an LSD-focused, EVM-compatible L1 secured by Diversified PoS.

• Aevo Pre-Launch Token Futures, Telegram Bot
  Aevo launches pre-launch token futures, allowing users to trade perp futures on tokens that have not launched yet. The first asset to be tradable is SEI, which is listing on Binance next week.

  Aevo also launches a Telegram trading bot, allowing users to trade perps, monitor positions, and manage accounts on Aevo directly from Telegram. Compared to other telegram bots, users only need to submit API keys, making this theoretically more secure.

• Preon Live
  Launched by Sphere Finance, Preon is now live on the Ethereum mainnet. Preon is a cross-margin, zero-interest lending protocol that makes use of CDP mechanics.

• Friend.tech Live
  Friend.tech, a shares trading protocol for Twitter accounts, is live on Base. Users can trade shares of any Twitter account, and earn points by referring friends to the app.

Project Updates 🚩

• PancakeSwap on Arbitrum
  BnB Chain-based DEX PancakeSwap is now live on Arbitrum with Swaps, Liquidity Provision, and upcoming Farms and IFOs.

• Uniswap on Base
  Uniswap went live on Base.

• Gas Payments with Card
  Visa has completed a test on Ethereum Goerli for users to pay on-chain gas fees in fiat with a credit or debit card. The experiment means that users can send tx without having to worry about maintaining a balance of ETH.

• Safe Transaction Batching
  Safe Wallet now allows for batched transactions. Users can combine multiple transactions in one go and save on gas fees.

• DeBank Chain Testent
  Asset management tool DeBank launches its own L2 on testnet. The DeBank chain is built on OP stack, aiming for minimizing gas costs, offering a native Account-Abstraction-like experience, and ensuring the safety of L1 assets.

• Mode Public Testnet
  Mode public testnet is live. Mode is an OP stack L2 that directly rewards developers, users & protocols with Protocol Level Referrals and Contract Secured Revenue.

• Maple Opens T-Bill Pool to US Investors
  Maple Finance opens the Cash Management pool to accredited US investors. The Cash Management pool is backed by tokenized Treasuries (T-bills).

• Trader Joe Auto-Pools V2
  Trader Joe has upgraded the algorithm of Auto-Pools. The upgrade “interprets more data and offers a more diverse set of decisions during rebalancing”.

• Sushi Testing Smart Pools
  Sushi is looking for Smart Pool testers. Powered by Steer protocol, Smart Pools will enable automated liquidity management via built-in strategies that determine price ranges for LPs.

Regulations 🏛️

• SEC Delays Decision on Bitcoin ETF
  SEC has delayed the decision to approve the Bitcoin spot ETF application by Ark Invest and 21Shares. The third deadline will be Nov 11, with a final date on Jan 10, 2024.

Hacks/Issues 👾

• Zunami Exploit
  Curve yield optimizer Zunami was exploited and lost ~$2.1M. According to PeckShield, the hack was a price manipulation issue, which could be “exploited by donation to incorrectly calculate the price as shown in the following figures.”

• SpiritSwap Winding Down
  Fantom-based DEX SpiritSwap is looking for a team to hand things to. If no team is going to take over, the project will stop operations on 9/1.

• Hundred Finance Sunsetting
  Hundred Finance, a Compound fork lending protocol, is voting on the protocol closure after the April hack drained ~7m of Hundred's user funds.

• Sentiment Sunsetting V1
  Sentiment V1 will sunset on Aug 22nd, while the team is working on the upcoming V2. Previously, Sentiment was affected by the Cruve exploit and had deprecated support for Convex/Curve TriCrypto pools.

• Saddle to Close Down
  Curve fork protocol Saddle plans to wind down the protocol and airdrop protocol-owned $ARB tokens to $SDL/veSDL holders.

• Goldfinch Faces Loan Default
  RWA protocol Goldfinch has defaulted on a $5m loan to Kenyan motorcycle company Tugende. Tugende reportedly breached the terms of the loan agreement, resulting in a default amounting to approximately 4% of Goldfinch's TVL.

• Solana Cypher Exploit
  Solana-based DEX Cypher has halted its protocol after a $1M exploit. The team is investigating with security firms and will get more details out.

Upcoming ⏳

• ThorFi Lending
  Thorchain is testing ThorFi Lending. Lending will allow users to create loans using their native assets as collateral, and all loans will have 0% interest, no liquidations, and no expiration.

• Shibarium L2

  The Shibairum L2 is expected to launch around Aug 15-16 during ETH Toronto.

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