Last Week in DeFi - Maker Savings DAI, Polygon POS to ZK L2, Regulation Updates, and More...

Recap: Week of June 19th

Product Launches 🚀

• Maker Savings DAI
  MakerDAO announces Savings DAI (sDAI), a tokenized version of DSR-enabled DAI. sDAI is now available on Spark Protocol by depositing DAI in exchange for sDAI.

• opBNB Testnet Live
  BNB Chain released opBNB testnet, an EVM-compatible L2 based on Optimism's OP Stack. opBNB testnet is expected to reach speeds of 4,000 tx per second at a targeted cost of 0.005 U.S. cents per tx.

• Ghast Live on Arbitrum
  Yield and lending protocol Ghast went live on Arbitrum. Ghast now supports liquidation-free lending for WBTC, WETH, USDC, and allows leverage looping for GLP.

• Texture Live on Solana
  Texture is a zero-fee aggregator for NFT holders looking to borrow against their NFTs across all major Solana lenders, such as Sharky, Citrus, Rain, etc.

• Velodrome V2 Live
  Velodrome launched V2 with a new VELO token. V2 enables new features including concentrated liquidity support, dynamic fees, dynamic emission rate, velodrome relay, enhanced UX, etc. V1 users will have about a week to migrate to V2 before the emission begins on V2 on June 29th.

• Camelot AMM V3 Live
  Arbitrum-based DEX Camelot launches its AMM V3, backed by Algebra’s concentrated liquidity engine and integrated with Paraswap.

• Magpie Bridge Live
  Magpie, a non-custodial cross-chain swap, goes live and supports transfers between seven chains. Magpie uses Wormhole's Guardian Network to communicate asset swap signals between blockchains, in order to offer secure, efficient bridging.

• Dopex Option Scalps V2
  Dopex launches Option Scalps V2. Traders can now access short-term (1 min - 4h) trading strategy with up to 110x leverage. LPs can benefit from single staking yields while scaling through short-term volume.

• Syndr L3 Testnet
  Cross-margined options and futures DEX Syndr announces Syndr Chain, the first layer 3 rollup powered by Arbitrum Orbit. Syndr testnet is now running on Arbitrum Goerli.

• Arpa Live on Ethereum
  Arpa Network, a threshold BLS network, is now live on Ethereum. Arpa serves as the infrastructure of verifiable random number generator (RNG) that devs can utilize to build secured dApps.

• EDX Markets Live
  EDX, a crypto exchange backed by Citadel, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, etc., went live on Tuesday. EDX is a non-custodial exchange targeting institutional investors, it uses third-party banks and a crypto custodian. EDX supports BTC, ETH, LTC, and BCH.

Project Updates 🚩

• Polygon 2.0: Upgrades Polygon PoS to ZK L2
  As part of the Polygon 2.0 plan, Polygon Labs proposes to upgrade the Polygon PoS chain to a zkEVM Validium. The upgrade will make the chain more secure, scalable, and cheaper to use.

• Aura Finance on Arbitrum
  Aura Finance went live on Arbitrum, enabling protocols to utilize its tools to boost liquidity or incentivize governance on L2.

• Magpie Radiant Integration
  Magpie integrates with Radiant to introduce Radpie, a yield optimizer for Radiant dLP token holders. dLP holders can earn passive income by converting their dLPs into mdLPs on Radpie.

• Reserve Invests in Curve, Convex, StakeDAO
  Stablecoin protocol Reserve invests $20m to buy governance tokens from Curve, Convex, and StakerDAO, acquiring more voting power to drive liquidity for its stablecoins.

• Blur Supports Mobile Trading
  Blur now allows users to sweep, bid, list, lend, buy now pay later, and manage portfolios from their phones.

• Circle Resumes U.S Treasury Purchases
  Circle resumes U.S. Treasury purchases in its $28b, BlackRock-managed USDC Reserve Fund after ditching all holdings amid the U.S. debt ceiling standoff last month.

• Avalanche Litevm
  Devs from Avalanche hackathon introduce Litevm. Litevm brings stateless token transfers to Avalanche subnets, enabling a 99% storage reduction for validators.

• Incentives and Snapshots for Aevo Traders
  We’re happy to be working with Aevo, the newly launched derivatives DEX by Ribbon Finance. Aevo is running a Taker Incentive Program that rewards the top traders for up to $2k USDC. And for all traders, the team is taking a snapshot until June 28.

Governance Highlights 📝

• MakerDAO Bought $700M US Treasurys
  MakerDAO bought another $700 m U.S. Treasurys, taking the total in its DAI stablecoin reserve to $1.2 b. The acquisition was part of a proposal approved in March to increase the upper limit of an RWA vault that invests in short-term government bonds to $1.25 b.

• Passed: Add WETH Collateral for crvUSD
  Curve governance approved adding WETH (Wrapped Ether) as collateral for crvUSD. Up to 200 million crvUSD will be minted using WETH.

• Proposal: IoTeX Domain Name Service
  The IoTeX community proposes to introduce the IoTeX Name Service (INS), which provides human-readable domain names for IoTeX addresses and resources.

• Passed: OSMO Thirdening Implementation
  Osmosis governance passed the expedited vote to rectify the OSMO Thirdening event and implement the inflation reduction at the next possible epoch (Wednesday 21st June).

Regulations 🏛️

• Ripple Obtains License in Singapore
  Ripple has obtained the In-Principle Approval of Major Payments Institution License from The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which allows Ripple to offer regulated digital asset products and services in SG.

• US House to Vote on Crypto Legislation
  The US Financial House Committee chairman plans to hold a session in July to advance legislation that would create a more distinct pathway for digital assets to transition from security investments to commodities.

• UK Approves Crypto Laws
  UK parliamentarians approved Financial Services and Markets Bill (FSMB) on Monday. FSMB is a new bill that could recognize crypto as a regulated activity and stablecoins as a means of payment under existing laws. The bill still needs further approval to be put into force.

Hacks/Issues 👾

• Prime Trust Halted Withdrawals
  Crypto custodian Prime Trust halted deposits and withdrawals of both fiat and crypto after receiving an order from the Nevada Financial Institution Division.

  TrueUSD, the stablecoin project that used Prime Trust’s service, said the TUSD stablecoin was affected but sent emails saying no more mint and redeem due to Prime Trust.

Upcoming ⏳

• Leveraged Bitcoin Futures ETF
  The SEC has allowed for the launch of the first leveraged Bitcoin futures ETF in the US. BITX, the 2x Bitcoin ETF by Volatility Shares will be launched on Tuesday.

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