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This Week In DeFi – May 12

This Week In DeFi – May 12

This week, a Uniswap clone launches on Bitcoin, trading volume on Uniswap itself exceeds that of Coinbase yet again, MakerDAO launches a new lending platform, and BlockFi can return $300M to customers

May 12, 2023

To the DeFi Community,

This week, Developers have launched Trustless Market, a protocol that uses Uniswap's smart contracts on the Bitcoin network.

Although most of the tokens issued on Bitcoin are meme coins, innovations like Trustless Market is a start to making Bitcoin a generalized platform. The protocol has attracted over 2,000 users and lets liquidity providers earn a 2% cut on all swaps conducted on the network.

The meme tokens and other Ordinals inscriptions have boosted Bitcoin fees, resulting in the second highest day ever in fee revenue for miners on the Bitcoin blockchain.

https://twitter.com/punk3700/status/1654532887201579010

Uniswap has surpassed Coinbase in trading volume for the fourth consecutive month in April, handling $37 billion compared to Coinbase's $34 billion.

Uniswap began to exceed Coinbase's volume in February, and the gap between them widened after the depeg of USDC and other stablecoins in March. Traders turned to on-chain trading venues during this period of uncertainty, according to Jacob Joseph, research analyst at CCData.

https://twitter.com/CoinDesk/status/1656743338546982914

MakerDAO has launched Spark Protocol, a new lending platform aimed at improving DAI's capabilities. The protocol's debut offering, Spark Lend, allows users to borrow or supply Ether, stETH, DAI, and savings DAI at competitive rates.

Savings DAI (sDAI) is a new yield-bearing token representing DAI deposited in Maker's DAI Saving Rate module. Spark Protocol is the first product of Maker's Endgame plan, which involves restructuring the DAO into multiple subDAOs, each with its own governing token.

Spark is integrated with Maker's Peg Stability Module, which allows users to convert DAI or sDAI into USDC and vice versa.

MakerDAO has also published a five-part plan for its major “Endgame” update – which will ultimately end up with the launch of a new blockchain.

https://twitter.com/MakerDAO/status/1655575088547127311

A US judge has granted permission for bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi to return $297m to customers with deposits held in its Wallet program, which did not pay interest on customer deposits and was kept separate from other funds.

Unfortunately, the return of funds does not apply to users of BlockFi Interest Accounts, as funds in BIA accounts were used by BlockFi for its lending business and therefore are property of the bankruptcy estates. These funds will be used to repay all creditors.

BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late November, with over 100,000 creditors owed an estimated $10bn.

https://twitter.com/Croesus_BTC/status/1656712508693188608

Memecoins once again take center-stage this week, this time spilling over onto the Bitcoin blockchain – an interesting sight to see. Uniswap clone “Trustless Market” has helped to facilitate some of this trade, gaining momentum now with more than 2,000 unique users.

DEX volume on Ethereum has soared by more than 60% from last week, as everyone tries to get in on the memecoin craze. Prices of these coins, on the other hand, have begun to crash, as the craze may have spread too thin across the thousands of new tokens created.

Tether has disclosed both Bitcoin and gold holdings in its reserves this quarter, also claiming to have posted $1.48 billion in net profits in Q1. According to its attestation, Tether holds $2.44 billion in excess reserves.

USD Coin issuer Circle has taken an interesting turn and is now refusing to hold US Treasury bonds maturing beyond June, due to concerns that the US may default on its debts. Times are becoming highly fascinating, as the traditional system begins to present repeated risks to crypto, rather than the other way around.