Week in Review: Highlights from the DeFi Sector

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Come aboard Finance Reimagined, your essential weekly source for decentralized finance (DeFi) knowledge. Our carefully curated newsletter captures the most consequential developments from the previous week.

The Past Week's Overview

Last week in the DeFi sphere, the spotlight was on the progress in zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) as a plausible scaling solution. We saw an increasing number of DeFi protocols integrating this tech. Concurrently, a newly introduced U.S. Senate DeFi bill sparked heated debates. The bill met with widespread criticism, with many stakeholders vehemently rejecting the “unworkable” legislation.

Speculating on Centralized Exchanges Becoming Gateways for DeFi

The dYdX Foundation, an independent entity created to support the dYdX protocol, recently kickstarted a public testnet for its forthcoming version, v4. This update puts dYdX on track for launching the v4 mainnet, a step the foundation believes signifies full decentralization for dYdX.

Polygon 2.0 Lays the Foundation for Decentralized Governance

Polygon Labs has initiated an overhaul to include all blockchains and applications operating on the Polygon network. This move aims to enhance the upgrade process and encourage community involvement.

Debate Over the U.S. Senate DeFi Bill

Crypto advocacy organizations Coin Center and Blockchain Association denounced the newly introduced U.S. Senate bill. Both parties perceive the bill as disorganized and a flawed strategy to regulate DeFi.

Chainlink's Cross-Chain Protocol Now Live

Chainlink Labs has officially launched a cross-chain protocol. Aimed at fostering interoperability between standard financial firms and public and private blockchains.

Linea zkEVM Rollup Support Added to DeFi Liquidity Protocol

In light of the increasing traction of ZK-proof based layer-2 scaling solutions, DeFi liquidity protocol Symbiosis has integrated support for Linea, ConsenSys' ZK-EVM rollup solution for cross-chain swaps.

Weekend DeFi Market Recap

Following three plunging weeks, DeFi's total market value surged, reflecting a bullish trend. Analysis from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView reveals an upward trend for the top 100 DeFi tokens. However, the total value locked in DeFi protocols did not reach beyond $50 billion.