Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi)<\/a> insights \u2014 a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week.<\/p>\n The United States regulators want to take a closer look at money laundering and terror financing laws by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), as it asked banking sector players for feedback on DeFi\u2019s crime risks.<\/p>\n Ethereum developers are targeting the last week of March for Ethereum\u2019s Shanghai hard fork and some additional improvement upgrades by June of next year. Ankr protocol has deployed $15 million to buy back the bad debt resulting from its recent exploit and the resultant circulation of HAY (HAY). <\/p>\n Chainlink deploys staking to increase the security of oracle services. Stakers will earn Chainlink (LINK<\/a>) tokens as they participate in a decentralized alerting system that flags the network when feeds are not meeting performing requirements.<\/p>\n The top 100 DeFi tokens had a mixed week in terms of price action, as many tokens traded in green while several others posted a net loss on the weekly charts.<\/p>\n A United States financial regulator is looking to gain feedback from the banking industry about how DeFi may affect the bureau\u2019s efforts to stop financial crime.<\/p>\n The FinCEN said it is \u201clooking carefully\u201d at DeFi, while the agency\u2019s acting director, Himamauli Das, said the digital asset ecosystem<\/a> and digital currencies are a \u201ckey priority area\u201d for the agency.<\/p>\n Continue reading<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n According to a discussion at the 151st Ethereum Core Developers Meeting on Dec. 8, core programmers have set a tentative deadline of March 2023 for Ethereum\u2019s Shanghai hard fork. In addition, developers will aim for May or June 2023 to launch the Ethereum Improvement Protocol (EIP) 4844 upgrade that will introduce proto-danksharding to the network. <\/p>\n Although the much-anticipated proof-of-stake Merge upgrade was completed on Sept. 15, staked Ether (stETH) is currently locked on the Ethereum Beacon Chain<\/a>. The token is created by the decentralized finance protocol Lido, with close to 3.5 million stETH ($4.48 billion) in circulation. After the Shanghai upgrade, stETH users can withdraw their funds along with any applicable staking rewards for validating network transactions. The Ethereum Foundation said that it structured the upgrades in this manner to \u201csimplify and maximize focus on a successful transition to proof-of-stake.\u201d<\/p>\n Continue reading<\/a><\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n Stablecoin protocol Helio, which issues the United States dollar-pegged HAY stablecoin, said in a Dec. 7 tweet that it had bought back $3 million worth of bad debt in HAY thus far in the open market. The day prior, blockchain infrastructure platform Ankr stated it would allocate $15 million to buy back the bad debt resulting from its recent exploit and the resultant over-circulation of HAY. <\/p>\n A series of seemingly unrelated incidents occurred on Dec. 2 when a hacker manipulated vulnerabilities in Ankr\u2019s smart contract code and compromised private keys after a technical upgrade. As a result, the hacker minted 20 trillion Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc), which was pegged to BNB and dumped them, with the price of aBNBc plunging to less than $2 from around $300.<\/p>\n Continue reading<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Chainlink said that the new staking feature is an integral part of its \u201cChainlink Economics 2.0\u201d efforts that focuses on security and sustainable growth.<\/p>\n Previously, Chainlink users who wanted to receive LINK token rewards needed to launch their own nodes. With the newly launched staking mechanism, Chainlink stakeholders have an additional way to earn while helping increase the oracle platform\u2019s security.<\/p>\nUS regulator to seek feedback on DeFi\u2019s impact on financial crime<\/h2>\n
Ethereum developers target March 2023 for Shanghai hard fork<\/h2>\n
Ankr deploys $15M to make users whole as Helio stablecoin recovers after exploit<\/h2>\n
Chainlink launches staking to increase the security of oracle services<\/h2>\n
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