Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph\u2019s decentralized finance newsletter.<\/p>\n
As the DeFi space continues its technical resurgence, essential news on funding, innovation and DAOs continues to drive adoption in what remains a nascent industry.<\/p>\n
For the full version of this newsletter including longer, more descriptive analysis of the top stories this week, subscribe below:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alchemy raises $200M in latest funding, ACH token soars 77%<\/h3>\n
Web3 platform Alchemy announced the launch of a $200-million Series C funding<\/a> round this week, giving the company a decacorn status and a valuation of $10.2 billion.<\/p>\n The seven-investor round was led by two California-based venture firms \u2014 Lightspeed Venture Partners, which were investors in FTX\u2019s recent tertiary funding round, and Silver Lake \u2014 with additional participation from Pantera Capital and previous lead investor in October\u2019s $250-million raise<\/a>, Andreessen Horowitz\u2019s a16z, among others.<\/p>\n Alchemy provides the underlying infrastructure for Web3 applications \u2014 akin to the service provided by Amazon Web Services for internet sites \u2014 and has worked with the likes of OpenSea, Adobe, Dapper Labs, \u201cCryptoPunks\u201d among others to support the growth of the Web3 ecosystem into the mainstream.<\/p>\n Since October\u2019s funding round led by a16z, Alchemy has implemented several initiatives such as an open Web3 University to foster education within the space, a startup program titled Alchemy Ventures designed to support emerging businesses, in addition to a nonfungible token (NFT) application programming interface for website developers.<\/p>\n According to the company, NFT marketplaces built on the Alchemy platform have registered in excess of $1.5 billion in artist royalties over the past 12 months, a crucial community-orientated metric among Web3 participants.<\/p>\n Alchemy co-founder and CEO Nikil Viswanathan shared his assessment of the last year across the industry, as well as predictions for the upcoming year, stating:<\/p>\n \u201c2021 was the year developers took Web3 mainstream and created businesses that are transforming the lives of millions. In 2022, we\u2019ll be doubling down on our commitment to meeting developer needs in more places, making it easier than ever to unlock the potential of Web3.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n DeFi protocol Bunny Finance announced that following a seismic $80-million bridge exploit on Qubit, the future of the project in its current form is untenable, and therefore, the team has pledged to grant governance control of the protocol over to community<\/a> members in the form of a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO.<\/p>\n The incident, initially reported by Cointelegraph on Jan. 28, occurred when an anonymous hacker exploited a so-called \u201clogical error\u201d in the Qubit X-bridge<\/a>, enabling them to withdraw tokens on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) without depositing any Ether (ETH<\/a>) as is traditionally required. <\/p>\n All in all, the hacker stole 77,162 Qubit xETH (qXETH), or $185 million, from the protocol and utilized it as a collateral mechanism to borrow a number of assets within the lending pools equivalent to the value of $80 million. <\/p>\n On-chain data analysis reveals that the hacker borrowed tokens included 15,688 Wrapped Ether (wETH) worth $37.6 million, 767 Bitcoin BEP2 (BTCB) ($28.5 million), $9.5 million worth of stablecoins and $5 million worth of PancakeSwap (CAKE<\/a>), Pancake Bunny (BUNNY) and MDEX (MDX) tokens.<\/p>\n Subsequent announcements from the team noted that the participants of the community DAO would become responsible for major protocol developments, including upgrading contracts and altering fee structure, among other things. <\/p>\n DeFi platform Hashstack Finance deployed a closed testnet version<\/a> of its crypto lending protocol, Open this week. Initially birthed from Harmony\u2019s $300-million Ecosystem Fund, Hashstack\u2019s Open protocol seeks to balance the prerequisites for collateral loan sums in typical DeFi protocols.<\/p>\n Constructed on the Harmony blockchain, Hashstack\u2019s Open protocol claims to enable borrowers to <\/strong>receive <\/strong>a loan with a collateral-to-loan ratio of up to 1:3, allowing the potential of borrowing up to $300 in crypto in exchange for $100 of collateral.<\/p>\n Following this, users have the ability to withdraw 70% of the collateral, valued at $70 in this case, while utilizing $230 as in-platform trading capital. Commenting on the subject, Hashstack claimed that lending within the DeFi space is often over collateralized in that on average, a borrower provides a minimum of 42% excess collateral against the loan they intend to borrow.<\/p>\n Vinay, founder of Hashstack Finance, explained the intricate process in more detail: \u201cToday, if you want to borrow $100 on Compound, or Aave, or even MakerDAO, you are required to provide collateral of at least $142. This breaks the primary intent behind loan procurement and has restrictive use-cases for the borrower.\u201d<\/p>\n 15\/ @0xHashstack<\/a>‘s Open protocol is the world\u2019s first autonomous lending framework enabling under-collateralized loans up to 1:3 collateral-to-debt ratio.<\/p>\n Website: https:\/\/t.co\/cLpTbRqJCm<\/a>#defilending<\/a> #Fintech<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/QLOiemEu0x<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Harmony (@harmonyprotocol) December 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Analytical data reveals that DeFi\u2019s total value locked increased by 11.97% across the week to a figure of $123.08 billion, successfully recovering from the market downturn in recent weeks.<\/p>\n Secret (SCRT) gained an impressive 30.4% over the past seven days. Avalanche (AVAX<\/a>) followed up last week\u2019s 25.54% gain with a further 36.7%, while Loopring (LRC) registered a 19.5% increase. Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) and THORchain (RUNE) gained 14.5% and 13.2%, respectively.<\/p>\nBunny and Qubit pivot to DAO in the wake of $80-million exploit<\/h3>\n
Hashstack launches Open protocol testnet, offering under-collateralized loans<\/h3>\n
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Token performances<\/h3>\n
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