Welcome to Finance Redefined, the newsletter that brings you the latest and most important developments in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi). We strive to provide you with accurate and insightful information from the past week.
The first quarter of 2024 saw a significant rise in the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols, surpassing $100 million. This growth was primarily driven by the Ethereum liquid restaking initiatives. Notable protocols such as Lido and EigenLayer have played a crucial role in the resurgence of DeFi TVL.
To address the prolonged network congestion on the Solana blockchain, developers have released a patch on April 15. They have promised additional patches in the near future to restore normalcy to the network.
Recent research indicates that the TVL in decentralized finance nearly doubled in the first three months of this year compared to the previous quarter. This growth can be attributed, in part, to the Ethereum liquid restaking initiatives. According to DefiLlama, the TVL surged from a low of $36 billion in Q4 2023 to nearly $97 billion in the first quarter of 2024. Since the beginning of the year, it has increased by 81%, reaching a two-year high of $98 billion last week.
Homium, a tokenization protocol for home equity line of credit (HELOC) built on Avalanche, has successfully raised $10 million in a Series A funding round. Sorenson Impact Group and Blizzard led the funding round. Homium aims to provide homeowners with shared appreciation home equity loans, allowing them to borrow against their home equity without increasing their monthly debt burden.
In an effort to address the ongoing network congestion on the Solana blockchain, developers have released a mainnet beta update, v1.17.31. After three days of testing, it is now recommended for general use by mainnet beta validators. This update contains enhancements that will help alleviate network congestion and will be followed by further enhancements in v1.18. It aims to improve network congestion and resolve issues with the open interest jump.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has issued a warning about a group of scammers involved in a new fraud targeting victims using stolen funds. In a thread on X, ZachXBT shared the findings of an investigation into Leaper Finance, a lending protocol based on Blast. The analysis revealed that this group is responsible for several rug pulls, including those that affected users of Magnate ($6.5 million), Kokomo ($4 million), Solfire ($4.8 million), and Lendora.
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a bearish week, with most trading in the red on the weekly charts. The total value locked in DeFi protocols has fallen below $90 billion.
Thank you for reading our summary of the most impactful developments in DeFi this week. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights, and education on this rapidly advancing space.