Coinbase CEO stands up for DeFi, Polygon says $1B ZK-rollup paying off: Finance Redefined

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you the most significant developments from the past week.

The past week in DeFi saw Coinbase CEO stand up for the nascent ecosystem amid growing calls for enforcement action, while Polygon CEO has said that its $1 billion zero-knowledge proof rollup bet is paying off.

MakerDAO’s founder believes decentralized stablecoins could dominate crypto, while Solidus Labs says decentralized exchanges have become a magnet for wash trading.

The top 100 DeFi tokens had another mixed week with bearish domination as the majority of the tokens traded in red on the weekly charts.

Coinbase CEO champions DeFi, calls for court action to set legal precedent

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has expressed his endorsement of DeFi protocols. In a recent social media post, Armstrong urged DeFi protocols to consider legal proceedings in court to set a precedent, as the legal system has consistently demonstrated its dedication to upholding the rule of law. The current approach is mainly pushing a crucial industry toward overseas jurisdictions, he said.

According to his post on X (formerly Twitter), the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission should avoid taking enforcement actions against DeFi protocols, as they do not function as conventional financial service businesses, and it’s questionable whether the Commodity Exchange Act is even applicable to them.

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Decentralized stablecoins could dominate crypto: MakerDAO founder

Decentralized stablecoins may eventually dominate the stablecoin market, so long as crypto “ends up living up to its potential,” says Rune Christensen, co-founder of DeFi pioneer MakerDAO.

Speaking to Cointelegraph’s Andrew Fenton at Token2049 in Singapore, Christensen aired his thoughts on the future of decentralized stablecoins, such as Dai (DAI), and their role in the wider crypto economy.

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Polygon co-founder: $1B bet on ZK-rollups paying off

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal believes the layer-2 blockchain firm is reaping the benefits of allocating $1 billion to develop zero-knowledge (ZK) proof-powered scaling solutions for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Speaking at a keynote address during the latest edition of the Token2049 conference in Singapore, Nailwal touched on the development of “Polygon 2.0” scaling efforts and the promise of recursive ZK-proof technology to create a seamless interoperable blockchain ecosystem.

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Decentralized exchanges are a magnet for crypto wash traders: Solidus Labs

Over 20,000 crypto tokens have been manipulated via decentralized exchange (DEX) wash trading over the last three years, according to market surveillance firm Solidus Labs.

In the second part of its “2023 Crypto Market Manipulation Report,” released on Sept. 12, Solidus says that among a sample of 30,000 Ethereum-based DEX liquidity pools, nearly 70% were found to have executed wash trades since September 2020, making up for around $2 billion worth of crypto.

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DeFi group petitions to stop ‘patent troll’ targeting DeFi protocols

A DeFi advocacy body has petitioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office to review a patent owned by a company it accuses of being a “patent troll” — a firm that aims to profit from patent lawsuits.

In a Sept. 11 blog post, the DeFi Education Fund said that on Sept. 7, it filed an over 90-page petition to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in a bid to cancel a patent owned by True Return Systems.

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DeFi market overview

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a mixed week, with most tokens trading in the red on the weekly charts. The total value locked into DeFi protocols remained above $49 billion.

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.