Q2 Report: Over $204M Lost to DeFi Hacks and Scams – Finance Redefined

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly source of essential knowledge on decentralized finance (DeFi). We have crafted this newsletter to provide you with the most important news from the past week.

In the second quarter of 2023, more than $208 million was taken from DeFi protocols through exploits and hacking, with only $4.5 million of the funds being recovered, resulting in total losses of over $204 million.

The DeFi sector is an expanding field with billions of dollars worth of transactions being made every day. Despite this, it is still a niche area within the crypto world, and not accessible to all. To gain a full understanding of DeFi, take a look at the new report from Cointelegraph Research, titled: “Investing in DeFi: A Comprehensive Guide”.

Maple Finance, a DeFi lending protocol, has decided to provide direct loans to certain borrowers instead of solely relying on pool delegates to supply funds to replace the gap left by major lending protocols such as BlockFi that have gone bankrupt.

The BRC-20 token standard of Bitcoin has been widely accepted, prompting many prominent wallet service providers to integrate it. Following the Bedrock upgrade, transactions on the Optimism network experienced an increase of 67%.

The top 100 DeFi tokens maintained their positive trend into the final week of June, with most tokens experiencing gains.

Over $204 million was lost in Q2 DeFi hacks and scams: Report

Over $204 million was lost in DeFi hacks and scams during the second quarter of 2023, according to a report from Web3 portfolio app De.Fi on June 27.

The report, dubbed “Q2 De.Fi Rekt Report,” was partially based on information from De.Fi’s Rekt Database. During the quarter, $208.5 million was taken advantage of, but $4.5 million was retrieved through legal proceedings, arrangements with cyber criminals and other recovery techniques. The report noted that the number of DeFi hacks in the second quarter was up “nearly sevenfold” year-over-year, with 117 occurrences compared to just 17 in the same quarter of 2022. In total, more than $665 million was lost in the first half of 2023.

Keep reading.

Maple Finance announces direct lending to fill the void left by BlockFi, Celsius

Maple Finance, a web3 lending platform, has declared the commencement of a direct lending program, as reported in a June 28 fact sheet from the platform’s development team. This program is designed to replace the services offered by Celsius, BlockFi and other lenders that have gone bankrupt.

Previously, Maple relied on credit specialists, known as “pool delegates,” to provide funding for these loans. For instance, in February 2022, Celsius utilized Maple to create a Wrapped Ether (WETH) lending pool.

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Optimism network transactions surged 67% following Bedrock upgrade — Nansen

Transaction activity on the Optimism network rose dramatically by 67% after the implementation of its June 7th “Bedrock” upgrade, as reported in a June 26th tweet from blockchain analytics company Nansen. Before the upgrade, the network had seen less than 300,000 transactions daily, but this number had grown to more than 550,000 by mid-June.

Optimism saw a marked boost in transactions right after the hard fork, with over 400,000 from June 5 to 9. The volume grew at a slower rate after the initial surge, reaching a maximum of over 550,000 around June 15. After that, it began to decline steadily, reaching 500,000 transactions per day by the end of the period monitored by Nansen’s Twitter thread, which was close to June 23.

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Wallet providers introduce BRC-20 token support despite market drawdown

On June 21st, BitKeep, a self-custody wallet provider, declared its support for BRC-20 tokens issued on the Bitcoin network. This feature allows users to observe, rank, and transfer both BRC-20 tokens and nonfungible tokens. Additionally, the developers also stated that BRC-20 in-wallet swaps will be available in the near future.

Last month, OKX Wallet app revealed that it would be providing support for BRC-20 assets on its cryptocurrency exchange. Additionally, a number of centralized and decentralized exchanges have implemented BRC-20 support.

Keep reading.

DeFi market overview

After three weeks of bearishness, the total market value of DeFi experienced a surge in bullishness. According to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, the top 100 tokens by market capitalization in the DeFi sector had a positive week, with the majority of tokens trading in the green. However, the total value locked in DeFi protocols stayed beneath the $50 billion mark.

Thank you for taking the time to read our recap of this week’s most significant DeFi developments. Make sure to join us again next Friday for more news, insights, and information on this rapidly evolving space.