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.
This week, investors were disappointed after former United States President Donald Trump remained silent on his family’s upcoming crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, during the supposed launch event. However, the team behind the platform said it will launch with a nontransferrable governance token called WLFI.
In more pushback against the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s ambiguity regarding crypto, Republicans in the House of Representatives demanded that the financial regulator clarify its stance on the classification of crypto airdrops by the end of September.
Trump silent on World Liberty Financial, team unveils WLFI token
Trump didn’t end up talking about World Liberty Financial during a so-called launch event on X, but the team eventually shared information about the project’s token.
The former US president was interviewed by crypto influencer Farokh Sarmad in a Sept. 16 X Space, his first public appearance since an apparent assassination attempt on Sept. 15, which he spoke about to open the livestream.
Despite Trump billing the livestream as a “State of Crypto address,” it took about 16 minutes for him to mention the word, saying: “We’re going to make our country greater than ever before, and you’re going to be happy, and you’re going to love your crypto.”
It wasn’t until over two hours into the livestream that one of the project’s leaders, Zak Folkman, shared that “there will be a token.”
House Republicans demand SEC’s Gensler clarify crypto airdrops stance
Two Republican Party lawmakers are demanding SEC Chair Gary Gensler answer questions about the classification of crypto airdrops by the end of September.
Representative Tom Emmer and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry said in a Sept. 17 letter to Gensler that they’re concerned after the SEC made “assertions about airdrops” in various lawsuits over the last two years.
“The SEC is putting its thumb on the scale and precluding American citizens from shaping the next iteration of the internet.”
In September 2022, the SEC sued Hydrogen Technology Corporation and its former CEO for market manipulation of what it called “crypto asset securities.”
Ethena domain registrar hacked, Ethena Labs warns users to stay away
The Ethena website suffered what appears to be a front-end exploit on Sept. 18, and Ethena Labs has cautioned users not to interact with any site or application claiming to be Ethena.
According to a social media post from Ethena Labs, the website’s domain registrar account was compromised, and the site is currently deactivated until the issue is resolved.
Ethena Labs also reassured clients that the Ethena protocol was not affected by the exploit and that all customer funds remain safe.
SEC settles with Rari Capital over DeFi pools, unregistered broker activity
The SEC has settled with DeFi protocol Rari Capital and its co-founders for allegedly misleading investors and unregistered broker activity.
According to a Sept. 18 announcement, the SEC claimed that Rari Capital’s Earn and Fuse pools “functioned like crypto asset investment funds,” allowing investors to deposit crypto assets in lending pools and earn returns from their investments.
The complaint alleges that Rari Capital conducted unregistered offers and sales of securities by selling interests in these pools and their tied governance tokens.
Tether USDT’s market share rises 20%, reaching 75% in two years
Tether’s US dollar-denominated stablecoin now controls two-thirds of the entire stablecoin market, following significant adoption over the past two years.
The market share of USDt (USDT) rose over 20% during the past two years to comprise over 75% of the entire stablecoin market, according to Token Terminal.
The onchain data platform said in a Sept. 16 X post:
“Tether has grown its market share from 55% to 75% over the past 2 years. 1)Tether’s USDT supply is $118 billion. 2) Tether’s market share is 75%.”
Telegram bot Banana Gun’s users drained of over $1.9 million
Users of the Telegram-based cryptocurrency trading bot Banana Gun have been drained of nearly $2 million worth of digital assets.
Banana Gun enables Telegram users to trade on some of the most popular blockchains, such as Ethereum, Solana and Base.
However, at least 11 attackers have drained a collective $1.9 million worth of crypto from the bot’s users, according to onchain security firm Cyvers’ senior Security Operation Center lead, Hakan Unal.
Unal told Cointelegraph:
“It appears that BananaGunBot wallets are being drained. Our system has detected around 11 attackers (potentially more), and approximately $1.9 million has been stolen. Hundreds of users have already been affected.”
DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, the majority of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap ended the week in the green.
Of the top 100, Nervos Network’s (CKB) token rose over 100%, as the week’s biggest gainer, followed by Celestia’s (TIA) token, which is up over 51% on the weekly chart.
Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama
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.