Redefined Finance — Insights from TradingView News

Welcome to this edition of Finance Redefined where we deliver key insights from the decentralized finance realm—a curated newsletter for the week’s critical DeFi updates.

In recent news, potential backers were left unsatisfied as the much-anticipated comments on the World Liberty Financial crypto platform by ex-President Donald Trump didn’t materialize during its expected reveal. Alternatively, the project’s spokespeople have announced the forthcoming launch of a nontransferable governance token, dubbed WLFI.

Amidst confusing guidance from the US Securities and Exchange Commission on cryptocurrencies, Republican members of the House of Representatives are calling for more transparent definitions regarding the status of crypto airdrops, setting a hard deadline of September’s end.

Trump withholds comment on World Liberty Financial as WLFI token details emerge

Despite anticipations, Trump did not discuss the World Liberty Financial project during a planned event on X, but further details about its WLFI token were later provided by the project team.

In a Sept. 16 X Space interview with cryptocurrency aficionado Farokh Sarmad, which marked Trump’s first public outing post an alleged Sept. 15 assassination bid, Trump began his address by reflecting on the incident. Despite noting the session as a “State of Crypto address,” it wasn’t until 16 minutes in that he referenced cryptocurrency, declaring, “We’re going to propel our nation to new heights, you will be elated, and you’ll be crypto-enthusiasts.”

The highly awaited details of the cryptocurrency project were revealed over two hours into the live session, when project leader Zak Folkman hinted, “we plan to introduce a token.”

House Republicans insist on SEC Chair Gensler’s detailed crypto airdrops position

Republican Representatives Tom Emmer and Chairman Patrick McHenry of the House Financial Services Committee, in a letter dated Sept. 17, urged SEC Chair Gary Gensler to spell out his position on the categorization of crypto airdrops, voicing anxiety over the SEC’s litigation-related stance in past years.

“The SEC has unfairly influenced the game, preventing American citizens from contributing to the development of the next web frontier.”

Hydrogen Technology Corporation and its previous CEO were sued by the SEC for purported deceptive manipulation of “crypto asset securities” back in September 2022.

Ethena domain registrar compromised, Ethena Labs advises caution

Ethena’s website fell victim to what looks to be a front-end breach on Sept. 18, leading Ethena Labs to warn against engaging with any imposter websites or applications.

Social media announcements from Ethena Labs indicated an unauthorized access to their domain registration services, prompting a temporary shutdown of their official site to resolve the security breach.

They also assured their clients that the Ethena framework was unharmed by the incident and customer assets remain secure.

Settlement reached by SEC with Rari Capital over DeFi pools, unauthorized broker activities

Rari Capital and its founding members have reached an accord with the SEC, which alleged that Rari misled its investors and partook in unlicensed broker activities.

As per the SEC’s Sept. 18 notice, Rari Capital’s Earn and Fuse product offerings were likened to crypto asset investment funds that encouraged users to put up crypto assets for collective investment returns.

Rari Capital is accused of not registering the sale of securities, related to the interests in these funds and associated governance tokens.

Tether’s USDT increases dominance in stablecoin market by 20% over two years

Over the last couple of years, Tether has fortified its stake in the stablecoin sector, commanding over two-thirds of the market share.

The scope of USDt (Tether’s US dollar stablecoin) increased more than 20% in the past two years, now accounting for over 75% of the entire stablecoin sphere, Token Terminal reported on Sept. 16 X.

“Tether enhanced its market control from 55% to 75% over two years, with a USDT supply of $118 billion and a market dominance of 75%,” stated in a post by the onchain data analyzer.

Telegram trading bot Banana Gun sees over $1.9 million in user funds stolen

The cryptocurrency trading bot operating on Telegram, Banana Gun, has seen its users’ funds drained, amounting to an approximate total of $2 million.

Banana Gun offered trading functionalities across popular blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and Base. However, approximately $1.9 million has been siphoned from its users by at least 11 hackers, as reported by Hakan Unal, the senior Security Operation Center lead at onchain security firm Cyvers.

Unal informed Cointelegraph:

“We’ve identified wallet breaches linked to BananaGunBot. Our system detected about 11 attackers, potentially more, with a stolen sum of roughly $1.9 million. Numerous users have been affected.”

Snapshot of the DeFi market

As per data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization concluded the week on a positive note.

The largest surge among the top 100 was the token of Nervos Network (CKB), showing an uptick exceeding 100%, with Celestia’s (TIA) token closely following, marked by a 51% increase on the weekly ledger.

Thank you for reading our report on the latest major events in the DeFi zone. Tune in next Friday for additional narratives, education, and the ongoing evolution in this rapid-paced sector.