DeFi tries to recover from Curve hack, but exploits continue: 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 DeFi ecosystem is yet to recover from the crisis brought on by the Curve Finance hack, and even though the issue seems contained, another set of exploits hit the DeFi ecosystem this past week.

DeFi protocol Steadefi is the latest victim of an ongoing exploit as the ecosystem was still recovering from the Curve crisis.

Binance came forward to invest $5 million in the Curve token as the hacker partially returned the funds to manage the risk associated with the Curve token price.

In other news, Aptos has partnered with Microsoft to collaborate on multiple Web3 solutions, helping its token soar in double digits. Coinbase became the first publicly listed company to launch a decentralized layer-2 platform called Base, which has already attracted significant interest from the DeFi community.

Binance invests $5 million in Curve token as hacker partially returns funds

Binance Labs, the venture arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has invested $5 million in Curve Finance (CRV), the namesake token of the decentralized stablecoin trading platform.

“Curve is the largest stableswap and second-largest DEX [decentralized exchange], with approximately $2.4 billion in total value locked and $215 million in daily volume at the time of writing,” Binance Labs said in the Aug. 10 announcement. Yi He, Binance’s co-founder and head of Binance Labs, said the firm is pledging its full support to the DEX “given recent events that have impacted the protocol.”

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Aptos token rises 11.6% after Microsoft deal to marry AI with blockchain

Aptos (APT), the cryptocurrency powering the layer-1 Aptos Network, is up approximately 11.6% since announcing it will leverage Microsoft’s suite of artificial intelligence tools to advance Web3 adoption among banks and financial enterprises.

This will be achieved by enabling the Aptos Network to tap into Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service to explore innovations in asset tokenization, on-chain payments and central bank digital currencies, Aptos said in an Aug. 9 statement.

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Base network has officially launched: Here’s how it can be used

Coinbase’s Base network has officially launched after spending a few weeks in an “open for builders only” phase. The network is now ready to onboard users, according to an Aug. 9 announcement from the team.

Several Web3 development teams have simultaneously announced that they are releasing apps for Base, and the network’s team has released a schedule of upcoming events to celebrate its launch.

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Breaking: ‘All funds are at risk’ — Steadefi exploited in ongoing attack

DeFi app Steadefi was exploited for at least $334,000 on Aug. 7 in an ongoing attack. The app’s development team said in a social media post that the attack currently “puts all funds at risk.” The app’s total value locked has plummeted due to the attack, according to data from DefiLlama.

The Steadefi team posted a message to X (formerly Twitter) stating: “NOTICE: Steadefi has been exploited and all funds are currently at risk.” The team also confirmed that an on-chain message had been sent to address 0x9cf71F2ff126B9743319B60d2D873F0E508810dc on Ethereum in an attempt to negotiate with the attacker. Blockchain data reveals several large inflows on the Avalanche chain came into this address, beginning at 4:41 pm UTC on Aug. 7.

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DeFi market overview

DeFi’s total market value saw a bearish decline in the past week. 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. The total value locked into DeFi protocols remained below $50 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.