DeFi volumes surge 444% after Binance, Coinbase lawsuits: 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 United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuits against two leading centralized crypto exchanges — Binance.US and Coinbase — have led to a surge in DeFi trading volume over the past week.

While SEC’s enforcement action against centralized exchanges has hogged the headlines, the securities regulator is actively pursuing cases against the decentralized exchange (DEX) ecosystem as well. Crypto venture capital firm Paradigm has slammed the SEC’s approach, reiterating that DEXs are not securities exchanges.

In another legal battle, a U.S. district court has dismissed a lawsuit against DeFi protocol PoolTogether. The community behind the protocol had funded its legal defense through a $1.4 million nonfungible token (NFT) sale in 2022.

The DeFi market had a bullish start to June, but the momentum didn’t last long due to the SEC enforcement action in the second week. Most of the top 100 DeFi tokens traded in the red, with the total value locked falling below $50 billion again.

SEC crackdown on Binance and Coinbase surge DeFi trading volumes 444%

The median trading volume across the top three DEXs jumped 444% in the past 48 hours as crypto investors reeled from the SEC’s recent legal actions against centralized cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance.

According to aggregated data from CoinGecko, total daily trading volumes on Uniswap v3 (Ethereum), Uniswap v3 (Arbitrum) and PancakeSwap v3 (BNB Smart Chain) — which account for 53% of the total DEX trading volume in the last 24 hours — increased by more than $792 million between June 5 and June 7.

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U.S. federal court dismisses lawsuit against DeFi platform PoolTogether

A United States judge recently dismissed a lawsuit against the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform PoolTogether. According to the ruling, the federal court system is not the correct place to air concerns against the DeFi startup.

U.S. district court Judge Frederic Block said that despite having genuine concerns about the startup, a lawsuit in a federal court is not “an appropriate way to address them. The judge also said that the plaintiff, Joseph Kent, does not have standing to pursue a lawsuit because he “suffered no concrete harm at the hands of the defendants.”

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Paradigm slams SEC’s ‘incoherent’ attempt to police decentralized exchanges

Crypto venture capital firm Paradigm has slammed the SEC’s attempt to redefine the term “exchange” — which, if accepted, would bring decentralized exchanges under its purview.

On June 8, the firm sent a lengthy 14-page letter to the SEC secretary, Vanessa Countryman, regarding the regulator’s proposed redefinition of the term “exchange” in the 1934 Securities Exchange Act.

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Atomic Wallet hack losses top $35 million, on-chain sleuth reports

At least $35 million worth of crypto has been stolen from Atomic Wallet users since June 2, according to an analysis from on-chain sleuth ZachXBT. The five largest losses account for $17 million. According to Atomic Wallet on Twitter, the cause of the attack is being investigated. Reports have surfaced of lost tokens, transaction histories being erased, and even entire crypto portfolios being stolen.

An independent investigation by pseudonymous Twitter ZachXBT, known for tracing crypto stolen funds and assisting hacked projects, found the largest victim lost $7.95 million in Tether (USDT). “Think it could surpass $50m. Keep finding more and more victims, sadly,” commented ZachXBT.

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DeFi market overview

DeFi’s total market value saw a bearish decline this past week. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a bearish week, with most tokens trading in the red, bleeding double digits. The total value locked in DeFi protocols fell below the $50 billion mark.

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.