Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential insights into decentralized finance (DeFi) — a newsletter designed to bring you the most important updates from the past week.
In the world of DeFi, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has been found guilty of money laundering and has been sentenced to over five years in prison.
In other news, Binance has developed a solution to address poisoning scams, Polymarket has raised $70 million in funding, and DeFi is facing challenges in the European Union.
Tornado Cash developer convicted of money laundering
Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the cryptocurrency mixing protocol Tornado Cash, has been found guilty of money laundering. This verdict has significant implications for open-source code developers.
On May 14, the s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal in the Netherlands convicted Pertsev of money laundering. He was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for allegedly laundering $1.2 billion in illicit assets on the Tornado Cash platform.
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DeFi may struggle to maintain decentralization under new EU law
New regulations in the European Union could pose challenges for DeFi protocols. The issue lies in the tendency of many DeFi protocols to have centralized front-ends and intermediaries.
The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which will be fully implemented by the end of 2024, will require DeFi protocols to comply with the same licensing and Know Your Customer requirements as traditional financial services firms. This burden may prove difficult for many DeFi protocols to bear.
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Binance develops solution to address poisoning scams after $68 million exploit
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has developed an “antidote” to combat the increasing prevalence of address poisoning scams that deceive investors into sending funds to fraudulent addresses.
According to a report shared with Cointelegraph, Binance’s security team has created an algorithm that has successfully detected millions of poisoned crypto addresses.
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Polymarket secures $70 million in funding from Vitalik Buterin and Founders Fund
Polymarket, a platform that allows betting on political events, has raised $70 million in funding, with contributions from Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, and Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund.
As betting on the 2024 United States presidential elections gains momentum, Polymarket has raised $70 million across two funding rounds. The latest Series B round, led by Founders Fund, raised $45 million.
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DeFi market overview
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the top 100 DeFi tokens by market capitalization had a mixed week, with most experiencing gains on the weekly charts. The total value locked in DeFi protocols remains above $90 billion.
Thank you for reading our summary of the most significant DeFi developments this week. Join us again next Friday for more stories, insights, and education on this rapidly evolving space.