The previous week in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) was marked by the anticipation surrounding the approval of a United States-based spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF), as well as concerns about the regulatory landscape of DeFi. The popular decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap has declared its intention to fight the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in response to receiving a Wells notice from the agency. Uniswap believes that the SEC’s case is weak and has successfully represented other firms, such as Grayscale and Ripple, against the financial regulator in the past.
In other news, Bitcoin Runes, which experienced a surge in popularity in April, has witnessed an 84% decline in transactions since then. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has called for the use of zero-knowledge (ZK) likes on the newly launched decentralized social media platform Farcaster to combat preference falsification.
Following a bullish week of marketwide price momentum, the total value locked in DeFi protocols has increased by $10 billion and has once again surpassed the $100 billion mark.
Uniswap stands up to SEC Wells notice: “We are prepared to defend” DeFi
Uniswap Labs, the developer behind the Uniswap DEX, has responded to the SEC’s issuance of a Wells notice to the firm, indicating a potential enforcement action. In a blog post on May 21, Uniswap argued that the SEC’s legal arguments in issuing the Wells notice were weak and pledged to fight the matter in court if necessary. The company’s chief legal officer, Marvin Ammori, stated that the SEC’s case was flawed as it treated all tokens as securities under its jurisdiction. Uniswap’s legal team has previously represented other firms, including Grayscale and Ripple, in successful cases against the financial regulator.
Bitcoin Runes hype diminishes, transactions plummet by 84%
The Bitcoin Runes protocol is struggling to maintain its share of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions. Since its launch on April 20, Runes transactions have dominated Bitcoin blockchain traffic on eight different days, mostly during weekends. The launch of Bitcoin Runes coincided with the fourth Bitcoin halving, resulting in increased transaction volume on the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin mining revenue surpassed $100 million for the first time, reaching an all-time high daily earning of $107.7 million.
Vitalik Buterin advocates ZK “Likes” on Farcaster after X privacy shift
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has expressed his support for X engineer Haofei’s announcement on the decentralized social media platform Farcaster. Haofei revealed that X will be making “Likes” private. On May 20, Buterin expanded on the idea by suggesting that Farcaster implement ZK likes to counter preference falsification, which occurs when individuals misrepresent their true preferences due to social pressure or fear.
StarkWare’s ZKThreads solution could prevent fund lockups similar to FTX
StarkWare has introduced ZKThreads, a new scaling framework designed to prevent locked-up funds and enhance the scalability of decentralized applications. Louis Guthmann, head of product/market strategy at StarkWare, emphasized the potential impact of ZKThreads, stating that the layer-scaling technology they have developed could prevent a situation similar to what happened with FTX.
DeFi market overview
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView reveals that the top 100 DeFi tokens in terms of market capitalization had a bullish week, with most tokens trading in the green on the weekly charts. After weeks of bearish pressure, the total value locked in DeFi protocols has surpassed the $100 billion mark.
Thank you for reading our recap of the most significant DeFi developments from the past week. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights, and education on this rapidly evolving space.