Cybrid Weekly DeFi Digest - June 10th

Market Take

Cloudy, with a chance of sun?

There are fairly mixed signals coming from the market this week. BTC is showing some bullish signals whilst ETH continues to experience an overall downward trend, despite some promising news this week.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, this trend is being felt across the DeFi ecosystem with TVL falling further after the tumultuous events of May.

The news of Ethereum's successful merge on the Ropsten testnet has done little so far to buoy price. However, BTC did break its consecutive 9-week red candle run, which is cause for some celebration.

News of the Week

Proposed Senate Bill allays fears whilst raising questions

The largest and most comprehensive senate bill to cover crypto to date was released this Monday. The overall reaction from the crypto community to the report has been one of relief. Rather than taking a prohibitive approach, it supports the notion of financial sovereignty, waives any tax obligations for transactions under USD$200 and assigns oversight to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as opposed to the less favorable SEC. That said, crypto legal teams have identified some "internal inconsistencies" in relation to what the bill means for DeFi.

Ethereum takes an important step towards PoSThis Wednesday was a historic day for Ethereum. The network successfully transitioned from its original Proof of Work (PoW) consensus algorithm to Proof of Stake (PoS) on its Ropsten testnet. The shift signals a significant step closer to the merging of Eth1 and Eth2 onto one single chain; a move that is due in August of this year.

Deloitte report confirms retail rush into cryptoBritish-based financial services giant, Deloitte, published the findings from an extensive survey into retail sentiment regarding crypto integrations this Wednesday.

The report, entitled "Merchants Getting Ready for Crypto", found that 75% of US merchants are preparing to transition into accepting crypto payments within the next two years. 85% of those surveyed see enabling cryptocurrency payments as being "a high or very high priority". Of the companies already blazing the trail, an overwhelming 93% reported a positive impact on their business as a result of incorporating cryptocurrency payments.

Nearly half of respondents who have yet to embrace crypto-led growth stated concerns around the “complexity of integrating digital currencies with existing financial infrastructure”.

Former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, and Jay-Z launch "Bitcoin Academy"A proposed 12-week financial literacy program will be available to residents of the public housing complex that Jay-Z hails from in Brooklyn, New York. The scheme also envisages a "Crypto Kids Camp" for younger members of the neighborhood. The rapper and Block founder both see a major opportunity in crypto to achieve financial inclusion for historically marginalized communities.

Osmosis DEX exploit leads to loss of USD$5 million Validators halted the Osmosis chain on Wednesday after a vulnerability in the DEX's Liquidity Pools resulted in a USD$5 million hack. In a coordinated attack, four hackers are reported to have drained funds by 95% before the exploit was discovered.

Crypto 101 - What are Soulbound NFTs?

Soul Bound NFTsA Vitalik Buterin co-written research paper was released titled "Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul". While it's definitely not a short read, the discussion of Soul Bound NFTs is a hot new topic that will certainly be impactful to future development. The paper is following the theme of a post he made back in January 2022.

Soulbound tokens are a special form of NFT that are designed to be 'bound' to a single wallet, instead of being easily sold or traded like traditional NFT's. There are a ton of purposes for Soulbound NFT's, such as identifying what people have historically done, providing access to services, and even determining future credit. The technology and implementations are still very early, but we expect some interesting developments in the space.Check out OtterSpace's Rinkeby testnet implementation of the Soul Bound Token.(First time on Rinkeby? You'll need to go to a faucet for some testnet ETH)

Further reading

If you haven't done so yet, head over to the Cybrid blog and make sure to follow us! In the meantime, here's a brief round-up of our latest offerings:

• Making your card “top of wallet” for your customers: Why you should add crypto rewards to your card program. This piece explores why you might want to rethink your standard cashback offerings in favor of a far more exciting - yet accessible - alternative.

• To kick everything off we had Product Head, Lee Cocking, share his analysis of Crypto-Led Growth. In this article, Lee maps out the landscape and demonstrates why now is the time to position your business to make the most of crypto's explosive gains.

Upcoming Webinar

For more on what the crypto revolution means for you and your business, don't forget to join us live for our event on Launching Crypto Trade and Rewards in Your Fintech this coming Wednesday. We hope to see you there!

Cybrid enables FinTechs and Neobanks to unlock crypto-led growth with an array of crypto products including crypto trade, earn, rewards and more. Book a sales demo, or register in our sandbox.

Thanks for staying up to date with Cybrid and the exciting world of cryptocurrencies and DeFi. Catch you next week for another freshly-pressed news round-up.