This Week in DeFi – April 1

To the DeFi community,

This week the Fantom Foundation has announced a brand new incentive program, this time allocating 335 million FTM tokens – worth almost $550M – to boost development on the network. The foundation is working in partnership with Gitcoin, using the organization’s Quadratic Funding system to match contributions for participating projects.

Launching a $480m grant program!

After successfully disbursing 35m+ FTM to projects innovating on Fantom, the incentive program is evolving!

With @gitcoin Grants, Fantom will strengthen funding support for a growing array of projects, big or small.https://t.co/dKx3Q3GZpd pic.twitter.com/hZkkDIvjlD

— Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) March 31, 2022

Cross-chain protocol LayerZero has raised $135 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital, a16z, FTX Ventures and others, at a $1 billion valuation. The protocol recently launched Stargate, a cross-chain bridge which attracted more than $2 billion in liquidity.

Super excited to work with @LayerZero_Labs!

They’re building out a key missing piece of crypto infrastructure–cross-chain liquidity.

And more importantly, they’re doing a great job of building great products. https://t.co/TvEC6sfpeE

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) March 30, 2022

Yet another fund has entered the space, as gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC) has raised $110 million to invest in early-stage blockchain start-ups, targeting DeFi, gaming, DAOs and more. Each investment is planned to be between $500,000 and $5 million, accepting both equity and tokens.

Their first fund got a 24.6X return in asset value. Congrats to Miko Matsumura​ etc. Gumi Cryptos Capital launches $110M fund to invest in blockchain startups #blockchain #GumiCryptosCapital @GamesBeat https://t.co/kJKiC2j9hM via @VentureBeat

— Dean Takahashi (@deantak) March 30, 2022

A MakerDAO improvement proposal is looking to onboard traditional loans by Huntingdon Valley Bank as collateral for use within the protocol. If accepted, it would be the first time that a traditional lender has been able to borrow against its assets via DeFi.

Huntingdon Valley Bank, a Pennsylvania Chartered Bank founded in 1871, has submitted a Collateral Onboarding Application to MakerDAO.

If approved by Governance, it will be the first collateral integration from a US-based bank into the DeFi ecosystem.https://t.co/w1UpzyoxOm

— Maker (@MakerDAO) March 25, 2022

DeFi total value locked (TVL) is sitting back at the highest levels seen since late January, as the crypto market slightly bounced back from its recent slump.

Decentralized finance and the traditional financial world are experiencing more crossover than ever, as the lines continue to blur significantly between the two areas. Protocols are beginning to consider more purposeful integrations of traditional financial instruments and real-world items, for both collateral and value-exchange. Venture capital continues to pour into the sector, while a growing number of DeFi basket funds now provide traditional investors with more exposure to DeFi assets. On the other hand, regulators continue to creep in with attempts to apply traditional financial rules to cryptocurrency wallets and users – a clash of values and principles indeed, this week headlined by a European Union move to de-anonymize self-custodied wallets.

As traditional and decentralized finance continue to amalgamate, individual cryptocurrency ecosystems are also experiencing a merge of their own. Development and investment alike are beginning to pour more heavily into cross-chain compatibility, as previously garden-walled networks begin to more easily flow between each other. As scalability solutions proliferate and the system becomes more interconnected than ever, the applications and doors opened are more exciting than ever.

Thanks to our partner:

Total Value Locked: $79.18B (up 2.37% since last week)

DeFi Market Cap: $135.99B (up 13.56%)

DEX Weekly Volume: $16B (up 13.98%)

DAI Supply: 9.22B (down 2.33%)

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Alejandro is a blockchain writer and consultant who has been involved in the space since early 2016. Being extremely passionate about this emerging technology, he has written content for a myriad of projects and news outlets.