DeFi


Markets

Maple Finance's $54M of Sour Debt Shows Risks of Crypto Lending Without Collateral

Maple Finance, the largest unsecured crypto lending platform, is grappling with a debt crisis while gearing up for a major system upgrade. The project's MPL token has plunged, and depositors are likely to stomach big losses. Here's how it happened, and what comes next.

There's some $54 million of sour debt on Maple Finance's lending platform because some of its largest borrowers were devastated in the FTX-blowup. (Michael Diane/Unsplash)

Markets

Grayscale, in the Spotlight as GBTC Discount Widens, Says DeFi Fund Now Trading

The debut of the DEFG fund in over-the-counter markets comes as Grayscale’s largest fund, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), is trading at a record discount and at the center of crypto-market speculation.

Grayscale's Michael Sonnenshein speaks at Invest: NYC 2019 (CoinDesk)

Finance

DeFi Protocol Perennial Launches, Announces $12M in Funding

Polychain Capital and Variant co-led a seed round for the decentralized derivatives protocol.

DeFi protocol Perennial makes public a $12 million fundraise. (Unsplash)

Finance

Attacker Targets Wealthy Crypto Funds Using Telegram Chats

Exchange owners cautioned against downloads of malicious as attackers zeroed in on gullible users with a very relevant and specific narrative.

(Adam Levine/CoinDesk)

Tech

What Does an AI Chatbot ‘Think’ About DeFi? We Asked ChatGPT

ChatGPT, CoinDesk’s new, robot-guest contributor, explains how AI might help (and harm) the future of DeFi.

AI Artwork Robot writing typing writer (DALL-E/CoinDesk)

Tech

DeFi Project Mercurial Plots Revamp and New Tokens Following 'Toxic' Association With FTX

Mercurial would launch some of its popular products as a separate project under the name Meteora.

Piggy bank bent forward change money coins (Andre Taissin/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

Tech

DeFi Protocol SushiSwap Proposes 'Immediate' Action to Support Its Treasury

Developers proposed to divert 100% of fees generated on the platform to Sushi’s multisig for one year or until new tokenomics are implemented.

Los rollups no tienen la seguridad de Ethereum. (Luigi Pozzoli/Unsplash)

Markets

Crypto Audit Platform Sherlock Expects $4M Loss From Troubled Loans on Maple Finance

Sherlock deposited $5 million USDC of its staking pool into the beleaguered credit pool on Maple, which suffered a $31 million hit from Orthogonal Trading’s FTX-induced insolvency.

Mysterious transactions and reconciliation head-scratchers happen in traditional finance, too, but crypto could be uniquely prone to a situation of this sort. (Wikimedia Commons)

Markets

Crypto Firm Orthogonal, Victim of FTX Contagion, Now Faces Internal Dissent

Shortly after Orthogonal got served with default notices on $36 million of crypto loans from Maple Finance, the firm’s credit team published a statement saying it was “speechless” and unaware of the extent of the trading team’s exposures.

Rancor and dissent have broken out between units of Orthogonal Trading after $36 million of loan defaults on the crypto lending platform Maple Finance. (Charles Altamont Doyle/Creative Commons, modified by CoinDesk)