To the DeFi community,
This week, the MakerDAO community released a proposal for an Optimistic DAI Bridge, aiming to serve as a fully decentralized off-ramp for Optimistic rollups. Initially the DAI bridge will share the same one week waiting period to take funds out of the Optimistic L2, but instant withdrawals are in the works targeting a Q3 release.
The Maker protocol can take advantage of this by offering a token (fDAI) which represents a claim on the L1 DAI through a vault which allows locking up fDAI in exchange for newly minted regular DAI. fDAI is then validated by a Maker Oracle which can verify against the CTC.
— Sam MacPherson (@sgmacpherson) March 9, 2021
Blockchain-based DAOs took a step closer to becoming legally recognized business entities in Wyoming, as ‘Bill 38’ passed through subcommittee review to an upcoming vote by the full Senate. If passed, the bill would be a huge leap forward in allowing DAOs to interact and develop binding agreements with other players in the economy, helping bring digital and crypto businesses into the mainstream even faster.
?? DAOs took a HUGE step forward today ??
The Wyoming DAO bill passed the Wyoming Senate committee. I’ll try to keep folks posted on what happens next.
This bill is significant — short thread why ?? https://t.co/RLrRUNAL2A
— Aaron Wright (@awrigh01) March 9, 2021
Overlay announced the upcoming launch of data stream trading, allowing users to trade against digital asset prices and other data feeds without requiring a counterparty or native assets at stake. The new protocol will mint and burn OVL governance tokens in accordance with trading profits and losses, sowing the seeds of a unique DeFi project that combines individual trading performance and governance control.
Introducing Overlay: A protocol for limitless marketshttps://t.co/cRJSsuxGm2
— Overlay (@OverlayProtocol) March 11, 2021
The Ethereum Berlin upgrade is deploying to testnets and will launch on mainnet April 14, bringing much needed changes to gas costs for initial and subsequent interactions with smart contracts.
The Berlin Ethereum network upgrade (aka hard fork) is scheduled to happen on mainnet in block 12,244,000, ~41 days from now (https://t.co/BTpYFQXr52)
Here's a thread with everything you need to know about the changes in the accepted Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) ?? 1/14 https://t.co/Ex6iVYOdjH
— Georgios Konstantopoulos (@gakonst) March 4, 2021
The Berlin upgrade is also the last before the much-discussed EIP-1559 that would see the supply of ETH gradually decrease, but Berlin should bring some welcome changes to gas costs in its own right.
And Tether has made its way onto Solana as development continues to coalesce around the fast but comparatively centralized blockchain, offering Serum traders a new option for moving out of volatile assets in the wild DeFi markets.
We’re pleased to announce the launch of Tether tokens on Solana.$USDt holders can now take advantage of #Solana fast speeds greater than 50,000 transactions per second, often for as little as $0.00001 per transaction.
Find out more??https://t.co/PetJ54cCow pic.twitter.com/60MNJU22qo
— Tether (@Tether_to) March 11, 2021
Some have argued that Ethereum’s biggest advantage over competing DeFi-compatible protocols is the vibrant community of developers, creatives, and supporters that have grown up around the first really programmable blockchain. It’s painfully clear that just about all eyes are fixed on the ongoing development of gas-saving measures for Ethereum-based protocols, but on the periphery, competing chains that had almost no developers now have a couple, and those that had a couple have a few more.
They’re not always easy to see, but these developments (and more and more of those focused on Ethereum, too) are driven largely by grassroots communities who contribute their time and brainpower to building the foundation for bigger and better things. Solana is the leading example of this today, but it’s far from the only community in ‘heads down’ mode as Ethereum was just a few years ago.
And that’s probably the best part about decentralized finance–the current Ethereum momentum isn’t enough to crowd out the other networks, and for the sake of innovation, there’s reason to hope there’s never one truly dominant protocol. Real creativity mostly seems to happen on the margins, and a strong community can overcome just about any obstacle. Are you a believer?
DAI
Highest Yields: Aave at 16.77% APY, Nexo Lend at 10% APY
Cheapest Loans: CoinList at 3.00% APY, Compound at 10.41% APY
MakerDAO Updates
DAI Savings Rate: 0.00%
Base Fee: 0.00%
ETH Stability Fee: 4.50%
USDC Stability Fee: 0.00%
WBTC Stability Fee: 4.50%
USDC
Highest Yields: Fulcrum at 10.76% APY, Nexo Lend at 10% APY
Cheapest Loans: CoinList at 1% APY, Compound at 9.85% APY
Wyoming DAO Bill Approved by Senate Subcommittee
Wyoming gets one step closer to making DAOs into official legal entites.
Trading Data Streams with Overlay
Overlay preps a new data driven market for DeFi traders.
Ethereum Berlin Upgrade Announcement
ETH devs keep tweaking as Ethereum gets closer to EIP-1559.
MATIC, SKL, and SUSHI are launching on COINBASE Pro
Coinbase Pro adds more DeFi tokens, solidifying their blue chip status.
New Partners Join Saffron Finance Ecosystem
The anon Saffron Finance team raises $2 million to keep building the tranch-based yield farm.
Stat Box
Total Value Locked: $43.78B (up 12.17% since last week)
DeFi Market Cap: $85.32B (up 18.04%)
DEX Weekly Volume: $14.01B (up 27.36%)
DAI Supply: 2.67B (up 9.88%)
Total DeFi Users: 1,587,200 (up 4.11%)
Bonus Reads
[Ryan Adams – Bankless] – The Case for $100 SUSHI
[Anthony Sassano – The Daily Gwei] – Celebrating the Good Times – The Daily Gwei #199
[Owen Fernau – The Defiant] – Big Data Protocol Amasses 10% of DeFi TVL Over the Weekend
[Chris Powers – Dose of DeFi] – Bridging to a multi-chain DeFi world
[Anthony Sassano – The Daily Gwei] – Tearing Down Walls – The Daily Gwei #200
Alex is an analyst and writer with experience at tech startups and Fortune 500 corporations. He’s focused on cutting-edge technologies in blockchain, energy, supply chains, transportation, urban living, and more and has been in the crypto community since 2014.
