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BTC $96,420 +2.34% ETH $3,280 +1.82% SOL $185.40 -0.92% BNB $642.50 +0.45% XRP $2.18 +3.12% DOGE $0.082 -1.50% ADA $1.05 +0.80% AVAX $42.10 +1.15%
08/04/2024

Whales Are Positioning for the Next Altcoin Rally, DeFi Is 'Waking Up' — Finance Redefined

Crypto whales are gearing up for the next altcoin season, while DeFi lending is seeing a recovery back to 2022 highs. Source: Cointelegraph Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly digest of the most important DeFi news — covering the most significant developments from the past week. This week saw renewed interest from large investors, or whales, as they position for the next altcoin rally by building strong "buy walls" to absorb future altcoin demand.

Whales Are Positioning for the Next Altcoin Rally, DeFi Is 'Waking Up' — Finance Redefined

Crypto whales are gearing up for the next altcoin season, while DeFi lending is seeing a recovery back to 2022 highs.

Source: Cointelegraph

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly digest of the most important DeFi news — covering the most significant developments from the past week.

This week saw renewed interest from large investors, or whales, as they position for the next altcoin rally by building strong "buy walls" to absorb future altcoin demand.

On top of that, the decentralized finance (DeFi) space is experiencing a resurgence, with DeFi lending climbing back above $13.3 billion — a level not seen since 2022.

"Whales Are Positioning for the Next Altcoin Rally" — CryptoQuant Founder

CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju believes crypto whales are positioning for the next altcoin rally as traders actively debate when altcoin season will begin.

Ju's analysis focuses on the one-year cumulative buy/sell volume delta for altcoins, a metric that measures the difference between buy and sell orders over a one-year window.

The analyst explains that whales prefer limit orders to avoid slippage, and a rising reading on this metric indicates that large and institutional investors are stacking limit buy orders — forming strong "buy walls" to meet future altcoin demand.

DeFi Is "Waking Back Up" — Active Loans Return to 2022 Levels

DeFi may be staging a comeback, with key metrics like active loans and total value locked (TVL) bouncing back from recent lows hit in 2023.

Crypto market analytics platform Token Terminal declared that "DeFi is waking back up" in a July 31 post on X.

They backed the claim with charts and data, including active loans, which have returned to levels not seen since early 2022, reaching approximately $13.3 billion.

Morpho Raises $50M from Ribbit Capital for On-Chain Lending

Decentralized finance protocol Morpho Labs raised $50 million in funding following a recent overhaul.

The round was led by Ribbit Capital with participation from a16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Variant, Pantera Capital, Kraken Ventures, and other investors. Morpho Labs had previously raised $23.6 million across multiple rounds, including an $18 million Series B from a16z and Variant in 2022.

The funds will be used to support Morpho Blue, a permissionless lending protocol that allows entities to create and manage their own markets without approval from any central authority. The solution also offers vaults that can be customized with specific risk management parameters.

Terra Chain Halts, ASTRO Token Drops Over 60%

The Terra chain announced it would halt at block 11430400, and user transactions would no longer be processed during the downtime.

According to an official post on X from Terra, the team will work with Terra (Phoenix-1) validators to apply an emergency patch following the halt to "fix a suspected vulnerability."

A post on X from Cyvers Alerts revealed that the exploit led to the theft of approximately 60 million Astroport (ASTRO) tokens, 3.5 million USD Coin (USDC) tokens, 500,000 Tether (USDT) tokens, and 2.7 Bitcoin (BTC).

Over 70% of Hacked Funds Lost to CeFi Entities — Cyvers

Centralized finance (CeFi) entities were the biggest targets of crypto hackers in 2024.

More than 70% of funds lost through crypto hacks were stolen from CeFi entities, according to Deddy Lavid, co-founder and CEO of Web3 security firm Cyvers.

The CEO told Cointelegraph that CeFi entities account for roughly 70% of incidents in terms of both funds lost and number of exploits:

"[CeFi] accounts for about 70% of the incident landscape. That said, attacks on smart contract-based projects are on the rise. The biggest security vulnerabilities today stem from both code and human error."

DeFi Market Overview

Most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap closed the week in the red, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

Among the top 100, the Base-native meme token Brett (BRETT) saw the largest decline, falling over 55% on the weekly chart, followed by Solana memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF), which dropped more than 54%.

Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama

Thanks for reading this week's roundup of key DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights, and analysis from this fast-moving space.