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In an address to the Federalist Society in Washington on Tuesday, Michael S. Barr invoked the ghost of 1800s bank runs to illustrate the dangers he sees in the new digital monies.

“Caution is warranted because we have a long and painful history of private money created with insufficient safeguards,” Barr warned.

Commenting on the Genius Act, he drew a straight line from the core psychology behind 19th-century banking panics to today’s digital dollars.

“These same run dynamics occurred in modern times” he said, referring to the 2008 crisis and Covid-19 panic that shocked the financial system.

Barr’s warning lands at a pivotal moment for the booming industry. Stablecoins have grown over 50% since January 2025 to become a market worth $316 billion, according to DefiLlama data.

Earlier this week, British bank Standard Chartered forecasted the sector could quintuple to $2 trillion by 2028. Back in November, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent projected that stablecoins are on track to reach $3 trillion by 2030.

The crypto industry has celebrated the growth as evidence of how decentralised finance and blockchain solutions are becoming mainstream, but Barr warns that stablecoins jeopardises the stability of the US economy.

After all, it’s happened before.

“The particularly severe Panic of 1907, which featured a run on trust companies that offered deposit products backed by less liquid assets, led eventually to the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913,” he stressed.

Not so stable?

Stablecoins are stable only if they can be redeemed at par to the dollar, promptly and reliably, even in periods of market stress.

“At the same time, stablecoin issuers have an incentive to maximise the return on their reserve assets by extending the risk spectrum as far out as possible,” Barr said. “That incentive can increase profits in good times but risks undermining confidence during market stress.”

Stablecoins themselves have been subject to valuation pressures in recent years, Barr warned, citing history as showing that private money tends to flourish in good times and fracture under panics.

From the 1800s Free Banking Era to the Panic of 1907, and even the modern strains on money market funds during the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, redemption promises have cracked when people’s confidence faltered, he said.

“The quality and liquidity of stablecoin reserve assets are critical to their long-run viability,” he said.

Illicit financing concerns 

Barr also flagged money laundering and terrorist financing risks since stablecoins can circulate in secondary markets without robust customer identification typically required by traditional banking institutions.

“Both regulatory and technological solutions will need to be deployed to limit these risks,” he said.

Highlighting these concerns, Russian and Iranian groups are using stablecoins to purchase military drones, according to a Monday report by the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

The trend towards using stablecoins rather than Bitcoin “reflects a broader shift in illicit crypto finance toward dollar-denominated cryptocurrencies, which offer the price stability suited to commercial procurement,” Chainalysis said.

“At $2,200–$3,500 per unit, a single successful fundraising campaign translates directly into battlefield capability for groups that cannot access conventional finance.”

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up 2.5% over the past 24 hours, trading at $68,902.
• Ethereum is up 4.4% over the past 24 hours at $2,139.

What we’re reading 

• XRP has a lot going for it. So why is it still trading 60% below its all-time high? — DL News
• Coinbase: Fannie Mae mortgage initiative links cryptocurrency with real economy — DL News
• Cross-Border FX Startup OpenFX Raises $94 Million, Hits $45 Billion in Annual Volume — Unchained
• Bye TACO, hello NACHO — Milk Road
• Crypto networks ‘must wake up’ after Google exposes nightmare nine-minute Bitcoin break-in scenario — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com.

On paper, the cryptocurrency created by Ripple has a lot going for it. The company behind the digital asset ended its long-running legal dustup with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2025, and is increasingly expanding its business.

At the same time, investors are pouring millions into US XRP exchange-traded funds, and the crypto industry has a key ally in the White House.

And yet, XRP is trading 64% below the record price set in July.

“I’m just not convinced that in this marketplace, XRP is going to succeed at regaining the stature that it once had, which is sad and unfortunate,” Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines, told DL News.

He argued that the asset’s reputation was hurt badly after the SEC targeted Ripple in its lawsuit in 2020.

However, not everyone agrees with that bearish sentiment.

So, what’s likely to drive the price of XRP?

ETF inflows

Despite the market downturn, the seven XRP exchange-traded funds manage around $1.1 billion in assets, according to CoinShares data. Bitwise’s product is the most successful, taking in the lion’s share of trading volume.

Bitwise Asset Management’s chief investment officer, Matt Hougan, told DL News that despite market conditions, the fund didn’t experience outflows until March.

“The fact that it has all those flows despite XRP’s price being down is a good sign,” Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas told DL News. 

He noted that, while these numbers are “pretty small compared to Bitcoin” funds which pulled in $107 billion in fresh cash in their first year, they are very good compared to most other ETFs.

“You just can’t compare them to Bitcoin [ETFs],” he added. “Which is a freak of nature.”

Edelman rejects that sentiment. He argues that the reason why people are investing into the XRP ETFs are the same people who believe that it will somehow return to its former glory.

He says that’s unlikely.

“Let’s be honest, the flows are positive but they’re really low — will it in the end matter?” Edelman said.

Donald Trump effect

Still, things are in place to work in XRP’s favour. US President Donald Trump is one of them.

As part of his mission to make the country the “crypto capital of the world”, Trump included XRP in the government’s strategic digital asset reserve announcement in March 2025.

Ripple donated to the Trump campaign and the financial services company’s chiefs have attended events at the White House — including ones aimed at shaping crypto policy.

In February, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, joined other crypto bigwigs in the White House to negotiate with banking chiefs on how to get the crypto market structure bill through.

Trump sided with the crypto industry this month when he demanded the bill get passed.

Market woes

But like many other cryptocurrencies, XRP will likely only reach new highs when Bitcoin makes a comeback.

The leading cryptocurrency is now nearly 50% below the all-time high it notched in October. Investor fears around the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates high, the ongoing war in Iran aren’t helping risk-on assets like digital assets.

Like Solana this is really impressive given these launched into a brutal 45% drawdown. Traditionally, inflows are near imposs for ETF having a reverse shiny object moment, and esp if they are brand new. My guess is this is largely XRP super fans vs casual retail. https://t.co/yjGiwAkC7l

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) March 10, 2026

“What XRP probably needs is for Bitcoin to come back,” Balchunas told DL News. 

“And then probably need some more good news, some more adoption. But it’s a thing that exists in the ecosystem; it’s one of the top tokens, and the ETFs have been pretty successful,” he continued, adding that the coin is “one to watch” among the altcoins — it could experience a big run if Bitcoin breaks new highs.

Polymarket punters aren’t currently feeling confident, though: the crypto-powered betting site puts odds that the coin will drop below $1 at 76%.

Ripple wins

Yet, in the midst of all those woes, Ripple keeps growing.

While the fintech company and the coin are separate entities, good things for Ripple tend to mean good things for the price of XRP.

And the firm, hoping to go public this year, hit a valuation of $50 billion, according to reports. That’s more than double that of stablecoin giant, Circle.

The company, while distancing itself from the coin, has debuted a stablecoin, has its flagship blockchain and ledger, and has made a number of top acquisitions.

All of which could end up pumping the price of the fifth biggest cryptocurrency. Eventually.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

For all the criticism directed at Lido over the past several years, it remains the second-largest protocol on Ethereum, with nearly $19 billion in user deposits as of Tuesday morning. It generated $40 million in revenue last year, half of which goes to the Lido DAO, a cooperative run by tokenholders.

And yet its token is in the dumps.

LDO has touched $0.27 a couple of times this month, marking an all-time low. It is remarkably poor performance for an asset tied to such a successful business.

I’ve written about this before — nobody wants governance tokens that give them a say in protocol management. The average investor wants no part in running a business. Even the small coterie of whales that functionally run most major DAOs can’t accumulate enough tokens to regularly reach quorum.

Like other DAOs, Lido has turned to the most obvious solution to placate frustrated investors: buying back its tokens.

In November, Steakhouse Financial, a firm that integrated with Lido DAO to form the Lido Finance Operations Team, put forward a programme that would only trigger under certain conditions, to wit: Ether trading above $3,000 and the DAO bringing in more than $40 million in annualised revenue.

Once those conditions are met, the protocol would use 50% of treasury inflows from staking over the initial $40 million to buy LDO tokens.

But that proposal has foundered. In the Lido forum, employees have assured DAO members a more detailed version of the proposal is in the works.

Members’ patience, however, is running out as LDO hits all-time lows.

“Until we fix the tokenomics we should accept that LDO tokens have no real economic value because they are merely votes, not dividend-paying shares,” one member wrote in the forum.

“They could be called worthless papers, with profits coming from later buyers paying earlier buyers.”

Sensing unrest, perhaps, the Lido Ecosystem Foundation on Friday proposed using up to 10,000 staked Ether tokens, worth about $20 million on Tuesday, to purchase LDO. It cited the token’s rock-bottom price as the motivation.

“This is not a routine fluctuation,” the Foundation wrote. “It represents one of the most significant dislocations between LDO’s market price and its underlying protocol fundamentals in the token’s history.”

The proposal was not an “addition, specification or replacement” to November’s automated buyback programme, the Foundation added. “The current proposal is an one-off initiative to utilize market opportunities.”

Lido DAO members have voiced their support and LDO has rallied some 18%, to $0.32, since Friday.

“I’m sure that LDO is really undervalued right now, it makes sense for the DAO to use some of its idle [staked Ether] instead of just letting it sit there doing nothing,” one member wrote.

Now, the question is: is LDO truly undervalued, or is the market just waking up to the reality that governance tokens — and, perhaps, the DAO model writ large — aren’t all that interesting?

Top DeFi stories of the week

This week in DeFi governance

VOTE: Arbitrum DAO votes to upgrade code of conduct

VOTE: Arbitrum DAO votes to implement new gas pricing algorithm

VOTE: Aave DAO votes to establish GHO-based savings product

Post of the week

AGI is finally here.

some people are saying that Anthropic’s Mythos model is so powerful that it can actually explain futarchy

— Gwart (@GwartyGwart) March 30, 2026

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? Email him at aleks@dlnews.com.

The new report also notes that stablecoins have found more use cases, which has drummed up velocity, the rate the digital tokens are turned over.

“Overall stablecoin velocity has doubled over the past two years, with stablecoins now turning over six times a month on average,” the report authored by Geoff Kendrick, the global head of digital assets research at the bank, read.

Stablecoins changing hands more often means that the tokens — typically pegged to the value of the dollar — are being used more widely.

Since US President Trump signed the Genius Act last year, major companies and banks are debuting or researching their own stablecoins with the hope the biggest crypto application will speed up payments. This has sped up the merger of traditional finance and blockchain-based businesses.

Stablecoins proving useful 

Stablecoins were originally used by traders to buy and sell crypto without having to use traditional financial rails, in decentralised finance applications, or by those in the developing world to hedge against a collapsing currency.

But that’s changing, Standard Chartered’s report said. Now, burgeoning artificial intelligence  payments and stablecoins replacing traditional finance uses are leading to surging transactions.

“The good news is that these new use cases are, so far, additive to overall stablecoin transactions,” the report continued.

The report noted that the bank’s prediction for the market value of stablecoins to hit $2 trillion by the end of 2028 still stands, but increased velocity could hinder this growth if those more use cases hadn’t been added to the mix.

Stablecoins are currently a $315.5 billion market, according to DefiLlama data.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

But while experts say crypto owners don’t need to press the panic button yet, they warn the crypto sector that failing to rise to the challenge could spell disaster.

“Users’ assets are safe today,” Michael Heinrich, CEO of the blockchain and AI firm 0G Labs, told DL News. “But the industry needs to wake up. The danger isn’t quantum computers now. It’s the ones coming in 2035 when half the industry still hasn’t upgraded.”

The warning comes as major crypto players, including the aforementioned foundation, scramble to get upgrades in place to protect their multi-billion-dollar blockchain protocols.

Nine-minute warning

Google’s researchers used an undisclosed model to simulate the kind of computing power it would take to decrypt the algorithms that protect transactions and wallets.

While quantum computers already exist today, none of them currently have the capability to break the cryptography protecting Bitcoin.

However, the prospect of quantum computers becoming a reality in the next few years spooked crypto. And these machines, Google appears to have demonstrated, will surpass their predecessors, wielding the kind of computational power needed to crack blockchain algorithms in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee.

“The gap between theory and real-world deployment remains significant, particularly around scale and error correction, so this is not an overnight threat,” Leo Fan, the founder of the crypto firm Cysic and the former quantum resilience lead at Algorand, told DL News.

But Fan warned of “long-term risks” that could emerge if quantum systems become capable of cracking elliptic curve cryptography. That’s the protective algorithms used by most leading crypto networks, including both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

And it was precisely these attacks on elliptic curve cryptography that the Google team targeted.

“Once quantum systems cross the threshold, the signatures protecting wallets could be forged,” Fan said. “The transition to post-quantum cryptography is slow and difficult, especially for decentralised networks.”

No simple fixes

Scientists are still a decade to 15 years away from rolling out the kind of quantum computers needed to break into wallets, Heinrich said.

But when these types of machines do emerge, simple fixes won’t protect against the kind of widespread crypto thefts that could occur without adequate preventative measures, insiders warn.

“Blockchain systems can’t just push updates,” said Heinrich. “They need coordinated protocol upgrades across decentralised networks. This is an infrastructure problem disguised as a security warning.”

Google’s research “directly refutes every argument the crypto industry has used to dismiss the quantum threat,” Alex Pruden, CEO and cofounder of the blockchain firm Project Eleven, said in comments shared with DL News.

“Bitcoin can’t just push an emergency update,” said Pruden. “Protocol changes take years of consensus and testing.”

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.

Over the past few weeks, South Korean police have unearthed a criminal network that carries out vengeance on customers’ behalf, with bills settled in crypto.

Think of it as an underground version of Craigslist. But instead of getting a gig worker to clean out gutters, customers can hire people to smear human waste on their enemies' front door for $1,300 worth.

For $325, the criminals will leave leaflets scattered around the victim’s neighbourhood, alleging that the person is a child sex offender if they’re male, or a prostitute if they’re female. Other payable tasks include supergluing doors and keyholes, covering houses with slanderous graffiti, and delivering threatening messages.

“We will take revenge on your behalf and settle your grudges,” read a Korean-language X post seen by DL News today. The post featured a Telegram handle, and invited “customers” to get in touch for more details.

The revenge network and their price list were reported by South Korean newspapers Dong-A Ilbo, Joongang Ilbo, and Kiho Ilbo.

The wave of attacks adds to the long list of how lawbreakers have used cryptocurrencies to get paid for their crimes.

In 2015, Ross Ulbricht, the developer behind Silk Road, was sentenced to life in prison for developing a dark web marketplace that enabled people to buy drugs and other criminal services with Bitcoin. US President Donald Trump pardoned Ulbricht in January 2025.

Cybercriminals also often demand payment in cryptocurrencies to avoid being tracked by law enforcement. The North Korean-linked Lazarus Group has laundered billions in stolen funds using crypto rails, security firms say.

Experts also say sanctioned countries like Russia and Iran use blockchain-based money to move funds across the world.

At a time when the crypto industry is striving for legitimacy, stories like these highlight the fact digital assets can be used by law-abiding citizens and criminals alike.

‘A professional organisation’

It is against that backdrop that more details of the South Korean revenge network are emerging.

Police in Gyeonggi Province said in early March that they were investigating three suspected crypto-powered “revenge attack” cases. That number has since gone up to six, with police warning that criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their methods.

In one of those cases, a victim had had a leaflet shoved into their letterbox. The words “I will not leave you alone” was the ominous message. A suspect later told the police that he was paid between $300 to $600 to deliver the threat.

In another case, police arrested a man suspected of graffitiing the front door of a victim’s house with red paint, scattering food waste on the entrance and smearing human faeces on a nearby stairwell.

Police say that a self-styled “private revenge organisation” is likely behind the wave of attacks.

“We believe a professional organisation is behind these crimes,” a police spokesperson told Kiho Ilbo. “We are conducting a multi-faceted investigation into the matter.”

À la carte services

In addition to the price list above, potential customers can ask “brokers,” who police say function as intermediaries between the masterminds and the people who carry out the attacks, for à la carte services.

Joongang Ilbo journalists, who contacted an alleged broker posing as a client, said brokers also offered to frame potential victims for crimes like assault, cause them financial damage, or even inflict bodily harm.

Police say the criminals who carry out the attacks are paid around $300 per month, in addition to bonuses.

Brokers, masterminds, and attackers all reportedly use Telegram to communicate with one another, and crypto as a payment tool.

This means none of the parties ever have to meet in person, or have any information about one another’s identities.

Officers say criminals plan their attacks meticulously, taking care to avoid closed-circuit TV cameras when possible, or wearing masks, hoods, and baseball caps when they need to pass by cameras.

Police hunt continues

The six cases share close geographic links. One allegedly took place in Uiwang, two in Hwaseong, one in Gunpo, one in Pyeongtaek, and one in Paju. That means they all fall within a roughly 120-kilometre radius of the capital.

So far, however, no revenge attacks have been reported in Seoul.

Police say they have made multiple arrests, remanding all of the people they suspect of carrying out the attacks in custody.

The hunt for the masterminds and brokers who facilitated and ordered the crimes, however, remains ongoing, police said.

Officers said that the revenge attackers’ client list includes suspected fraudsters who have commissioned attacks on people who reported them to the police.

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.

David Brickell and Chris Mills, analysts at the London Crypto Club, said that, while there's doom and gloom in markets, Bitcoin still has a lot going for it.

“Bitcoin has outperformed virtually every macro asset, aside from oil, since the outbreak of the war,” the pair said in a Monday newsletter.

Here are four factors market watchers say drive the price right now.

Iran war

The US is ramping up its war footing against Iran. The country is assembling roughly 50,000 troops in the region as it eyes reopening the Strait of Hormuz and potentially seizing Kharg Island, a critical hub for Iranian oil exports.

The uncertainty of the conflict weighs on markets. The S&P 500, a key benchmark for the global market, is down 7% year-to-date to levels not seen since August. On Monday, over $1 trillion in value was wiped out from the US stock market in a single trading session.

Even gold is down. The asset is globally seen as the premier safe-haven during troubled times. The metal is heading towards its worst month since 2008. The precious metal is down 15% this month.

Yet Bitcoin is still outperforming gold. It is down just 0.2% over the past month.

A slew of analysts told DL News last week that this fact is incentivising institutional investors to bet even more on the top crypto — especially as they expect things to get better soon.

Brickell and Mills noted that, while some say the cryptocurrency’s latest downturn proves that it has failed as a hedge against fiat debasement, it is still up 10 times over since 2020.

“Bitcoin, as a non-sovereign, borderless asset, remains the ultimate hedge against the failure of existing economic and political structures,” they wrote.

Fed worries 

The war has worried central banks around the world. Traders are now pricing in that the Federal Reserve and others will raise interest rates to fight inflation stemming from skyrocketing energy prices.

Higher interest rates incentivise investors to buy and hold bonds for risk free yield, rather than gamble with riskier assets like Bitcoin.

Investors are “worried over the increasingly drawn-out nature of the Iran conflict and the prospects of higher inflation, with the June FOMC interest rate expectations now having flipped from rate cuts to rate hikes,” wrote James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares.

Yet, Brickell and Mills argue that this approach is foolish.

Attempting to curb short-term inflation by suppressing demand through monetary policy is “akin to burning down the house to cook the turkey,” they said. “Hiking rates doesn’t help re-open the Strait of Hormuz.”

Institutional interest 

Despite the market worries, institutional investors seem to be betting on Bitcoin and other crypto assets.

In March, investors poured  $1.2 billion into Bitcoin exchange-money funds this month, making March the best month since October, DefiLlama data shows.

On March 27, Paul Howard, a senior director at high-frequency crypto market maker Wincent, told DL News that private over-the-counter deals, usually conducted between institutions like hedge funds, have spiked.

Now, even highly conservative institutions like pension funds and university endowments are pouring capital into Bitcoin ETFs and digital asset treasuries to get exposure to crypto.

They’re expected to pile up to $13 trillion into Bitcoin investments alone by 2030, according to Ark Invest.

Four-year cycle over?

The four-year cycle that has ruled the industry refers to Bitcoin’s halving event. Every four years, the Bitcoin blockchain cuts the amount of rewards it issues to the network’s miners.

If previous cycles are anything to go by, sell-offs usually ebb after six months, which would be around April or May this time around.

Yet Bitcoin has entered a “controlled de-risking” phase, Brickell and Mills said in their newsletter.

“Realised profit-taking has collapsed by 96% since last year — a textbook signal that the ‘seller exhaustion’ we’ve been looking for is finally here.”

Today, the reward for confirming blocks of transactions is 3.125 Bitcoin. By the middle of 2028, at the next forecast halving, those rewards will drop to approximately 1.56 Bitcoin.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com.

The play is less about immediate changes and more about setting a structural precedent, said David Duong, Coinbase’s global head of investment research.

“Allowing borrowers to use Bitcoin or USDC as pledged collateral — rather than selling it — incrementally reinforces the narrative of crypto as productive collateral and deepens the link between onchain wealth and the real economy, particularly US housing,” he said.

Duong’s comments come as the industry has suffered from a $2 trillion drawdown, with Bitcoin down 47% from its October peak of $126,000. Other cryptoassets have fared even worse, with Solana down 72%.

Yet the partnership represents a new development in crypto markets, linking digital assets directly to the performance of the US housing and interest rates cycle.

“This is another data point in a broader shift from price speculation toward balance-sheet utility,” he said.

Programme details

Under a new product launched by Better Home & Finance in partnership with Coinbase, borrowers can pledge Bitcoin or USDC as collateral for a second loan that funds the down payment on a conforming mortgage eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae.

The digital assets remain in custody through Coinbase Prime, the crypto exchange’s custodian division, for the life of the loan, allowing borrowers to retain exposure to potential appreciation while securing conventional home financing.

The primary mortgage remains within the traditional underwriting framework. But the innovation lies in how borrower equity is structured.

“This vehicle shifts a portion of the borrower’s equity into segregated digital asset collateral,” Duong said.

The product also addresses a longstanding friction point for US crypto holders: the need to liquidate digital assets to fund major purchases. By allowing borrowers to pledge crypto instead of selling it, the model preserves exposure to potential upside while avoiding immediate tax liabilities.

Yet crypto-backed lending is not new. Platforms like Nexo let customers borrow stablecoins while using cryptos like Bitcoin as collateral.

What is new is formal recognition within the US government-run housing ecosystem.

Following last year’s directive from the Federal Housing Finance Agency urging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to evaluate how crypto holdings could factor into risk models, this marks one of the first concrete implementations, Duong said.

Macro amplified

Speculative assets like crypto are greatly impacted by Interest rates set by the Federal Reserve.

And as crypto becomes embedded in mortgage structures, it grows even more directly linked to the US rates and housing cycle. That means both opportunity and exposure.

Over time, Duong argues, developments like this support structural demand for high-quality assets such as Bitcoin and USDC. They deepen the case for digital assets as durable stores of value and collateral.

But the flip side is increased cyclicality for an industry already considered to be highly volatile. If the initiative takes off, crypto becomes more sensitive to mortgage rates, housing demand and broader macro conditions.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is down 1.6% over the past 24 hours, trading at $66,395.
• Ethereum is down 1.4% over the past 24 hours at $2,025.

What we’re reading 

• Aerodrome creator boasts 80% efficiency gain by becoming more like a prediction market — DL News
• JPMorgan expands digital assets push with Mitsubishi deal as it targets $10bn in daily transactions — DL News
• Senate Bill Would Create Federal Certification for U.S. Bitcoin Miners and Codify Trump’s Reserve — Unchained
• Why Ethereum Might Be the Most Mispriced Asset in Crypto Right Now w/ David Duong — Milk Road
• Aave launches v4 on Ethereum as founder eyes ‘opportunities in the real world’ — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com.

On Monday, Dromos Labs, the firm behind the Aerodrome and Velodrome decentralised exchanges, announced at the EthCC conference in Cannes a new feature called “Predictive Allocation,” which it says will increase the efficiency of how its protocols distribute token rewards by 80%.

The feature, set to go live in July, brings the same kind of asymmetric upside that exists in prediction markets to the company’s exchanges, Alex Cutler, CEO of Dromos Labs, told DL News.

“You have the ability to place a bet on something and if your bet is correct you get an outsized reward.”

Prediction markets, like Polymarket and Kalshi, have captured the attention of DeFi developers — including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin — because of their ability to aggregate information and get closer to the truth than conventional sources.

How it works

Aerodrome and Velodrome both use a vote-escrow model pioneered by Curve Finance to direct liquidity. Here, those who own governance tokens can vote on which liquidity pools receive more tokens as rewards, incentivising liquidity providers to deposit assets.

In return, governance token holders receive so-called bribes to direct rewards to certain liquidity pools.

Currently, token holders vote weekly on which liquidity pools receive the most token incentives.

That will change to a new system where token holders can change their votes in real time. This, according to Cutler, will make the system more efficient and incentivise liquidity providers to be more proactive.

In short, governance token holders can bet on where the best rewards will be before the demand materialises, and those who predict demand best stand to earn the most rewards.

It isn’t a true prediction market like Polymarket and Kalshi, but should benefit from the same market forces.

Cutler said the change will bring Aerodrome and Velodrome another step closer to being able to compete with rival centralised exchanges, which typically provide traders with slightly better prices on swaps.

“If you are able to allocate capital in a predictive way to create markets that don’t exist yet or don’t exist in the correct size, that is not the kind of thing you could do on a centralised order book,” Cutler said.

The feature should also help Dromos Labs as it prepares to launch a new exchange on Ethereum later this year to compete with market leader Uniswap.

AI in DeFi

The new feature is also a bet on the increasing use of artificial intelligence in the $130 billion DeFi ecosystem.

Cutler said big market makers like Wintermute already use algorithms to optimise which liquidity pools on Aerodrome and Velodrome they vote for.

As AI becomes more powerful, those market makers will use it to gain an even bigger edge.

“Imagine a marketplace of agents competing for capital because they think they’ve got the best predictive piece,” Cutler said.

The increased competition should boost market efficiency and create better prices for traders using Dromos Labs’ exchanges.

Dromos Labs’ big year

The Predictive Allocation feature is the latest big update from Dromos Labs in recent months.

In November, the Aerodrome developer announced plans to launch a new exchange and token later this year.

The new protocol, called Aero, aims to further simplify the process of swapping tokens across different blockchains and get better at drawing in investors who provide liquidity, which will allow it to offer crypto traders better prices than its competitors.

Aero will launch on Ethereum, putting it in direct competition with Uniswap on the blockchain where the latter has long dominated.

“We’re very excited for that markets-based competition, where it’s 100% about, ‘what is the most capital efficient?’” Luis Alberto, the executive director of the Aerodrome and Velodrome Foundations, previously told DL News.

“Even if you like the Uniswap brand, if you’re a trader, you’re going to take the most efficient route possible, because you want to trade the best price possible. And so it doesn’t matter who’s offering it.”

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

Since its 2020 launch, Kinexys, JPMorgan’s digital asset service, has processed over $3 trillion worth of transactions. But Zack Chestnut tells DL News that this number is only set to grow.

“Our goal is to meaningfully grow these figures as quickly as we can,” the global head of business development for Kinexys said. “We would be pleased but not satisfied to see daily transaction value get above $10 billion per day in the foreseeable future.”

Mitsubishi is only the latest firm to sign up to JPMorgan’s blockchain network. Kinexys serves “hundreds” of clients across five continents, including central and commercial banks to the tune of $5 billion in transactions per day, Chestnut said.

The expansion of Kinexys also highlights Wall Street’s growing adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

Traditional financial services are launching crypto-trading services, signing partnerships with industry-native firms, tokenising assets, acquiring crypto startups, and increasingly using digital ledger technology to boost efficiencies.

And JPMorgan, led by CEO and ardent crypto-sceptic Jamie Dimon, has found itself at the centre of this wave.

What is Kinexys?

Originally known as Onyx, JPMorgan’s bespoke blockchain first saw the light in 2020. The JPMD deposit token is at the centre of the firm’s payments strategy.

Like a stablecoin, these deposit tokens enable near-instantaneous payments and settlements at a fraction of the price. But instead of being backed by assets like US treasuries, deposit tokens represent funds held in a bank account.

And unlike stablecoins, they can be moved between bank accounts, on- and offchain, without needing to use intermediaries.

“In our experience, many of the efficiencies on offer from using blockchain rails are most valuable in complex, cross-border money movement flows for sophisticated global institutions,” Chestnut said. “As such, the appeal of Kinexys is global”

Mitsubishi is the first Japanese corporation to adopt Kinexys.

“As we are developing and operating businesses globally across a wide array of industries, it is essential that funds raised in the market and cash generated across our operations can be allocated efficiently throughout our consolidated group,” Kazuyoshi Kawakami, Mitsubishi’s treasurer, said in a statement.

Wall Street’s crypto push

JPMorgan is not the only traditional financial behemoth to tap into blockchain technology.

Many such projects have been in the works for years. For instance, payments giant PayPal launched a stablecoin in 2023, and companies like Mastercard have been developing solutions for the better part of the last decade.

Yet Donald Trump’s second term as president has turbo-charged those ambitions. His election win in 2024 and his pro-crypto policies have emboldened old-school banks and payments firms to turbo-charge their digital asset ambitions.

Stripe, the $159 billion payments giant, has launched its own blockchain, Mastercard has created a crypto partnership programme with over 100 companies across fintech and crypto, and crypto-native firms are being acquired like never before.

JPMorgan declined to directly comment on specific governments or other companies’ strategies.

Even so, Chestnut seemed confident that JPMorgan will be able to add new clients to its blockchain-based payments network.

“The pipeline is very robust, and we expect the market will continue to hear more about our continued client growth throughout the next 12 months,” Chestnut said.

Eric Johansson is DL News’ managing editor. Got a tip? Email him at eric@dlnews.com.

Aave Labs on Monday launched Aave v4, a redesigned version of its $24 billion predecessor, Aave v3.

V4 will run alongside v3, Aave Labs executives stressed. The company backtracked on plans to push v3 users to the newer protocol after an outcry from members of the Aave DAO cooperative, which governs the Aave protocols.

Aave v3 is the largest protocol in decentralised finance, with nearly $24 billion in user deposits. It enables peer-to-peer lending of crypto assets.

V4 introduces what Labs calls a hub-and-spoke model in which hubs serve as liquidity pools and spokes serve as tailored lending markets.

“This represents the first complete rework of the Aave protocol since Aave V1,” Emilio Frangella, head of engineering at Aave Labs, said on X.

The new design will prevent the siloing of liquidity, the Aave Labs executive said.

“This also reduces or completely eliminates the need to bootstrap liquidity through incentives or other initiatives whenever a new borrowing configuration (identified as a market in previous iterations) is deployed.”

Aave founder and Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov has said the new protocol will be flexible enough to lead Aave into new markets. In a lengthy post last month, he said he envisions a future in which Aave finances the development of real-world infrastructure, such as solar energy arrays, data centers, and water desalination plants.

In a slick, three-minute video released on Monday, Kulechov recounted Aave’s origins and hinted at that future once again.

“Aave v4 is actually taking Aave into a new environment where we can start funding opportunities in the real world,” he said.

“The architecture is completely modular, which means that it’s easy to extend into new use cases that will emerge. In the future, for example, it can be lending against data.”

Aave v4 launched on Ethereum with just three hubs, part of a gradual rollout that prioritises security over “immediate growth.” Each hub offers a different risk-reward calculus, according to Frangella.

“Core” is most similar to Aave v3, he said. “Plus” offers higher yield. And “Prime” is geared toward lending and borrowing stablecoins, “with a limited set of collaterals selected for maximum stability and predictability.”

The rollout of Aave v4 and its user interface, Aave Pro, follows a contentious period in which Labs and prominent members of Aave DAO fought over the protocol’s future direction and Labs’ growing influence in DAO affairs.

Aave Labs pushed for the DAO to turn its attention from the ongoing maintenance of v3 to promoting v4. That push was among several issues that led to the acrimonious departures of two major contributors to the DAO, Bored Ghosts Developing and Aave Chan Initiative. Both have said they will not seek DAO renewal of their contracts this year.

Asked whether Labs would take a more hands-on approach to running the protocol, an Aave spokesperson said in a statement earlier this month that the company “continues to play an important role in building, offering strategic direction, securing important partnerships, and growing awareness, etc., which the community has supported.”

But the DAO “remains the governing body, responsible for key decisions, including hiring service providers, protocol upgrades, risk parameters, asset listings, treasury allocation, and expansion to new networks,” they added.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? Email him at aleks@dlnews.com.