Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph'southward decentralized finance, or DeFi, newsletter.

In a week where DeFi's parabolic growth connected elsewhere, the United states of america Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler threatened to tackle stablecoins.

What you're well-nigh to read is the smaller version of this newsletter. For the full breakdown of DeFi's developments over the final calendar week — released a whole lot quicker than Cardano's smart contracts — subscribe at the bottom of this page.

Layer 2's defining the future

This week, analytical data revealed that DeFi continues to exist one of the fastest-growing sectors of the crypto economy equally evidenced by increases in the total value locked, or TVL, on protocols. Some of the biggest gains have been witnessed across cross-chain uniform networks and layer-two protocols that offer a lower fee surround.

Office of the Avalanche network, Trader Joe is a protocol that has experienced significant inflows since the launch of an upgraded cantankerous-chain bridge. It allows Ethereum-based tokens and applications to migrate to its ecosystem, which has resulted in a 53.96% increase in TVL this week.

The recent emergence of layer-two technologies such as Arbitrum, Optimism and a bridge to the Barrage ecosystem is revolutionizing the way investors, builders and developers interact with diverse protocols.

Each facilitates fast, depression-cost transactions that improve the fundamentals of the DeFi ecosystem while also making it easier for retail-sized investors to capitalize on opportunities.

Reported pastJordan Finneseth

U.S. against the SEC

United States investment firms Invesco and Galaxy Digital Funds teamed up this week to file a registration statement with the SEC in a bid to proceeds blessing for the sale of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF).

If approved by the SEC, the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF volition be registered as a securities offering with the ability to get listed on traditional national exchanges in the United States. According to the filing, the trust volition use "robust physical barriers to entry, electronic surveillance and continuously roving patrols" to protect Bitcoin privacy.

As well, boyfriend U.S. firm Dilate ETFs also filed a registration with the SEC; in this case, to add together DeFi-centric, open up-end ETF funds offering to the Amplify ETF Trust. Approval of the Course N-1A filing will allow the visitor to issue unlimited new shares for American investors.

Reported byArijit Sarkar

SushiSwap denies reports of billion-dollar issues

Ane of the developers backside the popular decentralized exchange SushiSwap has rejected a purported vulnerability reported by a white-hat hacker snooping through its smart contracts.

Co-ordinate to media reports, the hacker claimed to take identified a vulnerability that could place more than $1 billion worth of user funds nether threat, stating they went public with the information later attempts to attain out to SushiSwap'due south developers resulted in inaction.

However, SushiSwap's pseudonymous developer soon took to Twitter to decline the claims, with the platform'south "Shadowy Super-Coder" Mudit Gupta stressing:

"This is not a vulnerability. No funds at take chances. If rewarder runs out of rewards, withdrawing LP will neglect simply anyone (non just sushi) can top up the rewarder in an emergency. Sushi can besides just remove the rewarder."

Token Performances

DeFi'south TVL has fallen sharply past sixteen.08% this week to a figure of $105.15 billion — paralleling the decline of the acme DeFi tokens.

Data analysis from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView reveals that DeFi's elevation 20 tokens by market capitalization suffered heavy losses across the concluding seven days, with only 3 tokens printing bullish price action.

Avalanche (AVAX) took the top spot on the podium for bullish gains this week with a respectable xiii.7%. After a final solar day surge, Ren nudged over the greenish line, but nonetheless in a distant second with 0.64%, while Dai made up the numbers in third with 0.34%. When a stablecoin makes the top iii, that's when yous know it'southward been a bad week!

Want to further your education? Read these boosted stories:

  • DeFi'southward potential ways more institutional demand for adjacent-gen tokens
  • Senator Warren'due south role confuses MakerDAO for failed 2022 project The DAO
  • Sommelier partners with Mysten Labs to launch Cosmos smart contract

Thanks for reading our conspectus of DeFi's biggest stories this calendar week. Join united states of america again next Friday for a round of fresh stories, developments and insights from the world of DeFi.