Battle-hardened Ronin bridge reopens following $600M hack: Finance Redefined

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of key decentralized finance (DeFi) insights, a newsletter crafted to bring you some of the major developments over the last week.

This past week, the DeFi ecosystem saw Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge relaunch with a fully backed 1:1 Ether (ETH) nearly three months after the infamous $600 million hacks.

MakerDAO plans to invest $500 million into United States Treasurys and bonds to weather the ongoing bear market. Polkadot (DOT) announced that they would transform their governance model to move towards complete decentralization. While decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are seen as the future of governance, a recent study shows less than 1% of all holders have 90% of the voting power in DAOs.

The top 100 DeFi tokens again plunged into a sea of red after showing some fightback last week. The majority of the top-100 tokens registered double-digit losses over the past week.

Battle-hardened Ronin bridge to Axie reopens following $600M hack

Sky Mavis, developers of the popular play-to-earn (P2E) nonfungible token (NFT) game Axie Infinity (AXS) announced the relaunch of Ronin bridge on Thursday, three months after it was hacked for more than $600 million.

On March 29, 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC) were drained from the bridge after hackers managed to gain access to private validator keys. The hack was worth more than $620 million at the time.

According to the Tuesday announcement from the Sky Mavis team, the Ronin bridge is back online after three audits (one internal, two external), a new design and full compensation of the users’ stolen assets.

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MakerDAO looks to invest $500M into ‘minimal risk’ Treasurys and bonds

MakerDAO is currently voting on a proposal aimed at helping it weather the bear market and utilize untapped reserves by investing 500 million Dai (DAI) stablecoins into a combination of United States Treasurs and bonds.

Following a straw poll in a governance Signal Request, the DAO members now must decide whether the dormant DAI should go entirely into short-term Treasurys or split 80% into Treasurys and 20% into corporate bonds.

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Polkadot’s founder announces steps toward full decentralization with new governance model

Polkadot and Kusama founder Gavin Wood announced that the blockchain’s governance model would undergo a new transformation. Dubbed Gov2, anyone would be able to start a referendum at any time for as many times as they wish in the new setup, similar to initiating new transactions on the blockchain.

Thereafter, the pending referendums need 50% of the vote from stakeholders within 28 days’ time for approval or face rejection by default. Participants can also intervene and launch timely cancellation proposals, which require similar voting procedures in the event that technical glitches are discovered within the referendums themselves.

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Less than 1% of all holders have 90% of the voting power in DAOs: Report

A recent report from Chainalysis analyzed the workings of ten major DAO projects and found that, on average, less than 1% of all holders have 90% of the voting power. The finding highlights a high concentration of decision-making power in the hands of a selected few — an issue DAOs were created to resolve.

This concentration of decision-making power was evident with the Solana (SOL)-based lending DAO Solend. The Solend team tried to take over a whale’s account and execute the liquidation themselves via over-the-counter (OTC) desks to avoid cascading liquidations across the decentralized exchange (DEX) books.

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DeFi market overview

Analytical data reveals that DeFi’s total value locked registered a minor dip from the past week, falling to a value of $54 billion. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that DeFi’s top-100 tokens by market capitalization showed high price volatility and the majority of them traded in red over the past week.

Compound (COMP) was the only DeFi token in the top 100 to register a weekly green with a 2% surge over the past week. The rest of all other DeFi tokens in the top 100 showed an overall bearish momentum dipping in double digits.

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education in this dynamically advancing space.