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Is It Exploitation Season for DeFi?
Are two recent attacks taking advantage of "flash loans," low liquidity and price oracle issues the first of more to come?
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 12:19 p.m. Published Feb 18, 2020, 8:00 p.m.
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Are two recent attacks taking advantage of "flash loans," low liquidity and price oracle issues the first of more to come?
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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Part of what makes decentralized finance, or DeFi, interesting to people is how it takes advantage of open-source protocols to enable types of transactions never before available. The problem, however, is financial structures mean new financial vulnerabilities.
In the last few days, two attacks on bZx have used a similar strategy of manipulating the price of synthetic assets in the context of a new instrument called "flash loans." On this episode, @nlw breaks down exactly:
- How the attacks were carried out
- How the community is responding
- What the larger ramifications for DeFi might be
Find past episodes of The Breakdown on CoinDesk. For early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Stitcher, RadioPublica, IHeartRadio or RSS.
あなたへの
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
知っておくべきこと:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
あなたへの
Solana’s new phase is ‘much more about finance,’ says Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante
The Solana ecosystem has spent the past year doubling down on a financial infrastructure, Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante told CoinDesk.
知っておくべきこと:
- Solana’s latest phase looks a lot less flashy than its memecoin-fueled highs, and that may be the goal.
- Armani Ferrante, CEO of crypto exchange Backpack, told CoinDesk in an interview the Solana ecosystem has spent the past year doubling down on a more sober focus: financial infrastructure. A
- fter years of experimentation as the wider crypto industry focused on NFTs, games and social tokens, attention is now shifting back toward decentralized finance, trading and payments.
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