Decentralized Finance

Decentralized Finance

Markets

Crypto investor turns $50 million into $36,000 in one botched move

Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the interface displayed multiple slippage warnings, which the user manually accepted on a mobile device.

Credit: Shutterstock/Rainer_81

Finance

DeFi is not really decentralized, it is unavoidably centralized

Rules are required to ensure DeFi projects grow and mature, which means they need layers of centralization before becoming truly decentralized. .

Consensus Hong Kong 2026 (Photo: Olivier Acuna/Modified by CoinDesk)

Finance

Bitcoin and ether are tanking, but DeFi investors are refusing to cave to the panic

Even as major cryptocurrencies plunge to multi-year lows and forced liquidations ripple across the market, DeFi’s total value locked has only slipped modestly.

Farming (James Baltz/Unsplash)

Tech

Anthropic Research Shows AI Agents Are Closing In on Real DeFi Attack Capability

Models tested by MATS and the Anthropic Fellows program generated turnkey exploit scripts and identified fresh vulnerabilities, suggesting automated exploitation is becoming technically and economically viable.

Artificial Intelligence (Markus Winkler/Unsplash)

Policy

UK Proposes ‘No Gain, No Loss’ Tax Rule for DeFi in 'Major Win' for Users

The proposal, with input from major industry players, aims to bring tax rules in line with how DeFi works, reducing outcomes that don't reflect reality.

Big Ben in the UK (Heidi Fin/Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)

Finance

DeFi’s $55B Plunge Isn’t the Disaster It Looks Like

Despite a sharp $55 billion decline in total value locked since October, the DeFi sector remains structurally strong, with rising DEX activity and steadily growing protocol fundamentals.

rollercoaster, loop

Web3

'Liquidity Crisis': $12B in DeFi Liquidity Sits Idle as 95% of Capital Goes Unused

This inefficiency disproportionately affects retail liquidity providers, with 50% losing money due to impermanent loss, and net deficits exceeding $60 million, a new report finds.

CoinDesk

Markets

Zcash Privacy Meets Solana DeFi with Zenrock’s Wrapped ZEC Crossing $15M in Volume

Zenrock's wrapped Zcash token, zenZEC, has achieved $15 million in trading volume on the Solana blockchain since its launch on Oct. 31.

A cloaked figures moves down a shadowed alley (Nghia Do Thanh/Unsplash)

Markets

Market Maker Flowdesk Says Crypto Credit Is Finding a Fragile Balance

DeFi lenders are deleveraging but not retreating, with borrowing demand for majors like SOL and BTC staying firm and yields compressing across Maple and JitoSOL.

(Piret Ilver/Unsplash)

Markets

DeFi Set to Challenge TradFi With $2T in Tokenized Assets by 2028: Standard Chartered

The bank said the 2025 stablecoin boom is fueling a self-sustaining wave of DeFi growth, and it forecasted $2 trillion in tokenized real-world assets by 2028.

DeFi networks are global. (NASA/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)