defi

The decentralized trading and lending platform Dolomite announced that it has integrated $100 million worth of Bitcoin-backed collateral into its on-chain lending market through Concrete's BTCcx infrastructure, and has activated borrowing functionality based on this collateral.BTCcx is an on-chain token issued and managed by Concrete, representing the underlying Bitcoin held in qualified custody by BitGo, deployed on the Ethereum network. Concrete is responsible for the issuance and full lifecycle management of the token, and provides BTCcx as collateral for Dolomite's actively managed borrowing positions, allowing borrowing to be completed without the need to sell or move the underlying Bitcoin out of custody in advance.This deployment marks the expansion of the collaboration between Concrete and Dolomite from WLFI to Bitcoin, introducing another mainstream institutional asset into Dolomite's lending market through its AssetCX framework.

The Cardano Foundation calls on the European Union not to introduce new independent regulatory rules for DeFi and staking, advocating that existing financial laws should regulate based on the function and risk of activities rather than the technology used. The foundation outlined its 19-page opinion submitted to the European Commission on September 30 in a blog post released on Wednesday, urging a distinction between direct participation in decentralized networks and financial services provided by intermediaries, especially those involving the custody or control of user assets. The foundation stated that regulation should follow the substance of the activity, the functions performed, and the risks generated, rather than the technology relied upon to conduct the activity.The foundation pointed out that Cardano users can delegate native ADA tokens to help secure the network without relinquishing custody or locking up tokens, and this form of direct participation should be treated differently from staking services operated by intermediaries. The opinion also calls for a clearer distinction between the EU MiCA regulations and existing financial laws, warning that overlapping regulatory requirements and inconsistent interpretations among member states could create uncertainty for crypto businesses.This move comes as EU regulators consider expanding oversight of crypto services. In September, the European Securities and Markets Authority suggested adding additional safeguards for staking and lending activities and establishing a new category of regulated services for companies providing access to DeFi protocols. Additionally, the Cardano Foundation, along with five other blockchain organizations, sent a joint letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 20, urging it to formally recognize digital commodities as non-securities under the proposed crypto framework.

On October 21, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Consultation Paper 26/36 titled "Guidance on the Regulatory Scope of Cryptoassets," which explains how to determine whether related activities require authorization when the business model involves a certain degree of decentralization.The FCA pointed out that the use of software, smart contracts, distributed ledger technology, distributed governance mechanisms, or other technological arrangements does not, by itself, determine whether there are regulated activities that require authorization. Automation merely describes the manner in which functions are executed and does not determine whether that function constitutes part of a regulated activity. The so-called "true DeFi" is not a statutory concept in the "Regulated Activities Order" or the "Cryptoasset Regulations"; the degree of decentralization is a continuum and does not constitute an independent or separate regulatory framework.At the same time, the FCA also published Guidance Consultation Paper 26/7, which explains how regulated firms should manage DeFi risks, focusing on operational resilience and financial crime risks, and provides examples of measures that firms may consider taking. Both consultation papers will close for comments on November 18, and the FCA plans to publish the final guidance in January 2027. Starting from October 25, 2027, the new regulations will bring new cryptoasset activities under regulatory oversight, and firms wishing to continue related business must submit authorization applications by February 28, 2027.

ARK Invest's Q3 2026 DeFi report shows that stock tokenization has become the main driving force behind the rebound in on-chain trading activity for the quarter. The trading volume of tokenized stock spot DEX reached approximately $50 billion, about 9 times that of the previous quarter, with its share of total spot DEX trading volume rising from about 1% to around 9%. Overall, DEX spot trading volume increased by approximately 13% quarter-over-quarter to $571 billion, marking the first growth in nearly four quarters.Robinhood Chain achieved approximately $65 billion in DEX trading volume and $51 million in network revenue in its first quarter, with network revenue nearing the level of BNB Chain during the same period. However, ARK expects that recent adjustments to the Gas mechanism will cause the chain's revenue to decline from current levels. The total supply of stablecoins decreased by about 3% quarter-over-quarter to $309 billion, but adjusted trading volume increased by approximately 16% quarter-over-quarter to $781 billion, with the number of monthly active addresses growing by about 39% to 73 million.In the perpetual contract DEX, there is a divergence between open positions and trading volume: the value of open contracts increased by about 76% quarter-over-quarter to $24 billion, while quarterly trading volume decreased by about 16% to $1.4 trillion. Among them, Hyperliquid's open contract value is about $13 billion, accounting for approximately 53%. ARK believes this indicates fewer but larger positions held for longer durations.

According to Bloomberg, financial executives have differing opinions on whether AI has become a bubble. Ken Griffin previously warned that AI investors are almost certainly in a bubble and should prepare for setbacks, stating that significant economic transformations are often accompanied by bubbles. Recently, the market has been concerned that the time it takes for the massive upfront capital expenditures in AI to translate into profits and productivity gains may be longer than expected. Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing stated that there is no reason to worry about a sharp reversal in asset prices in the short term; individual companies may face setbacks, but he does not believe the market is in a bursting bubble.Sewing distinguished between a bubble and ongoing volatility, mentioning geopolitical tensions. He stated that if the regulatory framework is appropriate, the industrial application of AI will become a century opportunity for Germany. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink advocated for accelerating the construction of AI data centers, warning that delays could threaten economic growth and exacerbate inflation due to high computing costs. He previously mentioned that AI faces a supply shortage, with demand growth exceeding expectations, and stated that the faster more data centers are built and more computing power is available, the quicker costs can be reduced.Federated Hermes Chief Investment Officer for Global Equities Steve Chiavarone said that investors worried about an AI bubble may be correct in their judgment, but it is several years too early; infrastructure still has several years of growth potential, after which the risk of overbuilding will become more pressing. The market is still differentiating which companies can secure funding and at what interest rates, which is contrary to the bubble period.Compared to the AI bubble, both Fink and Sewing view the fiscal deficit as a more pressing concern, especially as the AI industry competes with the government for investment funds. The U.S. fiscal deficit is nearing $2 trillion, and U.S. Treasury yields have risen to decades-high levels.Fink stated that the current level of capital competition is the highest he has seen in his career. Regarding the rising risk of French government bonds, Sewing said it cannot yet be called a debt crisis, but it serves as a warning for public finances, emphasizing the importance of budget discipline.

Ledger Wallet officially launches the Crypto Loan feature, allowing users to directly use the Morpho open credit network for lending operations within the Ledger Wallet. The core of this feature is that users can use Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) or cbBTC as collateral to borrow stablecoins such as USDC or USDT without selling their assets.This integration brings hardware-level security standards into the DeFi lending space. All lending activities are physically confirmed through Ledger Signer, ensuring that every on-chain interaction from deposit to loan has clear signatures and hardware-level security guarantees. During the lending process, users' collateral remains in Morpho's smart contracts, with Ledger acting solely as a technology provider.Morpho is an open credit network running on Ethereum and major Layer 2s, providing flexible lending markets through infrastructures like Morpho Blue and Morpho Midnight. This feature supports operations such as adding collateral, repaying, increasing loan limits, and withdrawals. It is important to note that this service uses floating interest rates and carries liquidation risks, and users should pay attention to the specific supported countries and lending terms.

The lending protocol Lido Lend proposed by contributors will launch a withdrawal mechanism called Fallback Exits. When the market lacks sufficient liquidity of loan assets, lenders can utilize the collateral of borrowers to supplement withdrawal requests, and the corresponding debt of the relevant borrowers will be reduced. The protocol was launched on October 7 as a modified fork of Morpho Blue, built around isolated markets.According to the proposal, the collateral of borrowers will be passively utilized in order of the highest position risk, meaning positions closest to the liquidation loan-to-value ratio (LLTV) will be prioritized, while borrowers with very healthy positions are less likely to be affected. Taking the ETH/wstETH market as an example, lenders provide ETH, and borrowers stake wstETH to borrow ETH; if exiting through collateral, lenders will first be exposed to the staked tokens before receiving ETH. The proposal does not specify the qualification thresholds for healthy loans or the path for lenders to obtain ETH.Contributor Izzy stated in a post on October 16 that technical specifications and market parameters will be announced in the next two weeks, and the governance process and public audit must be completed before the mainnet launch. Details such as settlement valuation, debt offset formulas, fees, and limits have yet to be determined.

The French Ministry of Finance, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), the French Central Bank, and the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) jointly proposed amendments to the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), requiring cryptocurrency platforms to take responsibility for customer losses when they actively provide access to DeFi protocols without reviewing the protocols or ignoring known security risks.The French side proposed that platforms review relevant protocols before providing DeFi access and continuously monitor for vulnerabilities and suspicious activities, while also supporting the certification of protocols and smart contracts. These requirements will apply comprehensively to significant Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASP), with smaller platforms subject to proportionately adjusted obligations. France also proposed transferring the regulatory authority of significant CASPs from national regulators to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and lowering the current EU daily active user threshold of 15 million. Additionally, France suggested re-examining the category of Asset-Referenced Tokens (ART) and adjusting the Electronic Money Token (EMT) framework to cover multi-currency stablecoins.

The decentralized trading protocol of PancakeSwap, The Flip proposal, has entered the governance voting phase, accompanied by CAKE supply conditions. This proposal aims to allocate 88% of the trading fees from v3 and Infinity pools to liquidity providers, with the remaining 12% going to the protocol treasury, while the fee structure for v2 remains unchanged.In terms of token issuance, the proposal plans to reduce the daily CAKE issuance from 22,500 tokens to 7,000 tokens, a decrease of about 69%, equivalent to approximately 5.66 million newly minted tokens per year. The remaining 7,000 tokens per day will be allocated to an ecological growth fund named Pantry, which will be flexibly used by The Kitchen team for marketing, partnerships, and initial liquidity for new pools.If the vote passes, implementation will begin within two weeks after approval, lasting from November 2026 to the end of January 2027, completing in about three months and being announced chain by chain. This proposal is built upon the Tokenomics 3 framework passed in April 2025, aiming to reduce the supply by approximately 20% by 2030. PancakeSwap states that the supply has decreased by 11.5% over the past 18 months.

According to Token Terminal data, on the Base chain, the total scale of tokenized stocks issued by Coinbase deposited in various DeFi platforms is approximately 18.9 million USD, of which Aave V4 accounts for about 10.1 million USD, representing about 53%, making it the largest DeFi platform for such assets by locked value.

The on-chain data platform DefiLlama announced a collaboration with the prediction market platform Trueo to launch a new prediction market settled with DefiLlama data, covering protocol revenue and the probability of vulnerabilities occurring.Revenue markets include protocol revenues from Hyperliquid, Pump, Aero, Uniswap, Collector Crypt, and Papertrade. Vulnerability markets cover DeFi hacking incidents and the probability of specific protocols being exploited, including whether Aave and Morpho will experience vulnerabilities this month, as well as weekly and monthly markets for the scale of the largest hacking events.Other on-chain indicator markets include the RWA market capitalization and DEX trading volume of Robinhood Chain, as well as who will have a higher TVL this weekend between Solana and Base.

According to The Defiant, the DeFi protocol Extended plans to migrate its settlement from Starknet to Arc on October 22.Extended stated that users holding more than 1 USDT or wBTC in their sub-accounts must convert or withdraw to avoid forced liquidation of their accounts; however, the related notice it released provided conflicting deadlines.

According to Cointelegraph, Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, pointed out that the crypto industry is gradually evolving into a "digital Wall Street," deviating from its original mission of decentralized finance. He believes that to bring the next billion users on-chain, the industry needs a new solution, rather than just relying on tokenization or new wallets. Siu emphasized that only AI agents capable of independently holding user keys and interacting with the blockchain can truly achieve autonomous control of user assets.Siu questioned the current AI agent platforms on the market, particularly Meta's Muse. He noted that Meta's terms of service allow it to "remove user agents at any time and for any reason," which constitutes a significant trust flaw. He believes that personal agents relied upon by users should not be owned and controlled by centralized platforms. Animoca is building the MINDS agent, a multi-agent orchestration system designed to provide user autonomy and support various communication channels and AI model choices.Siu estimates that currently only about 10% of crypto asset holders are truly on-chain, and he believes that AI agents will be a key factor in changing this ratio. He further pointed out that since AI agents use code as their native language, their capabilities in handling complex security issues will surpass those of ordinary users, providing a new perspective for the secure development of the crypto field.

Further analysis reveals that the activities of whales (large holders) are weakening. The 90-day moving average of whale outflows for XRP has dropped to $4.97 million, the lowest level since October 2021. CryptoQuant believes that this lack of whale interest may indicate that large investors are waiting for more advantageous buying prices, thus delaying the increase of their market exposure. From a long-term perspective, this suggests that XRP may lack buying support in the absence of whale backing.In a broader market context, the investor group for Bitcoin (BTC) also showed signs of retreat in October. According to a report by Glassnode, Bitcoin's realized profit-loss ratio fell from 0.8 to 0.4, a decrease of 50%. This change indicates that market participants are shifting from aggressive trading to a more stable sentiment, reducing profit-taking activities and reflecting a shift in market sentiment.

The Hyperliquid Policy Center issued a statement urging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exclude airdrops from the definition of securities. The center advocates that the position proposed by the SEC in March 2026 should be written into the rules, stating that free airdrops do not constitute "monetary investment" and therefore do not fall under investment contracts.The center also argues for the extension of the above rules to include announced airdrops, including periodic or regular distributions. Applicable prerequisites include that the network is operational, eligibility is based on usage or contribution, such as trading, validating, providing liquidity, and governance, and that airdrops are not a means of financing.The center believes that investment requires tangible and identifiable consideration, and airdrops are rewards rather than investments. Processes for claiming, such as connecting wallets, signing, paying gas fees, completing KYC/AML, or accepting terms of service, should not be considered as consideration. Furthermore, the rule should be retroactively applicable to past airdrops or cover Hyperliquid's native airdrops.

According to The Defiant, the OUSD lending vault under Sentora holds $42.5 million in assets on the Tempo network. This vault is built on the Morpho protocol, allowing users to borrow against cbBTC as collateral.Despite the considerable size of the vault, the report points out that the vast majority of its assets are currently idle and have not been deployed into actual lending operations. This means that the vault's capital utilization rate is low and its lending functionality has not been fully realized.

The Nasdaq-listed company SharpLink (SBET) announced that it has cumulatively deployed $400 million in ETH to the liquidity staking protocols Ether.fi and Lido. The company stated that both funds have been actively invested, aiming to enhance the yield efficiency of its ETH treasury.According to the plan announced in August, SharpLink intends to stake $200 million in ETH through Lido and obtain wstETH, with the related assets being custodied by Anchorage Digital. The other portion of the funds will be deployed through Ether.fi to the Linea network under Consensys, and jointly participate in re-staking with EigenCloud to obtain DeFi yields and incentives.SharpLink is one of the largest enterprise-level ETH holders globally, advocating for Ethereum ecosystem applications for a long time. This deployment continues its existing staking and re-staking strategy, further allocating treasury assets to institutional-grade DeFi products.