Welcome to Finance Redefined, a weekly newsletter that delivers crucial decentralized finance (DeFi) insights, aiming to highlight the most significant developments of the past week.
In the previous week, a Solana-based Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) bot gained attention by earning $1.7 million in profit from a single trade. Meanwhile, despite solid financial results, the Near Foundation has laid off 40% of its staff, and the CFTC is looking to collaborate with ecosystem stakeholders to mitigate DeFi risks—these and more in our weekly DeFi roundup in the newsletter.
The top 100 DeFi tokens are experiencing a bullish trend this week, driven by the approval of the first Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the United States. The total value locked in DeFi protocols has also surpassed $65 billion. In a remarkable incident, a Solana-based MEV bot managed to make an astonishing $1.7 million from a suspicious transaction when a trader purchased $9 million worth of memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF) in the "most inefficient way possible."
The MEV robots operated by 2fast on Solana executed 703 transactions, initially buying 490,000 WIF and then exchanging the same amount of WIF for 19,035 SOL in the same trading package, resulting in a net profit of $1.73 million. Near Foundation, the creator of the Layer-1 protocol Near, has announced a workforce reduction of 40%, citing a need to consolidate its core team and focus on more impactful activities.
In a statement on January 11, Near revealed plans to lay off 35 employees from its marketing, business development, and community teams due to feedback indicating that the foundation was not always as effective as needed, sometimes moving too slowly and attempting to do too much. According to a report from blockchain analytics platform DappRadar on January 11, the number of unique active wallets (UAW) interacting with Web3 applications increased by 124% in 2023. Near, Klaytn, and Arbitrum led the growth, while Harmony, Solana, and Hive saw declines in user numbers.
Throughout the year, an average of 4.2 million UAWs engaged with Web3 applications daily, more than double the previous year's user count. Non-fungible token products saw a 166% growth from 2022, placing first, followed by a 112% increase in DeFi. Social media applications grew by 29%, driven by leading protocols such as Friend.tech, Lens Protocol, and Galxe. Following weeks of bullish price action, the total value locked in DeFi protocols has exceeded $65 billion.
