Shapella Upgrade, Privacy Concerns, Hacks, and Financial Inclusion
The DeFi space had a busy week with several significant developments. The highly anticipated Shapella upgrade on Ethereum's mainnet was successfully completed, allowing validators to withdraw their staked Ether after three years. However, only 253 validators have signed up to fully exit their staked Ether position, with analytics firm Glassnode predicting that less than 1% of the staked ETH will be withdrawn.
In addition to the Shapella upgrade, an Ethereum researcher revealed that staking Ether could become a privacy concern. The researcher found that staking Ether shows a user's IP address information, which could lead to privacy issues. This discovery raised concerns within the cryptocurrency community.
A DeFi hack also occurred during the week, where a hacker exploited an old Yearn.finance contract and minted 1 quadrillion Yearn Tether (yUSDT). The hacker then swapped the yUSDT to other stablecoins, allowing them to take hold of $11.6 million worth of stablecoins.
However, the week also had positive news regarding financial inclusion in Africa. Fonbnk, a Web3 on-ramp that allows Africans to obtain cryptocurrency assets by exchanging their airtime credits, partnered with Tanda, a merchant network platform in East Africa, to launch an airtime trading marketplace across Tanda's network of agents. This partnership aims to increase liquidity and earning opportunities for African micro-entrepreneurs.
Finally, the top 100 DeFi tokens had a bullish week, thanks to a late surge in the crypto market after Ethereum's much-awaited upgrade. Most DeFi tokens traded in the green along with the rest of the market.
In conclusion, the DeFi space had a busy week with several significant developments, including the successful Shapella upgrade, privacy concerns related to staking, a major DeFi hack, and a partnership to increase financial inclusion in Africa. The top 100 DeFi tokens had a bullish week, and Glassnode predicted only a small percentage of staked ETH would be withdrawn.