Decentralized Finance walks into the future

Satoshi Nakamoto and the inefficiencies of distributed databases. DeFi begins to solve financial challenges.

Jul 10, 2021

As users increase the value goes up, which could attract more users to take advantage of the increasing value

Satoshi Nakamoto

When Satoshi Nakamoto on P2Pfoundation.ning.com began spreading the word of Bitcoin, the world listened to him trying to interpret those guidelines he described that tied him strongly and critically to the reasons that had led him to distribute, through his small group, the initial Bitcoin project.

It was the beginning of a revolution.

A revolution born from a foundation that had a fatal flaw, a problem to be solved, which was precisely what lay at the root of the relationship between institutional currency and the misplaced trust from central banks.

Someone had to understand that the continued violation of this same trust would lead to creating an alternative.

And it is starting from this historical origin that we understand how Satoshi's problem was precisely that of the cryptographic system, which was becoming established with its first applications. Databases, for example, had a weak point that was the access through password systems because there was always an administrator of the server, which meant that whoever held this role could also have the power to block the process.

Cryptography solved this dilemma, making the system independent and allowing it to be distributed on a large scale.

That is precisely what happens when one witnesses digital and technological transformations that unhinge classical paradigms. We have experienced this with the advent of the first Walkmans, which today we could define as the prehistoric systems of podcasts. These designs have evolved very quickly, disrupting with a remarkable speed both television and radio communication.

It happened in the early eighties with the "newborn" email; experiments only aimed at a niche of people who dealt with technology and used the method exclusively for their internal communications.

Today we can say that they have totally changed the system of communication and transmission in any context, establishing legal supremacy. A history of real revolutions.

And if the email has changed our way of communicating, the web has done the same, snatching the podium from cinema and thwarting any productive effort by establishing a colossal dominance with realities such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

At the beginning of the millennium, the very advent of the Internet with its new face of e-commerce and long before Amazon branded all our lives, had slowly put into a crisis that commercial chain managed by other powers that until a few moments before had its undisputed dominance.

Those who have been involved in finance for decades know very well that the constant attacks aimed at the Bitcoin dimension represent a subtle fear. For the past year, we have been consciously witnessing an ever-increasing rise in the number of people approaching this type of payment. Bitcoin is now, more than ever before, increasingly taking the form of a valid and effective store of value. With this reality are also moving all those parts of a substructure and the dollar's intrinsic monetary aspect, world currency always in the forefront, but for some time fought by small realities. In fact, today, we are witnessing nations that are trying to become more and more autonomous from an economic and commercial point of view, trying to stem what continues to be the American monopoly of exchange.

What is happening in countries such as El Salvador shows us how, in a small way, a change in the practical perception of the economic reality of a nation can now be visible.

Also, the movements of China, which with its absolute bans aimed at banks in making Bitcoin exchange impractical, demonstrates the disturbing force that this virtual currency holds within the world market.

And this turbulence we are witnessing, and which concerns Bitcoin explicitly, is no longer the only aspect that scares investors (from a speculative and psychological point of view) but a new way of looking at the market, knowing that its adoption scares the big countries that move the economic world. The same option also for Russia preparing to launch its national digital ruble, trying to find agreements with giants like China.

Perhaps we could say in the future that wars will definitely move to a highly digital territory.

by Federico Izzi

Decentralized Finance

Despite the general difficulties, the decentralized finance tokens show a clear counter-trend signal with many rises that stand out in double digits.

There are two financial and insurance projects, InsurAce (INSUR) and Alpha Finance (ALPHA), rising by over 70%. Among the most popular DeFi financial tokens, Synthetix (SNX) rises by over 40%, and Compound (COMP) above 20%, along with Aave (AAVE) since last week.

The DeFi sector continues to record a Total Value Locked above USD 55 billion over the past two months. An ascent that since 2020 considering the same period in July, despite the sharp drop from 90 to 55 billion USD in the last two months, records an appreciation with a relative rise of at least 20 times. Furthermore, since January, we have observed an increase in DeFi at least four times.

Such a pronounced rise confirms Aave as the first multichain project able to collect a counter value of blocked tokens exceeding 10 billion USD.
Curve also did very well with 8 billion USD.
Just before InstaDapp with over 9 billion USD takes the second position in the general ranking of the most used decentralized financial projects for the first time.

Among the volumes generated last week, a decrease of 14% brings the total volumes traded to 13 billion.

However, the lion's share is still held by Uniswap despite the total drop in weekly volumes, dropping from 71 to 66% dominance and reaching 8.7 billion.
In comparison, Sushiswap recovers 9.9% of the market share, stopping at 1.2 billion USD.
The third is Curve which rises above 1 billion USD.

The volume of these last ten days on DEX exceeds 22 billion USD maintaining the average trade of the previous two weeks.

The NFT market rises to 2.5 billion by mid-2021

The most skeptical were already giving up on the NFT market, a speculative bubble now imploded on itself, and with the collapse in the value of ETH and Bitcoin, it seemed a sure thing. Yet, the data speak for themselves: in the first half of 2021, trades rose to $2.5 billion compared to $13.7 million in the same period in 2020.

Sales volumes have continued to remain high since March of this year: according to NonFungible.com, the sales figure would be $1.3 billion, excluding about $8 billion of NFT DeFi.

However, the reference sites only track sales that take place on the blockchain, also known as "on-chain" transactions: this excludes from the count the so-called "off-chain" transactions, such as all the million-dollar auctions held in this period, meaning that the sales volume is even higher than what the sites claim.

Major trades have taken place on the OpenSea platform, which offers crypto art and collectibles for all tastes, and has reached the highest levels of trades in June: an interesting case is the volume of transactions carried out by the digital artist Mitzsuki that in a few hours has transited offers for its NFT equal to over 140 ETH.

However, not all markets have seen growth: the NBA Top Shot marketplace of the US National Basketball Association, which allows fans to buy and trade NFTs in the form of videos, has seen volumes fall and buyers drop to 246,000 in June from 403,000 in March.

The average price of a Top Shot "moment" plummeted to $27 in June after peaking at $182 in February.

The famous digital artist Beeple has also entered the collectibles market that, after selling at Christie's the most expensive NFT ever for almost $70 million, has created We.New, based on the Ethereum network, but which also exploits the blockchain technology Arweave.

Beeple worked closely with the likes of Wasserman, Endeavour, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group to build the project.

The first version of the web portal, which aims to deliver iconic historical moments in an NFT version, celebrates tennis player Andy Murray's victory at Wimbledon in 2013.

"NFTs represent a new paradigm, not only in how people can invest their money, but also in how we conceive of our shared experience and how we celebrate extraordinary achievements," said the artist.

The first sale closed in a matter of minutes for over $178,000.

The NFT market has not yet stopped giving surprises...

Editorial Staff Artrights

Non Fungible Token

This past week has been very eventful. News that continues to have prominence, even if it passed a bit in silence, is the one concerning the launch of the giveaway, by Twitter, regarding its first 140 NFTs given as a gift directly from its official account through the technical organization of Rarible.com, one of the most known and active platforms in the field of NFTs.

Also, another prestigious museum such as the Hermitage of St. Petersburg enters directly and powerfully these days, in the mechanisms that regulate the NFT dimension, staging a project related to a series of collections for which technology such as cryptocurrency will be used for important fundraising.

Many other museums see the process of NFTs and their rapid evolution as a way to attract liquidity.

The development of Non-Fungible Tokens is the basis for many other projects that store a series of works linked to this dimension and refer to a unique certification and deposit in external databases. This innovative solution would lead to a guarantee of archiving together with the certification of the NFT themselves. One of these is the Arweave project, which specialized in the decentralization of contained data.

The week that has just ended, however, sees a fever of trades as far as Axie Infinity is concerned, which, in just seven days, has traded a little less than 100 million USD (doubling eight times the volumes previously linked to Crypto Punk) and on July 6th alone has quantified about 16,900,000 USD. All this game based on breeding animals and feeding them catalyzes the attention of many users, with over 230,000 transactions in the last few days alone. In June alone, it raised 122 million USD. In just seven days, more than 90 million USD have been moved. Wanting to make an estimate, we could assume a line that would more than double the reality of June.

Another project is that of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which in the last seven days, despite the substantial drop in trading volumes, is still one of the most-watched. In the third position on the podium remains Nba Top Shot which registers a drop of more than 40% and total volumes of around 5.1 million USD. Crypto Punks remains the most traded figurines and is among the top five NFTs with the highest sales in the last week. However, the highest sale was Crypto Punks number #1886, awarded for 450 Ethereum, representing a counter value of 1 million USD. A sale that sees the change of hands rise as the previous auction ended in June 2017 for 2.29 Ethereum equal to 651 USD, and this we can definitely call an almost stellar gain.

Among the five projects with the highest value of the last seven days, in the second position, we see the virtual land of The Sandbox platform awarded for 3,644,834.6 token sand equal to a counter value of 889,587 USD.

However, among the many projects, others have been positively affected by the strong initial attention. That is true for Crypto Art that records as in the case of Hackatao, a peak of 155 Ethereum for their primary work, surely destined to rise before the closing, and of the three works related to the 'Bear's Head' awarded in the last 48 hours above 30ETH each.

News of the last hours is that of Sotheby's that has put up for auction at the Hong Kong gallery, a pear-shaped diamond of 101 carats, which can also be awarded with Ethereum and Bitcoin; Coinbase has in fact made available its facility to allow the payment. The auction house has made it known that this is the first time for a physical object, with such a high value to go through the use of cryptocurrency intended as a mode of the proposed purchase. A real revolution that begins to enter the world of physical art actively.

Elysium Bridge: the new platform of artistic NFTs combining physical and digital worlds

DeFi Today interviewed the team behind Elysium Bridge, a new art-themed Non-Fungible Token platform.

1) How did the idea of Elysium Bridge come about? When?

Elysium Bridge was born earlier this year, from a discussion of how many historical brands hold unique and priceless assets that cannot be sold as they represent the history of the brand.

More often than not, these assets are displayed in museums that tell the story of the brand, and many buyers would be willing to do anything to get them. As Italians, the idea comes from the past experience of historical brands of sports and luxury cars that exhibit unique pieces in their museums, receiving offers that reach unthinkable figures but cannot sell these pieces as they are unique.

Elysium Bridge was born from the idea of connecting the physical and digital worlds, using NFTs to digitize and make exchangeable assets that would otherwise only have life in a museum.

2) What differentiates Elysium from other NFT platforms?

Elysium Bridge is not just an NFT platform but the union of the physical and digital worlds. We organize physical events in exclusive locations where we celebrate the history of renowned brands. The events consist of physical auctions where brands bring NFTs of their history or unique assets that both physical and online attendees can participate in via our platform, live streaming.

In addition, the events will feature prominent artists from the NFT community who help us celebrate the brands' history with exclusive works that are part of the auction.

3) Can you anticipate the first events and/or the names of some of the artists you are collaborating with?

The first event will be held in Monte Carlo and will celebrate the history of one of the most famous sports car brands in the world. We are collaborating with artists from the NFT community, both Italian and international, such as the hyperrealist artist Emanuele Dascanio and the contemporary painter Giovanni Motta. In the coming weeks, we will also announce the other artists who will take part in the first event with their exclusive works.

4) How does an artist sign up for your platform today?

Artists can already apply today to sign up as artists to our platform on https://artists.elysiumbridge.org. We select top artists and collaborations for the platform, and collectors will be able to access the platform by invitation only. The invitation codes will be provided to

5) What do you think in general about the future of NFTs?

The NFT phenomenon has definitely generated an adoption in the mainstream audience, making it definitely different from a temporary trend. Important names in different fields of art, from music to collecting, have already bet heavily on this technology to create a new means of communication.

NFTs reduce the phenomenon of control of large platforms that offer exposure to artists and creators but are inflexible in how they are paid. Thanks to NFTs, creators can get closer to the public, and the result is already visible, a public awareness of digital art never seen before.

6) Are we in a hype phase, or is the best yet to come?

Enthusiasm for this new industry is still high, and as we know, trends always see cycles. But it is clear that the NFT phenomenon has overcome the initial euphoria and has moved into a construction phase, with a very active ecosystem of platforms and services that allow everyone to find a way to express themselves.

The NFT landscape offers answers to any niche, and in our case, we want to be the connecting bridge between the history of the physical world and the new digital world.

7) Will your platform be only related to artistic NFT or also gaming etc.? What are the applications of NFT that you find most interesting and innovative?

As mentioned, we believe that the NFT world offers the possibility of expression for many niches. In the case of gaming, we can't talk about a niche, as we are talking about one of the fastest-growing markets.

Our core business is to bring the physical world into the digital world, so we are far from the gaming world, which is digital by definition, but we are sure that NFT will find great expression in the gaming world in the future.

Everything that has to do with collecting and being born in the digital world has great potential with NFT. By leveraging the underlying technology, you can redefine the concept of ownership in the digital world. Gaming is potentially the sector that could exploit this phenomenon the most.

5 hottest DeFi news of the week

Bonus News: Aave to launch permissioned deployment for institutions in July

Technical Analysis

by Federico Izzi

Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin's technical structure remains delicate, with prices hovering just above USD 32,000. A month after the climb brought the quotations back above 41,000 USD, it did not find the necessary confirmations to strengthen the rebound. That is how we must define the movement of mid-June because a few days later, the price has again plummeted below 32,000 USD, a stage where it is still facing the holding of a level that has now become crucial support to decide the fate of the queen of cryptocurrencies.

Attention will undoubtedly be higher in the coming days; in fact, by Tuesday, the direct monthly sub-cycle (15 days - 2 weeks) should end. The reasons for the importance of the wait regard the structure of the sub-cycle and the closure's verification, i.e., if it will be above or below 30,000 USD, area where the last weekly cycle is assumed to have started. A cycle that, to indicate a bullish trend, should have risen above 42,000 USD, an event that instead did not occur. For this reason, it will be helpful to understand whether the signal of weakness will be, or not, confirmed by a lower minimum. On the contrary, it will be the first signal of a possible restart if this should not happen.

BTC Options

Despite the fact that the ratio between Put and Call options remains in favor of the latter, the analysis of the various strike levels used to hedge the upside risk indicates that the strategies have been distributed between 34,500 and 39,600 USD. While the downside hedges, with Put Options, clearly prevail in the range between 31,000 and 33,000 USD. The hedging strategies of professional traders confirm the importance of holding the support levels pointed above.

Ethereum (ETH)

The technical price structure of Ethereum is different from that of Bitcoin. Looking at the price trend since the lows of late June, so far the weekly cycle structure indicates a bullish trend that has still remained intact despite the decline that in recent days has marked a price retreat of about 15% from the highs of Wednesday, July 7, the highest level of the last month. The next few days will be essential to understand if the recent decline was only a natural movement in line with closing the weekly cycle or beginning a new bearish trend. The bullish structure analyzed above indicates probability more in favor of the first hypothesis, which resumes the rise in the coming days of the week. If so, it will be necessary for prices to exceed 2,400 USD accompanied by volumes. Otherwise, it will be required to not return below 2,000 USD or do so without the support of volumes.

ETH Options

Despite the holding of technical supports and a moderately bullish structure, traders prefer to keep their guard up, protecting themselves from possible rises by opting for Call Options (bullish). The ratio between Put and Call Options favors the Call by 1:2.5, which would rise to 1:5 if the two strikes in the 2,000 USD area were excluded. A reason indicating the importance of holding both the technical and psychological support of 2,000 USD, now also confirmed by the derivatives. On the upside, instead, it is necessary to climb above the $2,400 level, the last relative high of the week's beginning, and then $2,600, an area that corresponds to the double high of the first part of June.

Let’s Connect

DeFiToday is A FREE weekly newsletter covering all the top stories in DeFi:

Bitcoin, Ethereum and DeFi Charts
Esclusive Interviews
Curated content from industry leaders

Join our Telegram Channel - Follow us on Twitter - Subscribe

DeFiToday