Finance Redefined: DeFi’s $4M lobsters and Solana gaming, Sept. 6–10

Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance, or DeFi, newsletter.

In a week where the crypto market bears returned for blood, DeFi enlisted an army of lobsters to fight its feuds.

While we ponder a feasible battleground for that mammalian–invertebrate combat, feel free to scroll on and read the top choices for the week’s most impactful stories.

What you’re about to read is a shorter, more succinct version of the newsletter. For a comprehensive summary of DeFi’s developments over the last week — delivered to your inbox quicker than a food delivery order in lockdown — subscribe below.

Fishing for finance

Lobby Lobsters joined the burgeoning list of animal-themed nonfungible token (NFT) projects this week, showcasing the genuine power of community-centric NFT campaigns in fostering causes of social good.

Each of the 10,000 Lobby Lobster NFTs was minted for 0.1 Ether (ETH) ($390 at the time), and the project was sold out within the hour, amassing $4 million in sales.

The community-led NFT platform that launched the project, Universe, assured contributors that all funds raised through both primary and secondary marketplaces will be donated directly to an organization that represents DeFi interests on the political stage.

This firm will advocate for a regulatory environment that fosters growth and innovation in the sector, similar to that of the 1990s dot-com era for tech firms.

The Lobby Lobsters concept was born following conversations around the Security and Exchange Commission’s investigation into the world’s largest decentralized exchange, Uniswap, and its implications for the wider market.

SOL survivor

A Solana-based agricultural simulation game called DeFi Land, designed to support players’ education in the DeFi markets, successfully raised funds of over $4 million this week.

The game incentivizes progression through a play-to-earn model in which players can earn tokenized income by completing in-game objectives and missions.

Brian Lee, a senior executive at Alameda Research — one of the groups that invested in the platform — believes that the game combines “two of the most interesting things happening in crypto right now: gaming and DeFi.”

Short the banks, long DeFi

Caitlin Long, CEO of regulated Wyoming crypto bank Avanti, defended DeFi this week when sharing her perspective on a New York Times publication that allegedly contained numerous falsifications on the moral transparency of DeFi platforms.

The piece, titled “Crypto’s Rapid Move Into Banking Elicits Alarm in Washington,” suggested that crypto derivatives platforms offering highly leveraged products threaten investor welfare and are a supervising nuisance for regulators.

An advocate of regulation, Long said, “Bad actors deserve to be called out, but the article ignores the fact that regulatory-compliant firms exist.”

Token prices

Analytical data reveals that DeFi’s total value locked (TVL) is down 10.2% from last week to $118.21 billion — a decline paralleling the entire market’s pullback.

Technical data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView reveals that DeFi’s major tokens performed adversely across the last seven days, engulfing the bullish momentum registered in the last couple of weeks and then some.

SushiSwap’s SUSHI recorded a bearish decline of 24%, with AAVE down 22%. Meanwhile, Yearn.finance’s YFI dropped 20% from last week, while Synthetix Network Token (SNX) fell 13%.

Despite these short-term declines, a recent Chainalysis report titled “Global DeFi Adoption Index” indicates that large institutional transactions accounted for 60% of DeFi’s trading volume throughout Q2 2021 — a healthy sign for global adoption.

Thanks for reading our dissection of DeFi’s biggest developments this week. Join us next week on Friday to stay informed on the hot topics and crucial developments in this rapidly evolving space.