MakerDAO hopes to fill the multi-million dollar gap in the collateral backing its DAI stablecoin following last week’s Ethereum market volatility, as Cointelegraph reported. Today the organization successfully launched its first debt auction to that end. The first lot became available at 10:38 EST on March 19, and just over one hour into the auction, a further nine of the 100 expected total lots had been released. The reverse auction format Sales at this auction take a reverse-auction format, with a fixed bidding amount of 50,000 DAI placed for an initial lot of 250 MKR tokens. Bidders can then lower …

On March 11 at 4:56 p.m. UTC, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization, stated that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. Industry experts consider the global uncertainty around this respiratory disease — from travel bans imposed by governments across the globe to the continuing global market turmoil — to be a trigger of the cryptocurrency market’s painful crash. Most cryptocurrencies saw their biggest 24-hour price drops in a single 24-hour period. The strong downward trend started off around 6:00 a.m. UTC on March 12 and continued until the morning of March 13. Ether (ETH) took …

The MakerDAO (MKR) community has locked in an auction to cover a multi-million dollar hole in DAI collateral after the sudden Ethereum (ETH) price crash on March 12. Scheduled for 10:28 AM EST on March 19, the system will auction newly minted MKR in exchange for DAI. The proceeds from the sale will be used to recapitalize the system and compensate the losses suffered by the borrowers who saw their Ethereum collateral auctioned off for zero DAI. As the stablecoin powers many decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, the stability of Maker is paramount for the entire ecosystem. What happened to Maker? …

The Celsius Network is the first major cryptocurrency lending platform that is profitable, according to its CEO and founder Alex Mashinsky. Cointelegraph interviewed Mashinsky to learn more about this achievement, how the latest market downturn has affected its business and his outlook on the industry. According to Mashinsky, the company was profitable in 2019 on a net income basis and in 2020 on a free cash flow basis. In March, Celsius Network is expected to post record revenues of over $2 million. Mashinsky explains that his company’s balance sheets are much more solid than of his competitors, “about 90% of …

The MakerDAO governance has approved the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin as the third collateral type accepted in the Maker Protocol, according to a community post on March 17. The decision was put to an extraordinary executive vote outside of the usual weekly schedule, with the aim of urgently increasing Dai (DAI) liquidity following last week’s market instability. USDC joins Ether and Basic Attention Token USDC now joins Ether (ETH) and Basic Attention Token (BAT) as accepted forms of collateral which can be used to open vaults and generate Dai. The move follows extensive discussion in the Maker community on the …

Institutional digital asset security platform Fireblocks has announced an integration with decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Compound — currently the second-largest application built on Ethereum. Entities storing assets with Fireblocks can now generate passive income by accessing Compound — an algorithmic interest rate protocol currently managing $163 million in interest-earning digital assets including cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. The partnership will allow institutions like market makers, hedge funds and exchanges to put assets on Compound. Fireblocks to make things easier for institutions Speaking to Cointelegraph, Compound CEO Robert Leshner explained that the partnership with Fireblocks will make it easier for institutional entities …

MakerDAO, leading player in the decentralized finance sector, is facing liquidity risk in an uncertain market. The MakerDAO community is considering adding support for USDC, the cryptocurrency associated with Circle, as an alternative collateral to help bear this risk, according to a community thread on March 16. MakerDAO’s Foundation Dev Team had a call on the matter at 11 AM ET today, discussing the code for the USDC collateral adaptor — a recording of that call is available here. According to the post describing potential USDC collateral support, the move would allow for locking up USDC, minting DAI and selling …

While most cryptocurrencies have seen their market capitalization slashed over the past month, the market meltdown has seen stablecoins ascend the market cap rankings. As of press time, six stablecoins currently reside among the top 50 crypto assets by capitalization. USDT ranks fourth The largest-stablecoin by capitalization, Tether (USDT), currently ranks as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $4.66 billion. Despite the total USDT market cap growing by just 0.5% in four weeks, Tether has crept up the ladder since ranking seventh by capitalization on Feb. 15. However, due to the plummeting prices of the assets that USDT …

The proliferation of cryptocurrency companies seeking to donate or raise funds for coronavirus relief efforts continues. Ethereum-based crowdfunding platform, Gitcoin, is advancing this trend by pledging at least $50,000 in development grants toward coronavirus-related initiatives. On March 14, Gitcoin tweeted that its fifth round of grants already has $50,000 committed toward “public health” initiatives. However, it is seeking to reach a minimum of $100,000, with the goal of distributing sufficient funds to multiple efforts. Gitcoin seeks $100,000 raise for public health projects The project has invited the public to refer relevant health projects to Gitcoin, noting that submissions will be …

The March 13 crypto market meltdown ravaged cryptocurrency companies across the industry, sparking a MakerDAO debt crisis and causing millions to be deployed from the insurance funds of exchanges Binance and Deribit. In spite of the widespread carnage, the insurance fund of leading derivatives exchange, BitMex, only took two days to break back into new all-time highs. BitMex insurance fund posts new all-time high Despite going offline for 45 minutes due to a “hardware issue” late March 13, BitMex appears to have emerged from the recent cryptocurrency market massacre stronger than ever. The crash saw BitMex only deployed 1,627 to …

MakerDAO, a leading firm in the burgeoning sector of decentralized finance (DeFI) built on the Ethereum (ETH) network, has hastily called for a community vote on March 13 ahead of the project's first-ever Debt Auction. According to Maker (MKR), the vote will decide on needed modifications that were identified during the fallout from the recent crypto market bloodbath — which saw the price of ETH plummet roughly 30% in 24 hours. Ether crash triggers Maker loan failures MakerDAO is the DeFi protocol that creates the stablecoin Dai (DAI). Dai are minted by users taking on collateralized debt positions, where collateral …