Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. Industry experts are confident in DeFi and believe the sector would continue to see adoption despite its security flaws, primarily due to the mammoth failure of centralized exchanges. Despite the continued growth, however, the decentralized exchanges have lost $30 million on liquidity provider incentives. Popular hardware crypto wallet Ledger introduced a new DeFi tracking feature that pairs with its hardware wallets to monitor performance analytics of over 1,000 protocols. The Lodestar Finance protocol that …

A lawyer representing provisional liquidators overseeing FTX’s assets has pushed back against allegations officials in the Bahamas were using the collapse of the crypto exchange to benefit its residents first. In a Dec. 16 hearing for FTX Trading’s bankruptcy proceedings, White & Case partner Jason Zakia said allegations made by debtors concerning FTX assets and Bahamian authorities were “wholly without merit”. The legal team represented provisional liquidators whose appointments were approved by the Supreme Court of the Bahamas in November and had “no involvement” in the downfall of FTX prior to its bankruptcy, according to Zakia. “In any international case …

The Russian central bank is ready to consider allowing cryptocurrency use within the country but only as part of a legal experiment, governor Elvira Nabiullina said. “It’s possible to consider transactions through an authorized organization in the country as part of an experimental legal regime, but that would require a relevant law,” Nabiullina stated during a press conference of Bank of Russia on Dec. 16. The Bank of Russia’s only objection has always been that crypto cannot be used as a payment instrument, Nabiullina emphasized. She added that the central bank is also concerned about investor protection because the crypto …

A class-action lawsuit against Silvergate Bank, Silvergate Capital Corporation and Silvergate CEO Alan Lane was filed at the California Southern District Court concerning accounts held by embattled crypto companies FTX and Alameda Research. The suit aims to hold Silvergate accountable for its alleged roles in placing FTX user deposits into the bank accounts of Alameda, which caused panic within the crypto market, eventually leading to both firms declaring bankruptcy. The lawsuit was filed by the plaintiff Joewy Gonzalez on behalf of himself and others in the same situation. According to the suit, the plaintiff invested his savings in crypto through …

United States prosecutors have laid charges in two separate cases against nine people who founded or promoted a pair of cryptocurrency companies alleged to be Ponzi schemes that netted $8.4 million from investors. On Dec. 14 the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed the indictment, alleging the purported crypto mining and trading companies IcomTech and Forcount promised investors “guaranteed daily returns” that could double their investment in six months. In reality, prosecutors say both firms were using the money from later investors to pay earlier investors, while other funds were spent on promoting the companies …

The Japanese government is set to ease tax requirements for local crypto firms, as it pushes to stimulate growth in the domestic finance and tech sectors. At present, Japanese firms that issue crypto are required to pay a set 30% corporate tax rate on their holdings, even if they haven’t realized a profit through a sale. As such, a number of domestically founded crypto/blockchain firms and talent have reportedly chosen to set up shop elsewhere over the past few years. Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) tax committee held a meeting on Dec. 15 and approved a proposal …

The incoming United States House Financial Services Committee chair Patrick McHenry wants the Treasury to delay the implementation of a section of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that deals with digital assets and tax collection. McHenry sent a letter on Dec. 14 to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen with questions and concerns about the scope of Section 80603 of the Act. In the letter he requested clarification over the “poorly drafted” and potentially privacy-compromising Section that deals with the taxation of digital assets, scheduled to go into effect in 2023. He said the section requires the government to treat …

Sam Bankman-Fried, the jailed founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has reportedly filed a new application for bail in the Bahamas Supreme Court following his previous unsuccessful bail bid. Local media on Dec. 15 reported the founder submitted the application and that it would be heard before the court in just over one month's time on Jan. 17, 2023. However it did not cite any sources. Previously, on Dec. 13, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had argued for him to be let out on bail set at $250,000 as he had no prior convictions and was suffering from depression and insomnia. The presiding …

Financial product comparison website Finder.com is being sued by Australia’s financial services regulator for allegedly offering a cryptocurrency yield-bearing product without the required license. It’s the second local provider of a crypto yield product to be targeted by the regulator, following action against Block Earner in November The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) began court proceedings on Dec.15 local time against Finder.com’s subsidiary and locally registered digital currency exchange Finder Wallet. ASIC alleged the Finder Earn product was an unlicensed financial product and that theFinder Wallet breached product disclosure requirements and failed to comply with obligations pertaining to distributing …

Crypto.com has received a Payment Institution License (EMI) from the Central Bank of Brazil. The license will allow it to “continue offering regulated fiat wallet services for customers in Brazil,” according to an announcement on the company’s website. Crypto.com has offered a Visa card in Brazil for purchases in cryptocurrency or fiat since last year. The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange recently placed a proof-of-reserves page on its website. It has received approvals in several countries in recent months, including France, the United Kingdom and South Korea, the announcement stated, with provision approvals in several more jurisdictions, such as Singapore, Dubai and …

Researchers from German crypto blockchain-based payments fintech etonec and other organizations have proposed using zero-knowledge proofs to ensure regulatory compliance and privacy in stablecoins. They have created a design that allows fiat-based stablecoins to be used like cash, within limits. The researchers’ design allows a number of limits, such as transaction limits, balance limits, and turnover limits and enables Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) compliance with the use of zero-knowledge proofs, particularly zk-SNARK (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge). Below the preset limits, transactions would be invisible to third parties. According to the researchers’ report: …

The central bank of the Netherlands, De Nederlandsche Bank, has issued a warning to investors in KuCoin, saying the exchange was operating without legal registration. In a Dec. 15 announcement, the central bank said MEK Global Limited, or MGL, which does business in the Netherlands as KuCoin, was not in compliance with the country’s anti-money laundering, or AML, and the equivalent of combatting the financing of terrorism, or CFT, regulations. De Nederlandsche Bank added the crypto firm was “illegally offering services” as well as “illegally offering custodian wallets” for users. “Customers of MGL are not in violation,” said the bank. …