Web3 projects would rather be hacked than pay a bounty: Finance Redefined

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights – a newsletter designed to bring you significant developments over the past week.

Uniswap, one of the leading decentralized exchange platforms, integrates debit and credit card support for its users. It will allow Uniswap users to buy cryptocurrency directly with their cards.

A former employee caused the Ankr protocol’s recent $5 million hack. The DeFi protocol notified relevant authorities and is attempting to prosecute the attacker while strengthening security practices.

A Web3 developer has claimed that many crypto ecosystem projects would rather be hacked than pay bounties. After reporting and helping to patch a smart contract vulnerability, the developer claims that the projects he helped started ignoring him. However, despite a turbulent year, DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain games drove decentralized application (DApp) adoption across the industry, according to DappRadar’s 2022 report.

The top 100 DeFi tokens had a bearish week, with almost all tokens trading in the red on the weekly charts.

Uniswap to allow users to buy cryptocurrency using debit and credit cards

Decentralized exchange Uniswap has partnered with fintech company Moonpay to allow users to buy cryptocurrency on the web app using debit cards, credit cards and bank transfers. The wire transfer option is rolling out to users in most US states, Brazil, the UK and the Single Euro Payments Area, also known as SEPA.

In the December 20 announcement, Uniswap shared that users will now be able to convert fiat to cryptocurrency on Ethereum’s mainnet, Polygon, Optimism and Artibrum within minutes.

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Projects would rather be hacked than pay bounties, claims the Web3 developer

As hacks and exploits continue to be prevalent in the crypto industry, finding vulnerabilities is of utmost importance to prevent potential losses. However, one Web3 developer highlighted that it is not rewarding to do so.

In a tweet, a Web3 developer claimed to have found a vulnerability in a Solana smart contract that would have affected several projects and around $30 million in funding. According to the developer, he reported and helped patch the vulnerabilities. But when it came time to ask for a reward, the projects just started ignoring him.

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Ankr says former employee caused $5 million exploit, promises to improve security

A $5 million hack of the Ankr protocol on Dec. 1 was caused by a former team member, according to a Dec. 20 announcement from the Ankr team.

Ex-employees carried out a “supply chain attack” by inserting malicious code into a package of future updates to the team’s internal software. When this software was updated, the malicious code created a security vulnerability that allowed the attacker to steal the team’s distribution key from the company’s server.

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DeFi, NFT, blockchain games: Key options from DappRadar’s 2022 review

2022 will be a challenging year for the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, but the adversity has been sprinkled with a lot of positives in the DApp ecosystem.

DappRadar has released its annual report on the industry, focusing on challenges faced alongside notable technological achievements and increasing daily users.

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DeFi Market Overview

Analytical data reveals that DeFi’s total market capitalization fell below $40 billion in the past week, trading at around $38.1 billion at the time of writing. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView show that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a volatile and bearish week, with almost all tokens trading in the red.

Thanks for reading our roundup of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education in this dynamically advancing area.