European regulators assess DeFi risks, Uniswap launches Android wallet: Finance Redefined

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you the most significant developments from the past week.

In this week’s newsletter, European securities regulators have published a report on the DeFi ecosystem that lists the risks it poses to the European Union’s financial system — but also highlights the benefits of DeFi.

Uniswap has launched Android wallet beta on Google Play, with the app gaining popularity among desktop and Apple iOS users. DeFi platform Star Arena recovered 90% of stolen Avalance (AVAX) tokens after offering a $250,000 bounty, and Platypus Finance fell victim to another flash loan attack.

The top 100 DeFi tokens had a mixed week in terms of price action, with most of the tokens trading in the same range or slightly higher than the last week. The total value locked in DeFi protocols hit $45.67 billion.

European regulator: DeFi comes with significant risks as well as benefits

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) — the EU’s financial markets supervisory authority — released an article on DeFi and its risks to the EU market on Oct. 11.

In a 22-page report, the ESMA admits the promised benefits of DeFi, such as greater financial inclusion, the development of innovative financial products, and the enhancement of financial transactions’ speed, security and costs.

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Uniswap launches Android wallet beta for Google Play

Decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap launched a closed beta Android version of its mobile app on Oct. 12, according to a blog post from the app’s development team. Uniswap has previously only been available on PC and iOS mobile devices.

The new Android beta app allows users to select coins on different chains without switching networks. It automatically detects which network a coin is on and switches to that network without the user prompting it to. It can be used on Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and BNB Chain currently, with more chain compatibility slated for the future.

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Stars Arena recovers 90% of stolen funds after offering $257,000 bounty

Web3 social media platform Stars Arena said it has recovered nearly all of the crypto stolen from an Oct. 7 exploit, minus a 10% bounty to the person responsible.

In an Oct. 11 X (formerly Twitter) post, Stars Arena said around 90% of the 266,000 AVAX exploited, at the time worth around $3 million, was returned after reaching an agreement to give a 27,610 AVAX bounty worth nearly $257,000 to the exploiter. The bounty also included compensation for 1,000 AVAX worth over $9,000, which the exploiter apparently lost on a bridge.

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Platypus DeFi loses $2.2 million in another flash loan exploit

DeFi protocol Platypus has lost over $2 million in assets after suffering another flash loan exploit on its platform. The protocol suspended all of its pools in response to the attack.

According to the blockchain security platform CertiK, the DeFi platform suffered three attacks, with $2.23 million taken across the exploits. On Oct. 12, the first attack took place, extracting $1.2 million from the platform. A second attack occurred hours later, stealing $575,000 worth of assets from the platform. Just a minute later, the third attack occurred, with $450,000 in assets lost.

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Lido Finance discloses 20 slashing events due to validator config issues

Ethereum staking protocol Lido Finance has disclosed its protocol saw 20 slashing events due to a series of infrastructure and signer configuration issues from validators operated by Launchnodes.

The incident occurred on Oct. 11 at about 3:30 pm UTC, according to Launchnodes. In an Oct. 11 post on X, Lido said Launchnodes’ validators nodes are now offline, and slashings have ceased while the root cause was being investigated.

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DeFi market overview

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a mixed week, with most tokens trading in the green on weekly charts. The total value locked into DeFi protocols dropped to $45.67 billion.

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