The DeFi Drop Volume 20 | Bittrex Exchange

Each week, we’ll round up the hottest news across the DeFi ecosystem to help you keep up to speed. 

The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi across all major chains (including Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon and other Layer 2’s) surpassed $270 billion, an all time high. TVL is a key metric for DeFi protocols, measuring how much asset value is “locked up” or deposited in the protocols. (DeFi Llama) 

Play-to-earn gaming has been one of the most dynamic features of the crypto economy in 2021, with Axie Infinity being the standout project. Katana, the new automated market maker for Axie Infinity’s side chain Ronin, has attracted more than $1.2B in TVL since launching last week. (The Defiant) 

Loopring ($LRC), one of Ethereum’s first scaling solutions, just launched a Layer 2 block explorer which is now live. Users can now easily parse through Loopring L2 blocks + data as well as download/export their own transaction data. (Loopring) 

Last week, the U.S. government released a report about stablecoins, where they made an explicit recommendation for moving ahead. This is a solid summary of making sense of the report. (Dose of DeFi) 

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill that contains a controversial cryptocurrency tax reporting requirement. The bill now goes to U.S. President Joe Biden for his signature. (CoinDesk) 

The number of users of China’s digital yuan, also known as the e-CNY, has increased by more than six times over the past four months. Per PBoC officials, 10% of China’s population have opened digital yuan wallets so far. (The Block) 

This is a post that provides a mental framework for the relationship between Web3 (crypto) and Web2, and in specific, what Web3 needs to do to dethrone Web2 from a product and messaging standpoint. (Medium) 

AAVE V3 is about to pass in a governance vote, V3’s proposed features highlight how DeFi is becoming increasingly cross-chain and oriented towards Ethereum Layer 2s. Increased capital efficiency and user safety are also important themes. (The Defiant)