Scroll, a ZK rollup Layer 2 network, has joined the billion-dollar club. The project's total value locked (TVL) hit $1.03 billion, up 23% in a week. This milestone makes Scroll the 8th Ethereum Layer 2 to cross the $1 billion TVL mark. ETH dominates the mix at 87.29%, with stablecoins at 11.11% and other assets at 1.60%. Launched in October 2023, Scroll's been on a roll. It's been churning out features left and right. The latest? Scroll Canvas, a nifty tool for users to show off achievements and on-chain creds. But that's not all, folks. 'Session One' is dangling carrots for DeFi users. Points for liquidity providers on DEXs like Ambient and Nuri? Check. Scroll Marks for lending on Aave? You bet. Here's the kicker: Scroll's riding high without its own token. Go figure. But wrapped tokens on the network are seeing green. Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) is the star performer, up 10% in a week. Want in on the action? Bridge ETH and wstETH through the native bridge, or STONE via LayerZero. No fancy footwork needed for Session Zero eligibility. Easy peasy. Meanwhile, the Layer 2 scene's heating up. Total TVL across all Ethereum Layer 2s? A whopping $42.04 billion, up 12.04% in a week. Arbitrum One's still king of the hill with $16.85 billion TVL, up 11.91%. Base follows at $6.87 billion, despite a 7.53% dip. OP Mainnet's not far behind at $6.42 billion, surging 16.55%. Blast and Mantle round out the top five. Blast's sitting pretty at $2.67 billion, up 10.33%. Mantle's no slouch either, with $1.24 billion and a 15.07% bump. The Layer 2 race is on, and it's anyone's game. Scroll's just crashed the party, but who knows what's next in this fast-moving space?

Several decentralized finance (DeFi) apps have fallen victim to a domain registry attack. Blockchain security platform Blockaid raised the alarm on July 11. The attacker seized control of Compound Finance's DNS registry. They also tried and failed to hijack Celer Network's registry. Blockaid's initial probe points to Squarespace domains being the target. This puts any DeFi app using Squarespace at potential risk. The attack came to light when compound.finance started redirecting users to a dodgy site. This malicious site housed a drainer app, aiming to steal users' tokens. Celer Network dodged a bullet. Their domain monitoring system caught the takeover attempt in time. At 3:38 pm UTC, Blockaid dropped a bombshell. "Multiple DeFi front ends are at risk of hijacking," they tweeted. They fingered Squarespace's domain name registry as the likely culprit. DefiLlama developer 0xngmi shared a list of potentially affected domains. It's a who's who of DeFi, featuring over 100 protocols. Big names like Pendle Finance, dYdX, and LooksRare made the cut. MetaMask, a popular Web3 wallet, is stepping up. They're working to warn users about potentially compromised apps linked to the attack. This isn't the first rodeo for the Web3 industry. Domain-name hijacking is just one of many attacks they've faced in the past year. Remember the Ledger Connect library hack in December? That one hit almost the entire Ethereum Virtual Machine ecosystem. Talk about a headache. It's clear that security remains a hot-button issue in the DeFi space. As the old saying goes, with great innovation comes great responsibility – and apparently, great risk.

The Supreme Court's recent decisions have significantly weakened the Securities and Exchange Commission's regulatory power over cryptocurrencies. Two key rulings in June and July have reshaped the landscape for crypto startups. And that is an important decision, no one is talking about for some reason. The first case, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, ended the Chevron doctrine. This doctrine had previously given federal agencies broad interpretive powers over ambiguous statutes. The court's decision now requires agencies to defend their interpretations in court like any other party. The crypto industry has long grappled with regulatory uncertainty. Multiple agencies, including the SEC, have attempted to extend their reach into this evolving sector. This has created a challenging environment for startups, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi startups face a complex regulatory landscape. "While DeFi could radically improve financial access for the unbanked and transform our financial system, regulators have no idea how to classify DeFi services," industry experts note. This uncertainty has hindered compliant operations. Despite these obstacles, the sector has continued to innovate. The growth has occurred in spite of regulatory headwinds. The Loper Bright decision marks a significant shift. Courts are no longer bound by agency interpretations. Federal agencies must now convince courts of their correctness, just like any other litigant. A second ruling, Corner Post Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, further bolstered startups' position. It clarified when the six-year statute of limitations for challenging regulations begins. Previously, this window started when a rule was published. The new interpretation allows challenges to begin when a company starts operations affected by the rule. This opens the door for newer entities to contest long-standing regulations. These combined decisions create a more favorable environment for regulatory challenges. Crypto startups now have powerful tools to push back against "unwarranted regulatory creep," as one analyst put it. The full impact of these rulings remains to be seen, and that is not an understatement, no even a bit.

Hinkal Protocol has launched its Shared Privacy Protocol. The new system enables confidential transactions across multiple blockchains. The announcement came at EthCC 7. Hinkal outlined several key features of the protocol. Stakers can deploy native and staked assets. This generates additional yield. Yield tokens remain tradable on other decentralized applications. Traders benefit from an expanded Shielded pool. This obscures trading strategies. It also maximizes capital deployment across chains. Decentralized exchanges and applications can integrate the protocol. This grants users new privacy capabilities. Georgi Koreli, Hinkal's co-founder and CEO, stressed the importance of on-chain privacy. "It's critical for full crypto adoption in the institutional financial sector," he said. Koreli noted rapid adoption among institutional clients. He called the launch "a key milestone in unleashing community power and breaking privacy barriers." Hinkal claims institutional investors seek DeFi privacy comparable to traditional markets. However, achieving this requires substantial "Shielded TVL" on each blockchain, which is not an easy task. First of all, the crypto landscape's fragmentation poses challenges that need to be ovecome. Over 200 Layer-1 and Layer-2 blockchains exist. That translates into liquidity lacking incentives and privacy in DeFi is not scalable until now. Evgeny Gokhberg, founder of Re7 Capital and Hinkal investor, commented on the protocol. "It's the solution we've been searching for," he said. Gokhberg emphasized the need for compliant, discrete liquidations without disclosing transaction data.

A new study reveals the global Decentralized Finance (DeFi) market is set to reach $48.02 billion by 2031. This represents significant growth from the current $22 billion. And implies the number of people who actually use DeFi products is going to grow by millions. The market is projected to expand at 9% annualy from 2024 to 2031, not so many markets out there can boast such an impressive growth, especially in financial sector which is quite conservative and unwelcoming to novice users. SkyQuest's analysis highlights key drivers of this growth. As you could guess, DeFi eliminates traditional financial intermediaries. That reduces costs associated with banking services, thus making those much more attractive to ordinary users, even those who do not posses any advanced financial skills. The DeFi technology offers improved accessibility and ease of use for everyone, that's cool finance for dummies, to put it simply. The rise of eSports and gaming is boosting DeFi adoption. Developers increasingly use DeFi tokens for in-app purchases. Just take a look at Augur, a DeFi betting platform, that exemplifies this trend. Blockchain technology dominated the market in 2022. It accounted for over 41% of global revenues. Blockchain enables decentralized, borderless, and transparent transactions. Smart contracts are poised for significant growth. They form the foundation of DeFi protocols. Smart contracts can act as programmable assets with specific rules. They accelerate services like investment, credit, and insurance. Data analytics led the application segment in 2022. It represented 18% of global revenue. DeFi protocols offer advantages in decision-making and risk management. The payments segment is expected to grow rapidly, too. Peer-to-peer payments are a crucial use case for DeFi. Users can exchange cryptocurrencies securely without intermediaries, you don't need a bank anymore to execute your financial orders. DeFi is reshaping traditional finance. It leverages blockchain technology to offer innovative solutions. The market's growth is driven by cryptocurrency adoption and blockchain proliferation. DeFi applications are democratizing financial services. Users can borrow, lend, and trade without traditional intermediaries. Decentralized exchanges and yield farming programs are gaining traction.