Tokenized US Treasurys & Doubled Base TVL: Finance Redefined

Welcome to Finance Redefined, a weekly newsletter that provides essential insights into decentralized finance (DeFi). In the past week, over $1 billion worth of United States Treasurys have been tokenized on Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and other blockchains, as real-world asset tokenization becomes more popular. A U.S. judge has ruled that Coinbase’s self-custody crypto wallet does not classify it as a broker, which is seen as a significant setback for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a boost for DeFi. Coinbase’s layer-2 platform Base has experienced a surge in value locked on-chain due to the memecoin frenzy.

The tokenization of U.S. Treasurys has seen significant growth, with over $1 billion worth of these assets now existing on various blockchains. This growth has been fueled in part by the launch of the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund on Ethereum, which currently has a market cap of $244.8 million. Transactions totaling $95 million to the fund in the past week have contributed to its success, making it the second-largest tokenized government securities fund.

A recent decision by a U.S. judge to dismiss allegations against Coinbase Wallet has been hailed as a victory for self-custody wallets and DeFi apps. The judge found that the SEC had not provided enough evidence to support their claims that Coinbase was unlicensed and its crypto staking offering was unregistered securities. The judge determined that the SEC had not proven that Coinbase conducted brokerage activity through Coinbase Wallet, which is a self-custody crypto wallet app that gives users full control of their assets.

Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Jupiter has allocated $137 million in initial capital to kick-start its native DAO. This includes 10 million USD Coin and 100 million of its native JUP token. The budget will enable the DAO to fund ideas with USDC and align long-term incentives with J.U.P Contributors. Jupiter plans to top up this budget annually to ensure ongoing support for the DAO.

Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network, has seen its total value locked (TVL) double in less than a month, reaching $2.13 billion. Some industry commentators predict that Base could become a focal point for memecoins, driving further adoption. The TVL of Base surpassed $1 billion just 25 days after its launch in August 2020.

In terms of the DeFi market, the top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a bearish week, with most trading in the red on the weekly charts. The total value locked in DeFi protocols has risen above $100 billion.

Thank you for reading our summary of the most significant DeFi developments of the week. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights, and education on this rapidly advancing space.