DeFi reignites, takes off

Uniswap (UNI) and Aave (AAVE), among other decentralized finance (“DeFi”) stalwarts, came roaring back to life on Tuesday with some gaudy 24-hour gains.

Add Compound (COMP) to this appreciation fest. An autonomous interest rate protocol, COMP rose 12% over 24 hours as of Tuesday at 7:15 a.m. (EST); the move punctuates a seven-day bender that has seen the 39th-largest crypto soar by more than 60% to $500. Still, COMP remains 45% off its all-time-high reached on May 12.

Meanwhile, AAVE, buttressed by reports that the Aave protocol could soon become an institutional investor DeFi starter kit, gained 16% in the past 24 hours. The 27th-largest crypto is trading at about $330. That's 50% off AAVE’s ATH reached on May 18.

DeFi-project-empowerment hub KuKoin (KCS) enjoyed the greatest surge of all. The 86th-largest crypto shot up 43% in 24 hours.

Gazing at DeFi's gargantuan set, there’s UNI with a 6.5% gain. UNI is the 10th-largest crypto. The 9th-largest crypto is Polkadot (DOT), a DeFi ecosystem enabler nonpareil; it fell 2% over the past 24 hours.

Chinese ride-hailing company Didi, less than a week after listing on the New York Stock Exchange, swerved into a ditch during pre-market trading in the U.S. as regulators in Beijing squashed the app’s usage pending a cybersecurity probe. China’s version of Uber is plowing resources into making autonomous taxis a real thing, but traditional transportation goals could stall out, depending on how tough a stand the Chinese government takes. Anti-trust concerns are also being pursued, part of a big-tech crackdown.

It’s not like Didi didn’t warn investors. From its IPO prospectus: “We cannot assure you that the regulatory authorities will be satisfied with our self-inspection results."

The company’s share price fell to about $12 as of 5 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday in pre-market trading, down from $15.53 as of Friday’s close. U.S. markets were closed yesterday.

Here's a hypothetical scenario to ponder: ETH overtakes BTC as the world’s most coveted crypto. Call it a "flippening."

Turns out, the flippening already happened. Sort of.

Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky on Monday said that in terms of the Celsius community chest, BTC has started to surrender dominance to ETH. “We manage about $17 billion in in customer coin deposits," Mashinsky said, "and the number one coin held in dollar terms is Ethereum.”

Most industry watchers will hold their flippening fire until ETH's market cap (at $265 billion, 'tis the second largest) catches No. 1 BTC, with its $640 billion.

BTC rose 1% to just under $34,000 over 24 hours as of Tuesday at 8 a.m. (EST); ETH rose 2% to $2,275. Over seven days, ETH is dominating, rising 9% in that period while BTC fell 1.6%.

Mashinsky predicted ETH’s market cap would surpass BTC by 2023 (Cointelegraph).

The latest from-Russia-with-malice ransomware attack, this one targeting Kaseya, a Miami-based IT provider, will draw attention to crypto – the hackers demanded payment in Bitcoin.

And the incident, believed to be the single-largest attack of its kind on record, will also put heat on the Kremlin and it’ll stir debate about whether/how to negotiate with data terrorists. Likely the chatter on Capitol Hill regarding the need for more regulations will grow louder.

Here are some other issues that deserve fuller- blown discussion: remote oversight of managed service providers via virtual system/server administrators; on-premise data centers versus cloud-based; "zero-day" holes; cash-strapped municipalities relying on outsourced technology firms relying on third-party software, resulting in a cascade of security vulnerabilities.

What did Putin know – that’s a valid issue; and so is the issue of SaaS VSA servers deployed by MSPs, essentially one-stop, all-you-can-eat thieving buffets for cybercriminals leveraging access to thousands of open doors and windows.