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PayPal Incentivizing People To Provide PYUSD Liquidity On Curve, CRV To The Moon?

In a landmark move, PayPal, the payment processor, has incentivized PYUSD liquidity on Curve Finance, the world’s largest stablecoin decentralized exchange (DEX) by trading volume. 

PayPal Incentivizing PYUSD Liquidity Via Curve

This development, which Stake DAO first captured on January 10, sent shockwaves through the crypto community, with many experts predicting that Curve is on its way to becoming the go-to platform for institutional and corporate trading of on-chain stablecoins.

PayPal incentivizes liquidity via Curve | Source: Stake DAO

PayPal’s decision to incentivize PYUSD liquidity on Curve is a significant step forward for adopting stablecoins and promoting decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in general. By providing attractive rewards for liquidity providers, PayPal is signaling its commitment to the growth of this rapidly evolving sector.

As part of its incentive program, PayPal has deposited vote incentives worth $132k in PYUSD on Votemarket, a vote incentive platform. These rewards are designed to encourage users to increase their liquidity on Curve. In addition, PayPal will offer direct rewards to liquidity providers distributed in PYUSD, with an APY of 11%.

Observers note that the $66,000 allocated weekly to Votemarket could direct at least $55k in CRV, a governance token on Curve Finance, to the PYUSD-USDC pool.

Institutional Endorsement: Will CRV Rally Above $0.75?

With PayPal’s endorsement, Curve may attract even more liquidity and cement its position as a leader in on-chain stablecoin trading. It is unclear whether other Wall Street heavyweights on the wings are ready to enhance liquidity via Curve or other DeFi protocols. Their involvement will validate Curve and DeFi’s potential, accelerating adoption among institutional investors.

According to DeFiLlama data on January 10, Curve has a total value locked (TVL) of $1.82 billion, with a big chunk of this in Ethereum. The protocol has deployed in Ethereum layer-2s and other Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible platforms, including Arbitrum.

Curve TVL | Source: DeFiLlama

For now, CRV, the native token of Curve, remains under pressure. Looking at the performance in the daily chart, the token is down 30% from recent December peaks, sliding when writing. 

Curve price trending downward on the daily chart | Source: CRVUSDT on Binance, TradingView

From price technical analysis, any break above $0.75 could spark more demand, lifting the token to new 2024 highs. Presently, CRV is trending inside a bear candlestick, signaling general weakness. In the short term, sharp losses below $0.45 might trigger a sell-off. CRV risks dropping to September 2023 lows of around $0.40 in that case.

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Curve Founder Moves Over 23 Million CRV To Binance, Is It Time To Take Profit?

Curve Finance founder Michael Erogov has moved over 23 million CRV, the native governance token of the Curve DAO, to Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, over the last five days, The Data Nerd, on December 27, shows. The founder moved 2.5 million CRV on December 27. This transfer may ruffle investors, raising concerns because it could indicate that Erogov is likely liquidating.

Curve founder moves coins to Binance | Source: The Data Nerd via X

CRV Is Firm, Up 60% In The Last 3 Months

While the founder’s sale of CRV could put downward pressure, the token remains firm and is up roughly 60% from September 2023 lows. The token trades above $0.60 at spot rates, rejecting selling pressure as the daily chart shows.

If bulls press on, it could break above $0.72 to record new 2023 highs. The token is trending higher, rejecting bear attempts amid improving sentiment across the crypto scene. Although Erogov is selling CRV, the market seems to interpret the move as bullish.

Curve price trending upward on the daily chart | Source: CRVUSDT on Binance, TradingView

The spectacular revival of CRV is net bullish for the protocol, suggesting that investors are still confident despite headwinds in early H2 2023 when several Curve pools were exploited due to a Vyper compiler issue.

Curve Founder Sold CRV To Prevent Liquidation Of DeFi Loans

Following the hack in late July 2023, Erogov was forced to liquidate a large chunk to prevent liquidation. On its part, the hack led to over $52 million in crypto assets, including 7.19 million worth of CRV, lost. In the aftermath of the hack, prices crashed.

At the time of this hack, Erogov had over $100 million in DeFi loans backed by 427.5 million CRV as collateral. As CRV prices fell, the health of Egorov’s loans fell in tandem. 

If the value of Egorov’s CRV collateral were to fall further, it could face liquidation. This meant that all protocols from where the founder had borrowed using CRV as collateral would have been forced to sell the token at spot rates to repay the loan. As an automated intervention, the event would have likely caused a cascade, even impacting ordinary holders using CRV as collateral. 

To avoid this and as a form of intervention, Tron founder Justin Sun and multiple other parties, including Jeffrey Huang, made deals to buy CRV from the Curve founder, preventing this liquidation from happening. 

Michael Erogov portfolio | Source: Debank

According to DeBank on December 27, Erogov’s crypto portfolio was north of $136 million. Out of this, the founder owns over $38.9 million of CRV.

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Curve (CRV) Is Up 20%, But This Whale May End The Run

Curve has observed gains of more than 20% in the past week, but this rally may not continue for long, as a whale has made a large move to exchanges.

Curve Has Enjoyed A Sharp Rally Over The Past Week

CRV has gone against the grain recently as it has registered some sharp bullish momentum during a period where the largest coins in the sector, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, have struggled.

Following this latest uptrend, the Curve DAO token’s price has risen above the $0.52 mark. Here is a chart that shows how the cryptocurrency has performed over the past month:

Curve DAO Token Price Chart

In the past week, CRV is up more than 20%, which makes it the best-performing coin among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap. The outperformance is by quite a distance, too, as many of the assets are in the red for the period. Now, the main question on the minds of the Curve DAO token holders is: can the asset keep up its rally?

In the sharp surge a few days back, the asset had briefly managed to breach the $0.56 level, but the asset had quickly returned to the current level.

Since then, CRV has been moving sideways, suggesting a slowdown in the buying pressure. While the asset has continued to hold at the current levels positive, some investors may be becoming restless, like a certain whale.

CRV Whale Has Made A Sizeable Deposit To Binance Today

According to data from the cryptocurrency transaction tracker service Whale Alert, a large CRV transfer has been spotted on the Ethereum blockchain during the past day.

The transaction in question involved the movement of about 33.3 million CRVs, worth approximately $17.3 million at the time the transfer took place on the network.

Given the large size of the move, it’s likely that a whale entity is behind it. As for what this humongous holder may have wanted to accomplish with the transfer, the full details may reveal some context.

Curve Whale Deposit

It would seem like the sending address in the case of this transaction was an unknown wallet, meaning that it was unattached to any known centralized platform and was likely the whale’s personal, self-custodial wallet.

The destination of the move was the Binance exchange. As one of the main reasons investors use these platforms is for selling-related purposes, there is a chance that the deposit has been made for dumping.

If this is truly the whale losing patience and taking profits at the current price level, then the Curve DAO token may observe at least a temporary pullback in the coming days.

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Curve (CRV) Trading Volume Plunge 97% In 2 Months

Trading volumes associated with CRV, the governance token of Curve, a stablecoin decentralized exchange (DEX), is down 97% barely two months after it was hacked in late July 2023. According to Kaiko, CRV’s trading volume in centralized exchanges, especially Binance, where the token is actively traded, fell from nearly $300 million in late July to $7 million as of September 12. 

CRV trading volumes slump Kaiko

Trackers show that CRV is available for trading in multiple centralized and decentralized exchanges, including Binance, Uniswap, and Curve. However, considering the popularity and liquidity standing of Binance, most CRV trading was concentrated on the world’s popular crypto exchange.

To illustrate, Binance’s share of CRV trading is about 20% when writing, while Bitbox is next with a dominance of around 7%. 

Curve’s TVL, Price, And Trading Volumes Collapse

In crypto, a drop in trading volume often indicates waning interest in a digital asset or general caution practiced by investors. With falling volume, the asset’s liquidity takes a hit as traders or investors opt out, even liquidating the coin as they choose stability and refuge. Sometimes, they can adopt a wait-and-see approach, evaluating how the token will react in light of changing market conditions. 

According to DeFiLlama, Curve has a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $2.17 billion, down from $3.25 billion when the protocol was hacked. The decline in TVL and trading volumes comes amid the general lull in the decentralized finance (DeFi) scene.

Curve TVL drops DeFiLlama

The drop in CRV valuation and trading volumes was worsened by the July exploit, which saw the protocol lose over $50 million worth of assets. Although Curve recovered most of those funds, the effect of the exploit called into question the general state of security.

The Hack And Erogov’s CRV Disposal

In the July hack, malicious actors exploited various Curve stablecoin pools using older versions of Vyper, a programming language used to create smart contracts on Ethereum. All Curve’s pools are automated, and this feature allowed hackers to drain multiple pools through a re-entrancy attack. 

CRV reacted to this hack by dropping, falling sharply on July 30 from around $0.74 to $0.48. It has since exceeded halved, crashing to $0.40, a new 2023 low. 

CRV price on September 12 when Curve trading volumes have dropped over 97% in 2 months| Source: CRVUSDT On Binance, TradingView

During this time, Curve’s CEO, Michael Egorov, had to sell CRV holdings he had used to back his loans via over-the-counter (OTC) to entities and individuals such as Justin Sun when prices started falling. Egorov had taken out loans on Aave and Frax Finance secured by CRV. 

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Post-Hack Shenanigans: Curve (CRV) To Launch On TRON Following $2 Million Investment

Curve Finance, a decentralized liquidity pool for stableswap and stablecoin trading, has disclosed a strategic partnership that will see the decentralized exchange (DEX) launch on the TRON network. 

Curve Set To Launch On Tron And BTTC Networks

Decentralized Exchange, Curve Finance has solidified its position as the second largest DEX, following the announcement of its integration into the TRON network.

Curve Finance’s recent alliance with the TRON network has prompted a substantial investment from TRON DAO Ventures, a venture capital firm established by the TRON network. On Thursday, August 17, TRON Founder, Justin Sun purchased $2 million worth of CRV, the native token of the DeFi protocol. 

Similarly, Curve Finance has stated that it will be launching on the BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) network, a peer-to-peer network blockchain scaling solution for file and data sharing. The Integration of the protocol into TRON DAO and BTTC networks aims to fuel the development of innovative DeFi projects and the growth of DeFi ecosystems. 

Curve Finance is widely known for its role in stable coin trading by providing low slippage exchanges through automated market maker (AMM) algorithms. By aligning with the protocol, TRON  and BTTC will benefit from lower financial costs and indirect backing from prominent blockchains Curve DAO supports including Avalanche, Ethereum, and Arbitrum.

Justin Sun welcomed the newly formed alliance with enthusiasm. He commented that Curve Finance plays a pivotal role in the DeFi ecosystem and blockchain industry and looked forward to new innovative solutions promoted by the partnership. 

“Curve is an essential DeFi infrastructure for the blockchain industry. Our thoughts are with the team and the users affected. As a community, let’s support and strengthen the security measures to protect our decentralized ecosystem,” Sun stated. 

Curve (CRV) price chart from Tradingview.com (TRON DAO)

Compensation For Hack Victims Following Tron Alliance

The decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape was previously shaken up following news of a hack on the DEX. On July 30, Curve Finance fell victim to a reentrancy attack that exploited vulnerabilities in its smart contract codes, resulting in a loss of $62 million. 

Following the news of the hack attack, the CRV token declined and the majority of the DeFi ecosystem was in panic. However, Curve Finance has reportedly recovered 70% of the funds and to recover the rest of the stolen funds, the protocol has placed a bounty on the attacker, promising $1.85 million to anyone able to reveal the hacker’s identity. 

Curve Finance has also promised to compensate victims of the security breach. The DEX has stated that it will distribute reimbursements fairly as they determine the extent of damages and work toward recovering the stolen funds. 

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The Protocol: Blockchains Keep Launching, From Sei to Shibarium

In this week’s issue, we cover Coinbase’s launch of “Base,” a layer-2 network atop Ethereum, along with the crypto community’s reaction to PayPal’s new stablecoin and the brouhaha over Matter Labs’ use of Polygon-crafted open-source software. The Protocol is CoinDesk’s weekly newsletter devoted to blockchain and crypto technology.

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Curve Finance Announces $1.85 Million Bounty For Stable Pool Exploiter

Curve Finance, a popular decentralized (DeFi) protocol, has recently announced that it was rewarding persons capable of identifying the exploiters behind the draining of over $61 million from the platform’s stable pools on July 30. 

The huge bounty offer is open to every person who can pinpoint the individual behind the incident in such a way that would lead to definitive legal repercussions. 

Curve Finance Extends Bounty Offer to the Public

Curve Finance announced the public offer using an Ethereum transaction’s input data, noting that the allowed time for the voluntary return of the funds connected to the Curve exploit was 08:00 UTC, and that time is now elapsed. 

Curve and other protocols that were affected by the attack had previously offered a 10% bug bounty to the hacker on August 3. Upon agreeing to the offer, the hacker returned part of the stolen assets to JPEGd and Alchemix but did not refund other affected pools. 

Since the time allowed has elapsed, Curve announced that any person capable of identifying the hacker would receive assets worth $1.85 million. This recent announcement was extended in scope to include members of the general public. 

According to Curve, while the deadline for the voluntary return of stolen funds had passed, should the hacker elect to return the stolen funds, the platform “…will not pursue this further.” 

While returning the parts of the funds earlier, the hacker left a message that was seemingly targeted at Curve and Alchemix teams, noting their intention to return the funds. However, the hacker stated that the decision to return such funds was not based on fear of being recognized but rather out of a desire not to “ruin” the projects associated with the exploit.

Curve Finance (CRV) price chart from Tradingview.com

The $61 Million Reentrancy Attack

Members of the Curve Finance community were left shocked after a hacker utilized vulnerable versions of the Vyper programming language to implement reentrancy attacks on stable pools within Curve Finance on the 31st of July. 

The attack drained Curve Finance of over $61 million, including $13.6 million from Alchemix’s aIETH-ETH, $11.4 million from JPEGd’s pETH-ETH, and $1.6 million from Metronome’s sETH-ETH. The event raised concerns about the likely fallout in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, especially with respect to the risks posed to every pool using Wrapped Ether (WETH).

The DeFi community rallied around to provide support to Curve Finance and on the 31st of July, a white hat hacker was able to successfully recover from the exploiter about 2,879 Ether worth about $5.4 million, which was later returned to Curve Finance. Another ethical hacker also recovered about 3,000 ETH and refunded it to Curve Finance’s deployer address. 

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Curve Impressively Adds 22% As Founder Sells CRV To Repay Aave Loan

CRV, the governance token of Curve, a decentralized exchange for stablecoins and a key player in the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape, has impressively recovered, adding 22% after sinking to its August 2023 lows this week.

When writing on August 3, CRV is trading at $0.59, rising double digits after dropping to $0.48 on August 1 following a damaging hack that saw liquidity providers in several pools lose funds. 

Whales Stepping In To Buy CRV

This recovery is attributed primarily to strategic actions by notable crypto whales who have stepped in to mitigate risks on DeFi should CRV prices continue to tank. Meanwhile, Michael Egorov, the founder of Curve and one of the largest CRV holders, has been actively unloading tokens in the secondary market.

Egorov is selling to whales like Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, and other venture capitals and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). The founder held around 292 million CRV and used a big percentage to back his loans.

On-chain data indicates that on August 2, Egorov sold 3.75 million CRV tokens to Yearn Treasury and another 1.25 million CRV tokens to Stake DAO Governance via the over-the-counter (OTC) market.

Egorov has, overall, sold 59.5 million CRV to various institutions and investors, yielding approximately $23.8 million. These OTC sales are at significant discounts, reflecting the founder’s efforts to stabilize CRV prices and prevent further contagion.

CRV price on August 3| Source: CRVUSDT on Binance, TradingView

The July 30 hack saw attackers steal funds from several liquidity pools after exploiting a re-entrancy flaw. JPEG’d, Alchemix, Pendle, and Metronome pools suffered losses initially estimated at around $70 million. However, other reports suggest that white hat hackers intervened, reducing the total impact to approximately $50 million. 

Following this news, CRV prices dropped by over 12%. Considering Curve’s prominence in DeFi, the hack and price crash caused reverberation throughout Curve and DeFi, especially in decentralized money markets. 

Curve Is A Big Player In DeFi, Egorov Paying Off Debt

Curve manages over $2 billion as total value locked (TVL), according to DeFiLlama. While there are no confirmed repercussions on other protocols, attention swung to Egorov’s $60 million Aave v2 loan, which was primarily backed by CRV. Should this loan be liquidated, it would likely mean more selling pressure on CRV, leading to another possible contagion, especially for other CRV holders with loans across different protocols.

Looking at on-chain data, Egorov is taking active steps to reduce the risks brought about by his huge Aave loan that’s overly collateralized by CRV. Egorov aims to minimize the potential consequences of forced liquidation through off-market transactions, where he is selling his CRV at a discount and simultaneously repaying his loan. This, in turn, appears to be supporting prices.