The Cross-Chain Roundup #26

Week Roundup (May 15 - 21, 2023)

May 22, 2023

Welcome to this week's newsletter! The past week has been a whirlwind of activity in the cross-chain ecosystem, with significant advancements and exciting collaborations reshaping the decentralized finance landscape. Compound made a splash by deploying its V3 on Arbitrum, unlocking new possibilities for seamless and efficient lending and borrowing. Meanwhile, Uniswap conducted a revealing survey that shed light on the importance of simplifying DeFi for wider adoption. Harvest Finance joined the ranks of innovation by releasing Harvest V3, while Lido Finance launched the highly anticipated Lido V2.

Last but not least, a partnership was forged to bring Mesh Security to the Cosmos network, reinforcing the ecosystem's security measures. Read further to delve into the details of these remarkable achievements shaping the future of cross-chain finance!

📰Cross-Chain Updates

Compound deployed its V3 on Arbitrum

Compound Finance has integrated with Arbitrum, a popular scaling solution, making it more affordable to lend and borrow idle cryptocurrencies. Compound, known as one of the pioneering DeFi platforms, allows users to engage in yield farming and offers various cryptocurrencies for lending and borrowing. Arbitrum, with a total value locked of $5.8 billion, is the leading layer-2 scaling solution in the industry, providing efficient transactions and risk management features by limiting the range of crypto assets available for lending and borrowing.

Uniswap survey finds out: DeFi must be easier

Uniswap Labs, a leading DeFi platform, conducted a comprehensive survey to understand the motivations and needs of current and potential users. The survey revealed that many CeFi users in the United States are interested in exploring DeFi but would require educational resources, improved user experience, and support to overcome the learning curve. Uniswap Labs aims to bridge the gap by building user-friendly products that directly onboard individuals to the transparent and accessible world of decentralized finance.

Harvest Finance releases Harvest V3

Harvest Finance has launched V3 of its flagship app, signaling a new phase for the yield farming protocol. With a focus on trust, professionalism, and catering to mainstream Web3 users, Harvest has evolved to meet the changing needs of the DeFi landscape. The updated app aims to provide fresh yields on Ethereum while offering a higher level of user experience and reliability.

Lido Finance launches Lido V2

Lido's V2 upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet introduces Ethereum withdrawals, improving the staking experience and decentralization. Users can now directly unstake their ETH through the protocol, creating an open on/off ramp into the Ethereum staking ecosystem. The upgrade also includes a modular staking router, enhancing the validator ecosystem, and other changes such as the rewriting of the Oracle smart contract.

Multichain DEX TraderJoe sunsets veJOE

veJOE, a feature introduced in early 2022 to incentivize yield farming, will be sunsetted. Users can withdraw JOE tokens from veJOE, and emissions to V1 yield farms will cease before January 2024. The decision comes as the trend shifts towards emissionless operations and the launch of Liquidity Book, a new AMM protocol. TraderJoe aims for long-term sustainability and a simplified tokenomics approach for the JOE token.

Balancer launched Concentrated Liquidity pools

Balancer and Gyroscope introduce Concentrated Liquidity, E-CLP, enabling trading along elliptical curves. This Balancer technology allows for highly customizable pools tailored to LST's growth profiles, offering 7x efficiency compared to StableSwap. With optimized trading ranges, E-CLPs increase trade volume with less liquidity depth and incentivize growth in LST liquidity.

Forging a partnership to bring Mesh Security to Cosmos

The Osmosis Grants Program partners with Axelar, Akash Network, and the ATOM Accelerator to develop Mesh Security for the Cosmos ecosystem. Mesh Security allows chains to combine market caps for enhanced security without requiring additional nodes or cross-chain linking. Delegators can re-stake their tokens on a partner chain, receiving staking rewards while sharing slashing risk, creating a bi-directional security model.