Binance Review, Month 37: Crypto’s DeFiant Rise

The Big Story: Crypto’s DeFiant Rise

During our 37th month, the total market cap for crypto rose by a whopping $100 million, from $270 billion to $370 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap between July 15 and August 15. Bitcoin went from as low as $9,100 to begin the month to as high as $12,000, which represents a 33% jump in just less than a month.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is recognized as the major catalyst for the boom in crypto markets this month. During the abovementioned period, Ethereum, perhaps the most commonly used blockchain in the DeFi space, rose by 90% from a low of $232 to a two-year high of $441, Chainlink, listed as the top token on CoinMarketCap’s DeFi list, recorded a 260% rise from as low as $7 to its all-time-high of $18.

It is clear that people want DeFi. And we are heeding that call, with the most recent actions we’re making in the Binance ecosystem. This week, we’ve announced our sponsorship of a 3,000 BNB prize pool for Stake Wars, a 10-day event where participants test how staking will work on Binance Chain. Also, we’re supporting a $16 million airdrop of SXP, the utility token of Swipe, which recently joined the Binance family. This airdrop is available to BNB holders on Binance.

We’re also extending this support for DeFi throughout the whole blockchain ecosystem. We listed seven DeFi tokens (MKR, DAI, RUNE, BAL, SRM, JUST, YFI) on Binance.com this month, plus four DeFi-related futures contracts (KAVA, LEND, SXP, and BAND). We launched a DeFi trading competition that concluded at the end of July. We led the $2.8 million funding round for 1inch, which is the latest in the long line of DeFi startups that Binance Labs and Binance Launchpad have backed since last year.

With the fast pace of the past month, it seems like such a long time ago when we completed the 12th BNB burn just 30 days ago. A total of 3,477,388 BNB ($60.5 million at the time) was burned, which is the biggest ever on record. Throughout Binance’s month 37, BNB rose from as low as $17 to a six-month high of $23.50.

In this article, which commemorates Binance’s third year anniversary, CZ shared his own account on Binance’s history that spans from the early days and struggles to today’s milestones.

Let’s also look into more of the latest updates from the past month.

In Other News

Week 1 Highlights ( full report here)

- Binance’s Core Values. Being user-focused is our overarching purpose, and we strive to achieve that every day by adhering to our four core values: hardcore, freedom, integrity, and collaboration.

- BUSD by the Numbers: Celebrating a 1 Billion USD Milestone. The purchase volume milestone was hit just 260 days after BUSD launched.

- Completed and Upcoming Changes for Binance Chain + Binance Smart Chain. Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain are being enhanced at remarkable speed. Get up-to-date information on the present and future of these technologies.

Week 2 Highlights ( full report here)

- Binance partners with German investment firm CM-Equity. Crypto traders and investors in Germany and Europe are able to use Binance and CM-Equity, a fully regulated German investment firm licensed to operate proprietary trading and brokerage services.

- Binance Futures affiliate upgrade + 30,000 USDT rewards pool. When you invite your friends to Binance Futures, you will now earn a referral bonus from spot, perpetual, and quarterly futures trading fees.

Week 3 Highlights ( full report here)

- Introducing Binance Australia. We have launched a fiat-to-crypto trading platform that provides Australian users with a fast, secure, and reliable platform to buy and trade digital currencies with the Australian Dollar (AUD).

- Trust Wallet: Celebrating Two Years of Partnership. We recently celebrated the two-year anniversary of Binance’s partnership with Trust Wallet, now with more than 5 million users, with the biggest giveaway of TWT (Trust Wallet Tokens) ever!

Week 4 Highlights ( full report here)

- Binance Futures introduces COIN- and USDT-Margined Categories. USDT-margined futures are similar to traditional standard futures, while COIN-margined futures are margined and settled with the asset instead (i.e. Bitcoin or altcoin). The new categorization puts cryptocurrencies on more equal footing with fiat.

- New BNB Options contract. Trading opened on August 4 on the latest version of the Binance app.

- Swipe launches network staking, DeFi on Binance Smart Chain. Users will be able to bond SXP to the Swipe Network smart contract as collateral in order to ensure the guarantee of conversions for Swipe’s products and services.

- Travala.com, Agoda enter a strategic partnership. More than 600,000 Agoda hotels worldwide are now available via Travala.com, bringing the total number of properties available on Travala.com to over 2,200,000.

Week 5 Highlights ( full report here)

- Binance Launchpad completes The Sandbox token sale. In Launchpad’s third sale this year, we saw 360,000,000 SAND going to 12,225 lucky participants.

- Binance Academy celebrates its 2-year anniversary. We look back at the platform’s milestones and join in on the fun with a special quiz promo where we gave away $1,000 in BTC.

Exchange Updates

\* New spot listings (22): ADAUP, ADADOWN, LINKUP, LINKDOWN, BNBUP, BNBDOWN, XTZUP, XTZDOWN, VeThor Token (VTHO), FIO Protocol (FIO), Curve (CRV), The Sandbox (SAND), Aragon (ANT), Travala (AVA), Balancer (BAL), Maker (MKR), Dai (DAI), THORChain (RUNE), IRISnet (IRIS), Serum (SRM), JUST (JST), yearn.finance (YFI).