TLDR 📃

• It’s been an uneventful week for DeFi. Total value locked remains stagnant at $65 billion.
• The quiet makes the explosive first days of Sui mainnet even more striking. The launch has been a huge success, with more than 150,000 wallets created in just a few days.
• Meanwhile, Cosmos IBC is quietly expanding its ambitions toward market dominance, adding Polkadot and Solana to its list of connected chains.

Disclaimer: Not financial or investment advice. Any capital-related decisions you make are your responsibility and yours only.

DeFi overview 👀

The DeFi market’s total value locked remains flat after last week's downswing. Despite a relatively positive Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, the market remains indecisive. BTC enjoyed small gains, heading back towards $30k. But the altcoin market and DeFi have barely budged. 

Losers include Kava (-20%), Celo (-21%), and Klaytn (-5%).

Within dApps, notable gainers and losers:

• Ethereum ecosystem: Convex Finance (+26%), Hex (+8%), Venus (-22%).
• Solana ecosystem: SOL staking (+44%), Marinade Finance (-24%), Parrot Protocol (+15%).

Multi-chain protocol Frax Finance lost a whopping 44% across 8 chains, led by a 66% TVL loss on its stablecoin. These losses were partially offset by an 8% gain in Frax liquid staking and a 5.5% gain in Fraxlend.

It all adds up to a generally stagnant week for DeFi. We do not expect any major moves over the next week unless BTC can break the $30K region with conviction.

Key developments 🔑

• Dymension has launched a first ever IBC-enabled EVM rollup. It's set to further the expansion of the ever-growing Cosmos ecosystem by giving dApp developers a simple solution for creating multi-chain applications.
• Phantom Wallet adds support for Ethereum and Polygon. Solana-based Phantom is one of the most approachable blockchain wallets on the market. Multi-chain support is a welcome development that highlights a general market trend toward cross-chain integration. Wallets that don’t integrate multiple chains will soon be at a severe disadvantage.

Hot narratives 🔥

Cosmos makes a move

Has Cosmos been flying under your radar? An expansive and under-appreciated ecosystem is based on the Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communications protocol. IBC supports the integration of hundreds of chains and dApps.

How many? Consider this: The market cap of IBC-connected dApps is over $12B. There’s a lot more to Cosmos than the ATOM token.

Recent moves suggest that Cosmos is looking to achieve dominance in the cross-chain sector.

1/❗🔊We just launched the first Polkadot<>Kusama connection via @CosmosIBC, setting a new standard for relay chain interoperability in DotSama! Check out Centauri, now live at https://t.co/tsbN9VaRTd pic.twitter.com/OzJch1MUcK

— Composable Finance (@ComposableFin) April 27, 2023

Composable Finance, a blockchain interoperability protocol based on the Polkadot-Kusama ecosystem, says it is integrating with IBC. For the first time, the Polkadot and Cosmos ecosystems will be connected. It’s another sign that Cosmos is quickly becoming the centre of the multi-chain movement. 

Sui mainnet goes live

🌊After Devnet, multiple Testnet waves, Frenemies, #CapyHolidays, Builder Houses, and much more – what a monumental moment for the Sui community: Sui Mainnet has launched!💥

Let’s dive into what that means for all of you and why you should #BuildOnSui!

👇🧵 pic.twitter.com/KsfCMBP9nl

— Sui (@SuiNetwork) May 3, 2023

The long-awaited Sui mainnet has launched. The ecosystem exploded, with 167,000 new addresses, nearly 1.5 million transactions, and more than 150,000 NFTs minted in a matter of days.

When a new chain launches, the next order of business is getting the DeFi ecosystem up and running. At Sui, it’s already underway. A handful of protocols went live almost immediately after the mainnet.

Ladies and gentlemen📢. We are thrilled to announce that #Cetus is now officially LIVE on the #Sui Mainnet! 🚀🚀 Glad to add the first building block to the Sui DeFi ecosystem. @SuiNetwork @Mysten_Labs

Visit ​https://t.co/W45f0pVqts to start swapping & LPing on Sui today. LFG!🐳 pic.twitter.com/7J5OvFGLyM

— Cetus🐳 (@CetusProtocol) May 3, 2023

Notable protocols that have launched or will launch include:

• OmniBTC, a multi-chain financial services platform, bridge, and DEX focused on BTC lending and borrowing.
• Umi Protocol, Sui’s first DEX aggregator.
• The Magic Egg NFT collection.
• Supra, an oracle and price feed service akin to Chainlink.

As data becomes available, we will provide more statistics on Sui. We expect excitement about this network will remain strong in the coming weeks. 

Crypto investment corner 📈

• $100 million crypto fund CMCC Global launches in Hong Kong.
• Aki Protocol, a data-driven L1, has raised $40 million in seed financing.
• zkLink has received $10 million in funding before upcoming mainnet launch.
• NeoWiz has raised $10 million for new Polygon (MATIC) game accelerator.
• Web3 accounting and bookkeeping project Entendre Finance has raised $4 million in seed funding. 

Other news 🔔

• All Yearn funds relating to the Euler exploit in March have been recovered. 
• Wormhole Connect goes live, simplifying the development process to connect dApps to the Wormhole Bridge.
• Blur Lending protocol goes live.

Cryptonary’s take 🧠

Cosmos-IBC is fast becoming a favourite in the cross-chain infrastructure race. However, no tokens will directly benefit. The Cosmos ATOM token is not directly used in IBC. More connections between chains will benefit DeFi overall, as interconnected chains can share liquidity more easily.

Sui takes centre stage in DeFi this week. The chain is new, but it has generated plenty of interest, and Sui has quickly attracted a significant number of users. We expect Sui DeFi to perform well in coming weeks.

However, we are naturally cautious. Any new chain brings uncertainty. Will it be able to handle realistic traffic? Could there be unexpected outages? But that’s just us. All signs show that the launch has been a great success.