PRESS RELEASE. Crypto investment platform Midas Investments has reported that it has created an infrastructure that is designed with built-in, automated tools and strategies that don’t require investors to master the nature of trade within the volatile decentralized finance market. Traditional CeFi refers to centralized finance mechanisms such as crypto lending and borrowing, which have been used to generate moderate passive yields for investors from as far back as 2016. CeFi is not like DeFi in that it has strict security measures and closely regulates investor activity with KYC/AML. Human involvement is vital as it is essential to network processes.

CeDeFi bridges between decentralized and centralized finance worlds. Midas Investments says it uses a similar structure to Nexo’s CeFi platforms and combines it together with DeFi and algo strategies to provide investors hybrid yields strategies. Many industry insiders believe that decentralized finance is rapidly developing and offers synergistic support.

Midas integrates both CeFi and DeFi for innovative investment options

As cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream, traditional banks and finance institutions are increasingly looking to integrate with both DeFi and CeFi strategies. Both institutional and retail investors consider security to be an important factor in their investment decisions. DeFi, due to its trustless nature and all DeFi network activity, is not easy to accept for many investors.

Centralized finance, on the other hand, relies on human involvement to support normal network processes. Midas Investments says it takes an innovative and fresh approach by combining CeFi and DeFi techniques, automating investment strategies using a hybrid CeDeFi model. Midas’s professional team is similar to centralized finance.

What Makes Midas Investments Different?

The Midas evolving hybrid CeDeFi investment platform is reportedly supported by a team of more than 40 qualified team members to accomplish its core mission, to generate hedged yield streams through existing digital strategies for consistent passive income. The Midas team says it uses a combination of market experience and tools founded upon algorithmic infrastructure and 24/7 portfolio management. Midas currently employs three investment strategies.

Fixed Yield Strategies are the most popular investment strategy. They offer investors industry-leading returns on individually staked cryptocurrency assets. APY (Annual Percentage Yield) on staked Bitcoin ranges from 9-12.1%, the highest amongst custodial crypto investments platforms. Ethereum is over 10%, while fiat-backed stablecoins USDC and Tether are over 14% APY. Midas Boost, an additional incentive that reportedly activates higher yields when receiving payments in $MIDAS (the network coin), is a bonus.

The second most popular strategy is the Yield Automated portfolio, or YAP. YAPs are a collection of crypto assets that is grouped by type and performance. They are similar to traditional finance ETFs. Midas offers two types of YAPs: Stable and DeFi. Stable YAPs revolve around stablecoins, while DeFi YAPs include a range of eight decentralized finance protocols. YAPs automate a monthly rebalancing in order to evenly distribute ROI and maximize yields. Complex DeFi Strategies is the third investment strategy. This new concept will offer investors medium-to-high risk options to diversify their portfolios.

The Midas team has also recently grown, adding key members like an experienced DeFi analyst and also an Asset Manager from the traditional finance sector who managed over $2 billion in assets with deep experience in building DeFi, and an ex-CEO of a major IT enterprise with over 15 years of management experience. Midas hopes that the newly filled positions will allow it to continue its growth as a leading CeDeFi platform.

How Midas Hedges and Offers Additional Security

Midas reported that the platform function is not the only one that Midas has described. It also boasts a large network of backend processes which work to protect and hedge the investment options that individuals have in order to take advantage of high yield opportunities in volatile crypto markets. Many investors are now more interested in DeFi, as they see it as a way to realize significantly higher returns than what was possible with traditional finance or fully CeFi platforms.

Midas digital ecosystem is said to be protected by integration with Fireblocks crypto custody platform and transfer platform. FireBlocks provides digital security that is commercial-grade for assets in custody. The technological infrastructure that supports the FireBlocks platform helps automate processes such as YAPs monthly rebalancing. FireBlocks provides significant efficiency and security enhancements to the Midas Treasury’s investment strategies.

Midas, a liquidity provider for DeFi, says it uses a variety of yield generation protocols including loans, multi-protocol strategy, and algorithmic tools to provide hedging. Detailed information on exactly how Midas generates yields is available in full at Midas Investments wiki page. The Midas Investments platform aims to implement an innovative grouping of protocols and investment options that resonate with the vision of CeDeFi and come together to present optimized trading and investing model that takes the best part of centralized and decentralized finance to benefit its 10,000 plus active users and $300 million in TVL.

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This information is not meant to be an investment advice.

This is a press release. Before taking any action related to the promoted company, or any of its affiliates, or services, readers should do their due diligence. Bitcoin.com does not assume any responsibility for any loss or damage caused or alleged by the use or reliance of any content, goods, or services mentioned in this press release.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Read More

While crypto prices have seen some healing during the last few days, the total value locked (TVL) across the entire decentralized finance (defi) ecosystem has also improved. The TVL in defi has seen an increase of 7.19% since June 20, and the defi protocol Makerdao’s TVL dominates by 10.37% this weekend.

Defi TVL Improves, Cross-Chain Bridge TVL Slips, $100 Million Stolen From Harmony’s Horizon Bridge

Decentralized finance has taken a hit from the recent crypto bloodbath following the Terra blockchain fallout, the most recent Federal Reserve rate hike, and the alleged financial issues surrounding Celsius and Three Arrows Capital (3AC). On June 17, Bitcoin.com News reported on the bear market affecting defi negatively and three days later the TVL in defi dropped to a low of $71.98 billion.

Since then, there’s been a 7.19% increase as the TVL rose from $71.98 billion to today’s $77.16 billion. The Makerdao protocol has the largest TVL out of all the defi projects and dominates by 10.37% this weekend with $8 billion TVL.

Makerdao’s TVL has increased 6.89% during the past seven days. The second largest defi protocol in terms of TVL size is Aave, with $6.59 billion, and Aave recorded a 27.13% increase during the course of the week. As far as blockchain TVL distribution is concerned, Ethereum commands 63.98% with $49 billion TVL.

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is the second largest chain by TVL with 7.85% or $6.01 billion locked. After the market capitalization of the top smart contract tokens hit $245 billion last week, the market cap has swelled to $280 billion, up 1.4% during the last 24 hours.

Ethereum (ETH) increased 12.7% against the USD, and BSC jumped 10.5% this past week. Solana (SOL) swelled by 37.1%, avalanche (AVAX) recorded a 32.2% increase, and polygon (MATIC) rose more than 50% during the seven-day period.

The biggest gainers in the top smart contract token list during the past week were ronin (RON), zilliqa (ZIL), and polygon (MATIC), respectively. Despite smart contract tokens seeing some gains this week and the TVL in defi improving, the TVL across the cross-chain bridge sector is down 60.4% during the past 30 days.

At the time of writing, the cross-chain bridge TVL across 16 different protocols is $11.77 billion in value. Polygon commands the largest cross-chain bridge TVL with $3.6 billion locked on June 25.

Meanwhile, the defi ecosystem has seen a few hiccups over the last seven days as Convex Finance is asking users to review approvals while it evaluates a “potential front end issue.” Additionally, Harmony’s cross-chain bridge lost $100 million in a theft that took place on June 23.

“Note this does not impact the trustless [bitcoin] bridge; its funds and assets stored on decentralized vaults are safe at this time,” the Harmony team wrote about the situation. “We have also notified exchanges and stopped the Horizon bridge to prevent further transactions. The team is all hands on deck as investigations continue.”

What do you think about the value locked in defi improving and the increases smart contract tokens saw during the past week? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Read More

In the world of cryptocurrency, decentralized finance (defi) and Web3 have made airdrops a common occurrence. Although airdrops may sound like they are free money, there is a growing trend in airdrop phishing scams to steal people’s funds when they try to obtain the so-called “free” crypto assets. Here are two ways that attackers can use airdrop scams to steal money and how you can protect yourself.

Airdrops Do Not Always Mean ‘Free Crypto.’ Many Airdrop Giveaway Promotions Are Looking To Rob You

Airdrops are synonymous with free crypto funds. In fact, a growing crypto scam known as airdrop phishing is now common. You’ve likely seen spam messages advertising various airdrops if you’re a member of the crypto community or use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Usually, a well-known Twitter crypto account posts a tweet. A slew phishers follow it with a series of attempts to advertise airdrop phishing attempts. There are also many accounts claiming that they have been given free money. Although most people will not fall for these scams, because airdrops can be considered free crypto, many people have lost their funds as a result.

The first attack uses the same social media advertising strategy. A number of people or bots promote a link to the airdropphishing scams website page. Although the website appears legitimate, it may even be a copy of popular Web3 projects. However, the scammers want to steal funds. The free airdrop scam could be an unknown crypto token, or it could also be a popular existing digital asset like BTC, ETH, SHIB, DOGE, and more.

The first attack shows that the airdrop is receivable, but the user must use a compatible Web3 account to receive the funds. This will take you to a page listing all popular Web3 wallets such as Metamask. However, if you click on the link for the wallet, an error will appear and prompt you to enter your seed phrase.

To get support, open MetaMask. Navigate to “Support” and “Get Help” from the dropdown menu. You should never trust anyone who sends you a direct message. You should NEVER give out your Secret Recovery Phrase or enter it into any website.

— MetaMask Support (@MetaMaskSupport) April 29, 2022

This is where things get shady because a Web3 wallet will never ask for the seed or 12-24 mnemonic phrase unless the user is actively restoring a wallet. Unsuspecting users of airdrop phishing scams may believe the error is genuine and enter their seed to the web page. This eventually leads to the destruction of all funds in the wallet.

The user gave their private keys to the attackers simply by clicking on the Web3 wallet error page asking them for a mnemonic. A person should never enter their seed or 12-24 mnemonic phrase if prompted by an unknown source, and unless there’s a need to restore a wallet, there’s really never a need to enter a seed phrase online.

Giving Shady Dapp Permissions is Not the Best Idea

The second attack is more complicated and uses code to rob the Web3 wallet owner. Similar to the airdrop phishing scam, this one will be promoted on social media. However, when the victim visits the Web portal, they can use their Web3 account to “connect” with the site.

The attacker has however written the code so that the user gives the site full access to the balances. Simply connect a Web3 wallet and give it permissions to steal funds. This attack can be avoided by not connecting to the site. However, many people have fallen for it.

Here’s the latest phishing scam

1 Airdrop a token

2 Build a website with same name so it’s easily found

3 When you find what appears to be staking for this token, the Approve txn gives unlimited spending of other tokens (ie SNX)

Then they take your token wallet. pic.twitter.com/vICIeC5rGk

— DeFi Dad defidad.eth (@DeFi_Dad) December 20, 2021

Another way to protect a wallet is to make sure that the wallet’s Web3 permissions connect to trusted sites. Users should delete permissions from any decentralized apps (dapps), if they have accidentally connected to the app by falling for the “free” crypto scam. It is usually too late. Once the dapp has access to funds in the wallet, the crypto is taken from the user by the malicious code.

The best way to guard yourself against the two attacks described above is to not enter your seed phrase online, unless you are restoring a wallet. It is also a good idea to not allow Web3 wallet access to any shady Web3 websites or dapps that you are unfamiliar with. If investors aren’t aware of current trends in airdrop phishing, these two attacks could result in significant losses.

Do you know anyone who has fallen victim to this type of phishing scam? How can you spot crypto-phishing attempts? We’d love to hear your comments.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. This article is not intended to be a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any products or services. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. The author and the company are not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from or in connection to the content, goods, or services discussed in this article.

Read More