Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you the most significant developments from the past week.

Cointelegraph interviewed Velvet Capital’s CEO on the challenges facing DeFi and the key barriers it needs to overcome to go mainstream. Cosmos-based Umee and Osmosis merge to create “DeFi Hub,” where Umee’s UX Chain code will be reimplemented on the Osmosis chain, combining features of the two networks.

The Platypus hacker has managed to evade accountability for the $8.5 million exploit on the protocol after claiming to be an ethical hacker. The court allowed the exploiter to walk free.

Despite a minor market downturn, the top 100 DeFi tokens had another bullish week, with the total value locked in DeFi tokens surging past $60 billion.

Cosmos-based networks Umee and Osmosis to merge, creating “DeFi Hub”

Cosmos-based networks Umee and Osmosis will merge via a software upgrade, according to a Dec. 4 announcement. Umee’s UX Chain code will be reimplemented on the Osmosis chain, combining features of the two networks and creating what the development teams call a “DeFi Hub” for the Cosmos ecosystem.

Umee is a decentralized lending protocol on a dedicated Cosmos chain called “UX Chain.” On the other hand, Osmosis is one of the largest decentralized exchanges in the Cosmos ecosystem, also running on its own dedicated network. It has over $23 billion in cumulative volume and is the fourth-largest Cosmos chain in terms of total value locked, according to DefiLlama.

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Platypus exploiters walk free after claiming to be “ethical hackers”

A French court has allowed two brothers responsible for stealing $8.5 million from DeFi protocol Platypus to walk free without repercussions.

On Feb. 16, the hackers managed to drain and move $8.5 million from Platypus through a flash loan attack, forcing the protocol to suspend trading services until a resolution was found. Initial investigations identified the culprit as Mohammed M., who took advantage of a code error and withdrew all assets through an uncollateralized loan.

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Addressing the barriers to DeFi adoption — Interview with Velvet Capital

The coming together of DeFi and asset management is marking a big change in the financial world.

DeFi’s decentralized and transparent architecture offers a compelling alternative to traditional financial systems. It could improve how assets are managed, give investors better returns, and make investment opportunities more widely available for institutional players and individuals.

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KyberSwap announces treasury grants for hack victims

KyberSwap intends to provide financial assistance to users affected by a significant exploit on Nov. 22, which led to a $48.8 million loss for the DeFi protocol. To address this, KyberSwap is establishing a grant initiative from its treasury to compensate those adversely affected by the event.

The grant is designed to ease the financial burden on affected individuals and will equal the United States dollar equivalent of the assets lost in the security breach. This move highlights KyberSwap’s dedication to its user community and platform security. While the specific details and criteria for the grant are being finalized, KyberSwap has committed to providing additional information within two weeks.

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DeFi market overview

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a bullish week, with most tokens trading in green on the weekly charts. The total value locked into DeFi protocols remained above $60 billion.

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.