TGIF and happy Friday Havenauts and Web3 frens! 

Here’s what we have this week:

• Haven1 news
• Security
• Regulation and compliance
• DeFi 2.0
• Blockchain infrastructure
• The Haven1 take

Haven1 news

This week’s recap is a mixture of the best and worst traits of the industry. On the one hand, we witnessed the most devastating hack in the history of our decade-old industry as Bybit was hit by North Korea-affiliated hackers. 

On the flip side, things are looking promising on the regulatory side as a newly restructured SEC dismantles the aggressive approach to crypto and seeks a more measured way to regulate this new class of digital assets.

In the run-up to our mainnet launch, we published a blog post looking at the importance of lending products in crypto and how we are developing hLend.

In important news: our snapshot is now just a week away!

Keep an eye on our blog and follow our account on X for the latest news.

Security

1. Bybit suffers record $1.5 billion hack

Hours after we published this recap last week a huge development happened with crypto exchange Bybit losing $1.5 billion from a hack—a record loss for any attack in the crypto industry.

It has since emerged that Lazarus, the North Korea-affiliated group of hackers, was behind this attack which used an alarming attack vector: the multisig system Bybit used to securely sign and process transactions.

The attack was timed for when Bybit was moving funds between its wallets, and it allowed the attacks to divert the funds into a new account.

Analysis of what happened is still in its early stages, but evidence suggests that a security protocol trusted by many of crypto’s top names and which stores over $100 billion in assets, was breached.

Regulation and compliance

‍1. SEC dismisses legal case against Coinbase

The US SEC has dismissed its ongoing lawsuit with Coinbase in what is the most significant regulatory move in crypto for years. Coinbase went public in 2021. But two years later, it was sued by the SEC which claimed its business model broke regulations and that Coinbase traded 12 cryptocurrencies that should be classified as securities.

This is the most significant move from the Trump administration on crypto to date. Combined with changes at the SEC, including a focus on developing regulation for crypto, it signals that the US government is stepping down from its previously aggressive approach.

This bodes well for crypto and blockchain technology becoming more mainstream, and the US becoming a major hub for the industry.

2. SEC cases with OpenSea, Uniswap and others dropped

Emphasizing the new approach to crypto at the SEC, the commission has also dropped investigations into multiple companies including OpenSea, Robinhood, Gemini and Uniswap.

The Coinbase case was the biggest and oldest, but these newer cases were significant as they indicated that major names in the industry would face scrutiny. That is no longer the case.

3. Most memecoins aren’t securities

That headline feels strange to write, but we are living in different times for the SEC. Still, the SEC says it believes memecoins aren’t securities as they have limited use of functionality. The commission likened them to collectibles, which means most memecoins traders don’t need to worry about registering their trades etc.

Now to the bad news: the memecoin market has shrunk significantly over the last month. The number of tokens launched daily is less than half of the peak from January, and its daily revenue is back to November 2024 levels, according to Dune analytics.

DeFi 2.0

‍1. US security laws won’t cover DeFi

Another major development from the SEC is the dismissal of an appeal that could have allowed the agency to regulate DeFi using existing securities laws.

The appeal dates from the Gensler-era commission and reflects its then-desire to regulate crypto using the existing framework of laws governing traditional investment. The SEC’s decision to not appeal the previous ruling, which prevented it using its existing framework for DeFi, could pave the way for DeFi solutions to become more mainstream in the US.

DeFi is a core tenet of the Haven1 ecosystem. We believe DeFi 2.0 can address the issues with modern banking, including limited access to financial services, advanced yields, and more.

Blockchain infrastructure

‍1. Metamask to add support for Bitcoin and Solana

One of the crypto industry’s top wallets is finally expanding support beyond Ethereum in a signal that the cryptocurrency industry is blossoming. Bitcoin, Solana and Ethereum each offer exposure to very different assets and risk/reward ratios.

‍2. A Solana ETF could be coming soon… and with staking

Franklin Templeton filed for the Solana ETF which could break ground by giving investors not only access to Solana as an asset, but also staking rewards. The staking component has been absent from other crypto-themed ETFs to date.

This development supports Haven1’s core thesis that traditional investing is integrating with the world of on-chain investment. That’s why we’re building our ecosystem with institutional investors very much in mind, and we’ve explained why that approach is ideal for retail investors.

The Haven1 take

The Bybit hack was devastating and it generated plenty of negative news for the industry. But one closing thought was that this was a hack in which no retail users have been affected. We’ve witnessed retail traders being wrecked when exchanges have lost money or been hacked. But not in this case.

Still, the episode shows that much work is to be done to keep bad actors like the North Korean state away from our promising industry. Our mission at Haven1 remains clear: we are building a REKT-resistant blockchain to mitigate against hacks, rug-pulls and other malicious activity. 

The SEC’s approval of a new way to regulate DeFi and the broader industry shows that crypto’s new financial tools have huge promise—but they must be managed with responsibility and care.

We’re excited for the launch of our mainnet soon—stay tuned for more updates, starting with the snapshot!