Crypto's time to shine… Trading volumes on decentralized finance (aka: DeFi) platforms soared this week with Uniswap seeing a 40%+ jump in daily transactions and PancakeSwap bumping up 17%. One possible reason for the surge: with DeFi there's often no single entity in charge for regulators to pursue. That may be top of mind for traders as the DeFi surge came on the heels of two SEC lawsuits directed at Binance and Coinbase, the No. 1 and No. 2 centralized crypto exchanges (by trading volume).
SECrackdown: The US regulator accused Binance and Coinbase of operating unregistered securities exchanges. It also sought to freeze the assets of Binance.US, Binance's US-based exchange.
CryptGo elsewhere: Traders pulled $1B+ from Binance and Coinbase in the 24 hours after the SEC announced its suits.
Prepping for battle… As crypto traders look to decentralized options like Uniswap, centralized exchanges are digging in. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says the biz has no plans to delist the 13 tokens called out in the SEC's lawsuit as being securities (like: solana, matic). And both Binance and Coinbase say they plan to fight the SEC, with any legal battle possibly taking years to resolve. Meanwhile, Coinbase's "stand with crypto" NFT is spreading on Twitter.
Crypto's roots may keep the industry upright… though the ground is shifting. At its core, crypto is about decentralization. Users self-custodying their assets in hardware wallets and conducting peer-to-peer transactions don't require centralized players. As exchanges struggle with regulators, that decentralized ethos may end up being the industry's saving grace. But decentralized platforms typically have a steep learning curve, which may make them less accessible.