‘DeFi doesn’t exist anymore,’ just onchain finance: Andre Cronje
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Sonic Labs announced management changes: Andre Cronje and two others resigned from the board of directors; Matt Visser will become CEO.
Mars Finance reported on June 20th that Sonic Labs announced the resignation of Michael Kong, Andre Cronje, and David Richardson from their board positions. The three remain committed to Sonic's success and will fully transition their responsibilities, ceasing to make business decisions for the organization. Sonic Labs also announced that Matt Visser will become CEO and Kosta Kourkoumelis will become COO. The new management team's primary focus is not on releasing a roadmap, but on operational discipline and regaining trust. Matt Visser stated, "I'm not here to promise an immediate turnaround. I will make Sonic 1% better every day and let it compound." Sonic Labs stated that the current token price and community sentiment are low, and that the next 100 days will be considered a new first day, with the goal of achieving small improvements every day. Sonic Labs pledged to promote transparent governance, establish a dedicated risk and compliance committee, prioritize the community, and reduce vague announcements, providing clearer progress updates.
DeFi protocol Summer Finance suffers $6 million loss after attack.
According to BlockBeats, on July 6, BlockAid reported that the DeFi protocol Summer Finance is under continuous attack, with approximately $6 million in assets stolen so far.
AI agents are starting to use crypto wallets, blurring the lines between DeFi and automated finance.
According to Mars Finance, on June 15th, with the enhancement of "Agentic AI" capabilities, AI systems are transitioning from information tools to entities capable of executing economic actions, beginning to connect to crypto wallets and participate in on-chain operations. Research indicates that these AI agents could be used in the future to monitor investment portfolios, initiate transactions, pay service fees, and execute DeFi strategies, but currently, most remain in a controlled "human-in-the-loop" stage. Due to blockchain's 24/7 operation, lack of traditional banking identity systems, and programmable execution, it is considered more suitable than traditional financial systems for AI to act as agents for micropayments and automated settlements. However, this also brings new risks, including injection attacks, erroneous transaction execution, abuse of permissions, and security issues related to smart contract interactions. The industry is building "proxy wallets" to limit the boundaries of AI behavior through whitelists, transaction limits, multi-signature mechanisms, and time-based permissions. Analysts believe that a "restricted autonomy" model is more likely to emerge in the future, where AI executes tasks within predetermined rules rather than having complete autonomous control over funds. In the long run, AI agents may directly conduct on-chain transactions, such as purchasing data, computing power, or API services, gradually evolving wallets into machine identities and payment interfaces. However, regulation and accountability remain the core unresolved issues.
Kimi B2B Head Huang Zhenxin: There's definitely a bubble in the industry, but the fundamentals are very solid.
According to Mars Finance, "All model manufacturers have been raising prices this year, primarily due to the rising cost of computing power globally. Whether it's overseas or domestic cards, they can't keep up with the growth in token demand," Huang Zhenxin, head of B2B at Kimi, a subsidiary of Lunar Dark Side, frankly stated at a recent media briefing. Downstream companies are experiencing explosive growth in AI application demand, while upstream computing power supply remains tight due to chip production capacity constraints. He believes that under the dual pressure from both supply and demand, rising API prices are inevitable. He also addressed concerns about an industry bubble. "There is definitely a bubble now," he admitted, but then added, "Anthropic has already achieved quarterly profitability; the gains are real." While a bubble exists, the fundamentals are not hollow. When productivity truly undergoes a qualitative change, companies that can make the calculations sound will continue to invest, which is a sign of a healthy industry. (21st Century Business Herald)
Kraken is in talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave, valuing the company at $385 million, with plans to expand into DeFi asset management.
According to Mars Finance, on June 26th, sources familiar with the matter revealed that Payward, the parent company of crypto trading platform Kraken, is in talks with decentralized lending protocol Aave to exchange 35,000 Ethereum for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% stake in Aave Group, valuing the company at approximately $385 million and involving a transaction valued at approximately $71 million. Sources also indicated that Kraken is simultaneously seeking co-financing for the deal. This investment is positioned as the first in a series of transactions in Payward's asset management business, signifying Kraken's more proactive role in DeFi and other investment areas. Sources stated that Payward has ample capital backing and that existing partners have expressed interest in participating in such opportunities. Aave is currently the largest decentralized lending protocol, but in April of this year, it was embroiled in one of the most severe crises in DeFi history: hackers exploited a vulnerability in the KelpDAO cross-chain bridge to mint approximately $292 million worth of uncollateralized rsETH, which was then used as collateral to lend real assets on Aave, resulting in $190 million to $230 million in bad debt for the protocol. Although Aave's own smart contracts were never compromised, the incident still triggered the withdrawal of over $8 billion in deposits, highlighting the cascading risks of interconnected DeFi ecosystems. Kraken has been making frequent acquisitions recently, having previously announced in April the acquisition of crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial for up to $550 million, and reportedly raising a new round of funding at a valuation of $20 billion, actively paving the way for a potential IPO.
The European Parliament has called for a review of DeFi and NFT regulation, and a follow-up framework for MiCA has been put on the agenda.
PANews reported on July 8th that, according to a report by Crypto.news, members of the European Parliament on Tuesday adopted a policy position report, requesting the European Commission to review whether DeFi, staking, crypto lending, NFTs, and tokenized financial assets should be included in the subsequent regulation under the MiCA framework. The report does not amend existing laws or add new obligations, but sets priority directions for the next phase of crypto regulation. It also calls for consistency among member states, warning that differing national practices could weaken the EU's single market for digital assets. In May, the European Commission launched a public consultation on whether the MiCA should be extended to more crypto activities and whether to reconsider restrictions on interest-bearing stablecoins. The report takes a positive stance on tokenization and euro-denominated stablecoins, stating that unified implementation of rules would enhance the competitiveness of the European financial market.