According to a report published by cryptocurrency analytics firm Chainalysis, the region of Central, Northern and Western Europe (CNWE) has become the world’s largest cryptocurrency economy thanks to the proliferation of decentralized finance (DeFi).

Ripple has announced a “creator fund” worth $250 million to support non-fungible token (NFT) projects on the XRP Ledger. The firm said it will provide NFT artists and marketplaces with creative, financial, and technical support.

Blue-chip decentralized finance protocol Compound has suffered a possible exploit on Wednesday night, as it seemingly erroneously paid out millions of dollars worth of its COMP tokens as liquidity mining rewards.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• European Institutional Investors Embrace DeFi
• Ripple Launches $250 Million Fund to Support NFTs on XRP Ledger
• Blue-Chip DeFi Protocol Compound Overpays Millions in COMP Rewards
• What is Staking?

European Institutional Investors Embrace DeFi

According to a report published by cryptocurrency analytics firm Chainalysis, the region of Central, Northern, and Western Europe (CNWE) has become the world’s largest cryptocurrency economy thanks to the proliferation of decentralized finance (DeFi).

The report notes the region received over $1 trillion in cryptocurrency over the last 12 months, amounting to 25% of the global activity. The report added that large traditional institutional players have been paying attention to DeFi. The report reads:

“CNWE’s transaction volume grew significantly across virtually all cryptocurrencies and service types, but especially on DeFi protocols. An influx of institutional investment, signaled by large transactions, drove most of the growth, though retail activity also increased.”

The combined value of large institutional-sized transactions of over $10 million or more grew from $1.4 billion in July of last year to $46.3 billion in June of this year. The majority of these transfers went to DeFi platforms in the form of Ethereum (ETH), Wrapped Ethereum (WETH), or ERC-20 tokens.

Ripple Launches $250 Million Fund to Support NFTs on XRP Ledger

Ripple has announced a “creator fund” worth $250 million to support non-fungible token (NFT) projects on the XRP Ledger. The firm said it will provide NFT artists and marketplaces with creative, financial and technical support.

It has partnered with creative agency VSA Partners and NFT marketplaces mintNFT and Mintable to support creators. Minting NFTs on XRP will be cost-efficient and drive utility through use cases such as “interactive experiences and fractional ownership,” the firm said.

The fintech firm added the XRP Ledger has a built-in decentralized exchange that allows users to trade tokens for XRP or each other. Ripple, it’s worth noting, is a company created to promote and develop XRP and the software behind it, including the XRP Ledger. It operates RippleNet, which uses the token for cross-border transactions.

Blue-Chip DeFi Protocol Compound Overpays Millions in COMP Rewards

Blue-chip decentralized finance protocol Compound has suffered a possible exploit on Wednesday night, as it seemingly erroneously paid out millions of dollars worth of its COMP tokens as liquidity mining rewards.

A Twitter user going by “napgener” first spotted the issue and pointed to three Ethereum transactions showing users received $15 million in COMP tokens for borrowing and supplying small amounts of tokens. Compound’s liquidity mining program often offers users single-digit APY rates.

The high payout seems to show there was a flaw in the comptroller contract that distributes the COMP liquidity mining rewards. The exploit was found after a recent upgrade to the contract, but Compound said no user funds are at risk. Robert Leshner, the founder of Compound, said “at worst” 280,000 COMP tokens are at risk of being erroneously claimed.

Leshner added there are “no admin controls or community tools to disable the COMP distribution; any changes to the protocol require a 7-day governance process to make their way into production.”

What is Staking?

You have likely heard of staking by now as a way to earn passive income on your holdings, but you may be wondering what it exactly is? Put simply, staking is a way to earn interest on your crypto holdings by locking cryptoassets to help validate transactions on their underlying networks.

Staking is similar to mining on Proof-of-Work (PoW) networks with the advantage of being less resource-intensive. Staking coins directly on the blockchain may be complicated for some users, but several cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets now offer services simplifying the process.

Learn more on CryptoCompare’s guide about staking.

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