#defi

#defi

XRP ( ) enters 2026 with years of infrastructure momentum behind it, but its price keeps stalling. Ripple has built payment corridors, secured regulatory clarity, and attracted institutional partners. Yet none of that translated into sustained on-chain activity or consistent price growth. XRP's smart contracts went live on AlphaNet on November 7, 2025, giving developers native Layer-1 capabilities for the first time. The XRP Ledger (XRPL) can now host DeFi applications-lending pools, liquidity protocols, and automated markets-that lock XRP into smart contracts instead of just moving it instantly between wallets.

The recent crypto boom has been marked by blockchain companies working to expand their appeal to mainstream consumers. That now includes Aave Labs, the developer behind a popular decentralized lending service, which on Monday announced plans to launch an app in Apple's App Store and opened up a waitlist for interested users. Aave is well-known in crypto as a leading project in DeFi, or decentralized finance.

In a statement issued on Friday, Garden again said that user funds were safe and that the attack exploited one of its solvers. In the context of decentralized finance, a solver is typically an algorithm or trading agent that's relied on to execute transactions in the most efficient manner possible. Garden is a blockchain bridge protocol company, and its solvers earn a small profit for carrying out transactions between blockchains.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller says the central bank is entering a "new era" in payments - one that openly embraces decentralized finance (DeFi), distributed ledgers, and digital asset innovation as part of the mainstream financial system. Speaking Tuesday at the Fed's first-ever Payments Innovation Conference in Washington, Waller said the central bank intends to play an "active role" in the crypto revolution transforming the global payments landscape.

Chainflip is building the next generation of native cross-chain financial infrastructure, starting with seamless asset swapping and now expanding into cross-chain lending. We enable users to swap major crypto assets like BTC, ETH, and SOL across chains - without wrapped tokens- and have already processed almost $4 billion in trades since launch. Chainflip achieves this by running its own blockchain and a network of validators that control vaults across multiple ecosystems, making the user experience smooth, secure, and fast.

During a two-hour livestream on X Spaces, Trump, his sons, and their business partner Chase Herro, who once described himself as the "dirtbag of the internet," debuted a new crypto endeavor called World Liberty Financial. Trump's appearance was largely promotional. In his opening remarks, Trump did not speak directly about World Liberty Financial,instead touching on Sunday's thwarted assassination attempt, giving a condensed version of his campaign stump speech, and outlining his hopes for the future of cryptocurrency in the U.S.

The group of Democrats, which included Senate Banking ranking member Ruben Gallego (AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), stated in the first page of the document that digital assets legislation should be guided by certain values, include "protecting financial privacy while denying bad actors access to the financial system." In the fifth section of the framework, they outlined what this looks like. The outline included the following points:

Decentralized Exchanges enable peer-to-peer token trades without central authority, posing challenges for optimal execution due to fragmented liquidity pools, necessitating DEX aggregators for better pricing.

XRP cloud mining does not mine XRP directly; instead, it allows users to fund Bitcoin or Ethereum mining contracts using XRP, which comes with various risks.

The Algorand blockchain employs a Byzantine Fault Tolerance Protocol and Pure Proof-of-Stake for achieving scalability, instant finality, and Sybil resistance, contrasting with Ethereum.

We’re moving toward a world where institutions, whales, and retail traders all demand on-chain access with CEX-level execution.

The $FLY token generation event marks a significant advancement in incentivizing liquidity and trading, enabling users to earn through various innovative reward mechanisms.

"PLUS More marks a new chapter in the evolution of traditional rewards, bringing them into the open, permissionless world of decentralised finance."

"Having Galaxy as a strategic investor brings tremendous value beyond capital. They have many connections and insights across the U.S. and Asia markets that will be very beneficial to the Sonic ecosystem."

"PayFi is no longer simply a concept or emerging category; it's live and scaling faster than we ever anticipated," said Erbil Karaman.

TermMax introduces a revolutionary platform for DeFi, offering fixed-rate borrowing and lending with features that simplify complex operations and enhance flexibility.