A dispute over revenue sharing has erupted between the community governing DeFi lender Aave and its primary development firm, Aave Labs.

The conflict centers on Aave Labs’ recent decision to integrate CoW Swap as the underlying infrastructure for trading on the protocol’s primary website. The switch replaced ParaSwap, a previous integration that generated referral fees for the Aave DAO treasury.

DAO Members Question Economic Fallout From Interface Update

Governance delegates say the change has cut off a revenue stream of about $200,000 per week. On an annualized basis, they estimate the impact at roughly $10 million, shifting value away from token holders.

Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative, criticized the move, calling it a “stealth privatization” of brand assets.

Extremely concerning.

The stealth privatization of approximately 10% of Aave DAO's potential revenue, leveraging brand and IPs paid for by the DAO, represents a clear attack on the best interests of the $AAVE Token holders.

We will prepare an official response with @AaveChan. https://t.co/opoG3I7x7s

— Marc ”七十 Billy” Zeller (@Marczeller) December 12, 2025

Zeller argued that Aave Labs unilaterally altered the economic arrangement without seeking approval from the DAO, which governs the underlying smart contracts.

“Aave Labs, in the pursuit of their own monetization, redirected Aave user volume towards competition. This is unacceptable. By doing this integration, the Aave protocol lost two revenue streams that cannot be easily replaced,” he wrote.

Zeller warned that the lack of communication raises concerns about how future upgrades will be handled.

He pointed specifically to the upcoming V4 upgrade and questioned whether other “accessory features” could also be ring-fenced from the DAO.

“It is important to consider the picture as a whole to define if Aave Labs breached its expected fiduciary duty towards the Aave DAO and the AAVE token holders, and what we should expect from V4 in general,” Zeller concluded

Aave Labs Defend Moves

In a detailed response, Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave Labs, defended the integration, rejecting the characterization of the lost funds as stolen revenue.

Kulechov argued that the previous fees from ParaSwap were a “discretionary surplus” rather than a mandated protocol fee.

“It was never a fee switch, its been a surplus that we donated to the DAO,” he stated.

He also drew a sharp line between the Aave protocol, the DAO-governed decentralized smart contracts, and the front-end interface. He described the interface as a private product funded and maintained by Aave Labs.

Kulechov said Aave Labs bears the costs of engineering and security for the website. He added that the DAO does not subsidize ongoing product development expenses.

Consequently, the firm asserts the right to monetize the interface to ensure its sustainability.

“It’s also perfectly fine for Aave Labs to monetize its products, especially as they don’t touch the protocol itself,” he said.

The development firm also restated Kulechov’s position, acknowledging a failure to communicate the change effectively.

The firm said it switched to CoW Swap to deliver better execution prices and stronger protection against MEV (maximum extractable value), rather than to generate additional revenue.

The post Aave Governance Conflict Widens Over $10 Million Revenue Dispute appeared first on BeInCrypto.

VerifiedX (VFX) network, the people’s network and a decentralized global leader in self-custody and Web3 wallet financial infrastructure powering institutional and consumer-grade blockchain utility and Blockdaemon a leading U.S.- headquartered institutional-grade crypto infrastructure company, today announced a major first-mover strategic partnership. Together, Blockdaemon and VerifiedX will now deliver a new era of accessible, scalable, and secure decentralized finance (DeFi) for everyday users around the world.

This collaboration integrates Blockdaemon’s battle-tested institutional tooling directly into VerifiedX’s products, including the VFX SwitchBlade Wallet and the Butterfly social payment platform, giving consumers seamless access to rewards, borrowing, lending, and other advanced DeFi capabilities, without the complexity of traditional Web3 interfaces or custody requirements.

Democratizing Blockchain Finance for All

Through this partnership, VerifiedX and Blockdaemon will empower users to save, spend, pay, earn rewards, and access credit in an intuitive, compliant, and fully self-custodial way.

Key benefits include:

• Institutional-Grade DeFi for Consumers

Blockdaemon’s staking, node, and liquidity infrastructure, which is utilized by banks, exchanges, and asset managers, will now be embedded directly into VerifiedX’s user-facing apps. Users gain access to the same professional-grade tools previously reserved for institutions.

• Seamless Reward Generation

Users will be able to generate rewards on Bitcoin, stablecoins, and other supported assets directly within SwitchBlade and Butterfly, with one-tap actions that abstract away technical complexity.

 Borrowing and Lending Made Effortless

• VerifiedX will unlock decentralized borrowing and lending rails, letting consumers borrow against their assets and access on-chain credit markets using simplified, consumer-friendly interfaces powered by Blockdaemon’s backend.

• Self-Custodial, Frictionless Access

All features remain fully self-custodial and on-chain, where users retain ownership of their assets while benefiting from VerifiedX’s universal settlement layer and simple UX, and Blockdaemon’s infrastructure.

•  A Unified Financial Experience

These DeFi capabilities will live inside both the VFX SwitchBlade wallet and the Butterfly social payment app, allowing users to save and earn rewards, send money globally in seconds, pay merchants or friends, borrow or lend, and hold crypto or stablecoins.

• Move between fiat and digital assets
  All with a username and password, without managing private keys, seed phrases, or complex DeFi dashboards.

A Partnership Built to Scale

The collaboration is designed to grow into emerging areas of blockchain finance as VerifiedX and Blockdaemon continue to innovate. The roadmap includes:

• New staking and reward generating markets powered by Blockdaemon’s node network
• Cross-chain liquidity tools optimized for mainstream users
• Expanded institutional access so banks, fintechs, and enterprises can integrate VerifiedX rails backed by Blockdaemon’s compliance and infrastructure
• Advanced on-chain financial products, including tokenized assets and high-security settlement rails
• Global scaling, enabling VerifiedX to serve millions of users with Blockdaemon’s cloud-native, globally distributed architecture

Both ecosystems see this as the beginning of a long-term technical and strategic alignment, with ongoing integration points across wallets, payments, social apps, and decentralized finance.

The VerifiedX Foundation, said:

“Our pursuit was always to make blockchain finance simple, self-custodial, safe, accessible, and usable for everyone. Partnering with Blockdaemon brings institutional-grade infrastructure directly into the hands of everyday people with zero friction. Together we are redefining how users save, earn, borrow, and pay—without intermediaries, complexity, or barriers.”

“Our infrastructure has long served institutions that demand precision and reliability. Integrating it into VerifiedX now offers that same standard to consumers, making decentralized finance both safer and more accessible without compromising on performance or compliance,” said Demetrios Skalkotos, Chief DeFi and Protocols Officer at Blockdaemon.

About VerifiedX

VerifiedX – VFX (VerifiedX.IO) is the people’s network, a next-generation decentralized protocol that is both a universal layer 1 and a Bitcoin specific reliever chain, focused on trust, transparency, freedom, independence, and deflationary economics. Through products like SwitchBlade and the Butterfly social payment platform, VerifiedX makes saving, spending, storing, tokenizing,  earning yield, and accessing credit simple and user-first—all while remaining completely self-custodial empowering everyone to be their own bank.

Learn more at VerifiedX.io

About Blockdaemon

Blockdaemon is the institutional gateway to Web3, securing over $110B in digital assets for 400+ institutions, including exchanges, custodians, crypto platforms, and financial enterprises. Blockdaemon offers institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure spanning nodes, APIs, staking, MPC wallets and vaults. Since 2017, its globally distributed infrastructure ensures unrivaled security, compliance, and scalability.

For more information visit: www.blockdaemon.com

The post VerifiedX and Blockdaemon Announce Strategic Partnership to Bring Scalable DeFi Access Globally  appeared first on BeInCrypto.

The newly launched Firelight Protocol introduces staking rewards for XRP through a novel on-chain economic security primitive designed to protect DeFi assets from exploits.

Enabling New Use Cases for XRP

XRP, while being one of the largest crypto assets by market cap, does not have any native staking or yield opportunities. Firelight aims to add a new layer of value for XRP by providing a staking layer that utilizes the staked XRP for providing on-chain cover. This cover can be contracted by DeFi protocols in order to safeguard asset value in case of hacks and exploits. 

Bridging the Gap to Institutional-Grade DeFi

DeFi has just come through one of its strongest growth periods ever, surpassing $170 billion in TVL in October, driven largely by institutional demand. At the same time, more than $1 billion is lost to DeFi exploits every year, and recent high-profile incidents like the Balancer exploit have sharpened concerns around asset safety. In traditional finance, insurance is embedded into every market, but DeFi still largely lacks this critical layer of protection, creating a major bottleneck for the next wave of institutional adoption. Firelight is designed to close this gap by providing robust DeFi cover, and the real, growing demand for this protection will help drive value back to XRP holders.

Security-First Approach

Firelight, incubated by Sentora and backed by Flare, utilizes Flare’s FAssets to bring XRP into the protocol. Unlike many generic bridges, FAssets is fully decentralized, and extensively audited, providing a robust on/off-ramp for XRP into DeFi.

At launch, Firelight has completed three audits—one by OpenZeppelin and one by Coinspect and a bug bounty program supported by Immunifi to help ensure maximum protocol security.

How Firelight Enables XRP to Enter DeFi 

Firelight will launch across two phases. In the launch phase, XRP holders can deposit XRP and receive stXRP, a 1:1 fully backed, ERC-20 compliant liquid vault token.

stXRP serves as a transferable receipt for users’ deposits and can be freely used across the Flare DeFi ecosystem, from swapping on DEXs, to serving as collateral in lending protocols, or contributing to liquidity pools. Participants in the launch vault will also be eligible to earn Firelight Points. 

In Phase 2, staking will back DeFi cover. ensuring a high-impact use-case with real demand to provide rewards for stakers. This will be the sole purpose of the protocol; capital deployed on Firelight will be allocated to this DeFi cover mechanism. 

Backed by Industry Leaders

Sentora, as the technical service provider, and Flare Network, as the protocol enabling the creation of FAssets (e.g., FXRP), are the primary contributors to Firelight. Both organizations are backed by Ripple and share a mission to expand XRP’s role in DeFi. Their combined expertise in secure interoperability, protocol design, and network operations provides Firelight with deep technical support and a clear path for long-term ecosystem growth—so XRP holders and developers can build, secure, and scale real-world applications with confidence.

The post XRP Staking Arrives with the Launch of Firelight Protocol appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Yearn Finance confirmed an active exploit affecting its yETH product on Sunday, after an attacker minted an effectively unlimited amount of yETH and drained liquidity from Balancer pools. 

The incident triggered heavy on-chain movement, including multiple 100 ETH transfers routed through Tornado Cash. 

Infinite-Mint Attack Drains Liquidity From Balancer Pools

According to blockchain data, the exploit occurred around 21:11 UTC on November 30, when a malicious wallet executed an infinite-mint attack that created roughly 235 trillion yETH in a single transaction. 

some other balancer related stuff looking like an exploit considering heavy interactions with tornado

yearn, rocket pool, origin, dinero and other LST going around pic.twitter.com/wUuexeQJyg

— Togbe (@Togbe0x) November 30, 2025

Nansen’s alert system later confirmed the attack and identified the event as an infinite-mint vulnerability in the yETH token contract, not in Yearn’s Vault infrastructure.

The attacker used the newly minted yETH to drain real assets—primarily ETH and Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs)—from Balancer liquidity pools. Early estimates suggest roughly $2.8 million in assets were removed. 

Around 1,000 ETH was laundered through Tornado Cash shortly after the attack. Several helper contracts used in the exploit were deployed minutes before the incident and self-destructed afterward to obscure the trail.

some other balancer related stuff looking like an exploit considering heavy interactions with tornado

yearn, rocket pool, origin, dinero and other LST going around pic.twitter.com/wUuexeQJyg

— Togbe (@Togbe0x) November 30, 2025

Yearn stated that V2 and V3 Vaults were not affected, and the vulnerability appears limited to the legacy yETH implementation. 

The protocol’s Total Value Locked (TVL) remains above $600 million, according to CoinGecko, suggesting core systems were not compromised. 

YFI Price Spikes as Market Reverses Initial Panic

However, the market reaction created an unexpected dynamic. Shortly after the exploit was flagged on social media and by blockchain analysts, YFI’s price spiked sharply, climbing from near $4,080 to over $4,160 within an hour. 

The move came despite the negative headlines surrounding the broader Yearn ecosystem.

The price reaction appears tied to market misinterpretation in the early minutes of the incident. Initial claims of a “Yearn exploit” prompted high-leverage short positions on YFI, given the token’s thin liquidity and historically aggressive downside moves during hack events. 

The attack was isolated to yETH and not Yearn’s Vaults, and short-sellers began covering their positions. This triggered a brief short squeeze and a volatility-driven price spike.

YFI’s circulating supply is only 33,984 tokens, making it one of the most illiquid major DeFi governance assets. This structure amplifies price movements, particularly during periods of uncertainty or rapid liquidation flow. Derivatives data also showed elevated funding volatility immediately after the exploit alert.

For now, losses appear contained to the yETH and Balancer pools touched by the exploit. Investigations remain ongoing, and it is unclear whether any recovery options exist for the stolen assets. 

Markets will likely watch for a formal Yearn disclosure detailing root cause, patching efforts, and potential governance actions.

The post Yearn Finance Hit by Major yETH Exploit as Attacker Drains Funds appeared first on BeInCrypto.

The UK’s latest Budget leaves headline crypto tax rules unchanged but tightens the wider environment for traders.

Meanwhile, HMRC signals a major rethink on how it taxes DeFi lending and liquidity provision.

No New “Crypto Tax,” But Pressure Still Rises

Chancellor Rachel Reeves did not introduce any crypto-specific tax in the 2025 Budget. There is no new levy on trading, holding, or spending digital assets.

However, the Budget extends income-tax threshold freezes for three more years. As wages rise, more taxpayers drift into higher bands, including active crypto traders.

Summary of the key highlights from the UK budget 👇

-The UK is fck’d and has no money

-Labour have zero idea how to fix this and instead have focused on killing productivity and raising unemployment

-As the deficit widens, it will just be monetised

-GBP will be the escape…

— LondonCryptoClub (@LDNCryptoClub) November 26, 2025

The capital gains tax (CGT) allowance remains very low compared to historic levels. That means more crypto disposals trigger reportable gains, even for modest retail portfolios.

At the same time, the UK is pushing ahead with global data-sharing under new reporting standards. 

Exchanges and platforms will supply more detailed customer information to HMRC from 2026.

No tax changes for crypto earnings announced in the UK budget. Seems like regulation there is likely to get stricter, but for now 🇬🇧 looks like a slightly more favorable jurisdiction for crypto than some other European countries (eg Spain & France)

— Butian | Bless (@blessbutian) November 26, 2025

HMRC Backs Away From Its Hard Line on DeFi

Alongside the Budget, HMRC published a consultation outcome on DeFi lending and staking. It responds to strong criticism of its 2022 guidance on loans and liquidity pools.

Stakeholders told HMRC that current rules create disproportionate administrative burdens. They warned that treating every DeFi move as a disposal bears little relation to economic reality.

In response, HMRC has dropped its earlier idea of copying repo and stock lending rules. It now prefers a framework based on “no gain, no loss” (NGNL) for many DeFi flows.

HMRC has published its consultation outcome in the UK regarding the taxation of DeFi activities related to lending and staking.

A particularly interesting conclusion is that when users deposit assets into Aave, the deposit itself is not treated as a disposal for capital gains…

— Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) November 27, 2025

Crucially, the department accepts that automated market makers represent a major share of activity. It signals that any new rules should explicitly cover Uniswap-style multi-token liquidity pools.

Proposed NGNL Rules for DeFi Loans and Liquidity Pools

HMRC now outlines a potential NGNL approach for three areas. These are single-token arrangements, crypto borrowing, and automated market makers.

For single-token lending, entering and exiting a platform could be NGNL for CGT. The real gain or loss would arise only when the user finally sells the token.

For borrowing, posting collateral and taking out tokens would be ignored for CGT. Selling borrowed tokens and later buying them back to repay would crystallise the gain or loss.

For AMMs, HMRC proposes NGNL treatment when users deposit tokens for LP positions. Tax would then focus on differences in the number of tokens received when they exit.

If users receive more of a token than they originally deposited, the extra counts as a gain. But if they receive fewer, the shortfall is treated as a loss against their tax base.

HMRC stresses that this is still a “potential approach,” not enacted law. It will continue consultations before deciding whether to legislate.

How is the UK approaching crypto regulation to become a global leader? 🇬🇧

In one minute, Matt Osborne, Policy Director for the UK & Europe at Ripple, explains the plan: adopt proportionate, growth-friendly rules and allow overseas stablecoins, such as $RLUSD, to be used locally.… pic.twitter.com/lsFC1SgsRA

— Ripple (@Ripple) November 26, 2025

DeFi Rewards: No New “All Income” Rule – For Now

One of the most controversial ideas was to treat all DeFi rewards as income. Respondents warned that this would ignore capital versus revenue distinctions and create dry tax charges.

HMRC now says it is not actively pursuing an “all revenue” deeming rule. Rewards will continue to follow existing principles for now.

What This Means for UK Crypto Traders

For spot traders on centralised exchanges, the Budget brings no direct structural change. CGT still applies on each disposal, and income tax applies where trading amounts to a trade.

However, the combination of frozen thresholds and low CGT allowances increases effective tax pressure.

More active traders will breach reporting thresholds and face higher marginal rates on gains. HMRC expects more users to use portfolio tracking software to support their filings.

The post What The Latest UK Budget Means For Crypto Tax and DeFi Access appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Blockchain infrastructure has matured significantly over the past years, and its effects are now extending far beyond decentralized finance (DeFi). 

According to Brian Rudick, Chief Strategy Officer at Upexi, the next wave of corporate finance will unfold on-chain as companies increasingly adopt the technology.

Corporate Finance Is Moving On-Chain 

In an exclusive interview with BeInCrypto, Rudick highlighted the rapid rise of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) as one of the clearest indicators that corporate finance is shifting into blockchain-based environments.

He pointed to one headline number: around $36 billion worth of RWAs are now tokenized on blockchains — a figure that has surged 160% in the past year alone. These include private credit, US Treasuries, commodities, alternative investment funds, and equities.

“We’re also seeing large finance and tech incumbents experimenting with blockchain technology more and more,” he said

Notably, this experimentation is quickly turning into a real deployment in 2025. As BeInCrypto recently reported, several major institutions have moved to active blockchain-based development. 

SWIFT, for example, is building a shared real-time ledger connecting more than 30 global banks. Google Cloud has introduced the Universal Ledger (GCUL), a neutral Layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for banks and capital markets.

Meanwhile, companies like Citigroup, Mastercard, and Visa are already offering,  or preparing to offer, blockchain-powered products to their customers.

“We expect this to accelerate if and when the US passes digital asset market structure legislation,” Rudick added.

Blockchain’s Real Impact Lies in Replacing Old Rails

When it comes to “on-chain corporate finance,” it could mean things like: a company putting its balance sheet on a blockchain, doing mergers and acquisitions using tokens, or raising money with tokenized assets.

But in Rudick’s opinion, this is not where blockchain will have the biggest impact right now. He believes the biggest opportunity is not forcing every corporate finance task, such as financial planning and analysis, onto blockchains. 

Instead, it lies in replacing the outdated infrastructure that underpins modern finance. He said that,

“The opportunity for blockchain technology to revolutionize traditional finance is much more around reimagining our currently antiquated financial rails – items like ACH or the credit card issuer networks that were created 50+ years ago and are slow and expensive.”

Rudick argued that although on-chain fundraising can provide advantages such as broader investor access, the full digitization of corporate finance will still lag due to two key factors:

“1) the perhaps larger and more immediate benefits of new financial rails like near-instant and free payments with stablecoins, compared to the current corporate finance construct that works comparatively well, and 2) less burdensome and already-defined regulations within certain areas items like stablecoin payments compared to less defined rules for onchain capital raising.”

Despite this, Rudick noted that tokenized assets already mirror the behavior CFOs care about: cash flow, liquidity, and yield. 

“There are some nuances, where, for example, it may take time for onchain liquidity to build, but where liquidity can also be offered outside of traditional market hours.  As finance moves more fully onchain, the benefits will outweigh the early challenges,” he disclosed to BeInCrypto.

Why Solana Emerges as a Leading Ecosystem for On-Chain Finance

When asked which ecosystems are best positioned to support this emerging on-chain financial layer, the executive pointed decisively to Solana. Rudick, who oversees Upexi’s cryptocurrency strategy — one of the leading Solana-focused treasury companies — cited several factors behind his assessment.

“Solana is the natural home for onchain finance, given its leading speed, cost, reliability, and as it is purpose built exactly for this. In fact, Solana’s North Star is what it calls Internet Capital Markets, where all the world’s assets trade on the same liquidity venue, accessible 24/7 to anyone with an internet connection,” he commented.

Rudick emphasized that major financial institutions, including FiServ, Western Union, Société Générale, PayPal, Visa, Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, Apollo, and many others, are increasingly using Solana to bring finance on-chain and capture its benefits.

The post Upexi CSO Explains Why the Next Wave of Corporate Finance Is Moving On-Chain appeared first on BeInCrypto.