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Decentralised Finance (DeFi) saw exponential growth in 2020 and 2021 promises to be yet another defining year. What’s particularly exciting is how DeFi has coincided with broader trends in banking and the rise of fintech 2.0 and neobanks.

Polygon (previously Matic) is working to improve decentralized blockchain interoperability and help blockchain platforms bypass the limitations of the Ethereum Network. The company provides the tools and the knowledge to developers to create cross-chain applications that can integrate the Ethereum Network without compromising on scalability, security, or decentralization.

The use of distributed ledger tech (DLT) for transborder payments is increasing among various Central Banks around the globe. The recent bank to embrace blockchain technology in the remittance field is the National Bank of Egypt (NBE).

In the latest rounds of attack on DeFi (Decentralized Finance), FinNexus Options Protocol and DeFi platform lost close to $8 million. DeFi experts say the attack was either executed via stolen admin keys or a rug pull. In the attack, FinNexus lost more than 383 million FNX tokens pushing the price of the token to plummet by at least 90%.

Several giant payment service providers are flocking to using encrypted decentralized technologies including blockchain to create payment platforms that can facilitate and support fast, secure, cheap cross-border payment processing services which offer real-time validation of transactions minus the involvement of third parties.

The features presented by blockchain would be forcing central banks to adopt and use the technology on a large scale, but some governments including China, Jamaica, etc., don't want their central banks to use the tech in the issuance and distribution of their own state-backed central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The month of March has seen many popular cryptocurrency gain much traction.  We have seen cryptocurrencies such as Filecoin, TRON, Qtum and OMG Network trade like hot cakes. CoinIdol, a world blockchain news outlet, analyzed the market to define five biggest gainers of March 2021.

The recent Bitcoin price surges were doubtlessly attention-grabbing.  After hitting above $40,000 in the first half of January 2021, it has soared past the $57,000 mark in the third week of February, resulting in a market valuation of over $1 trillion.

Ethereum developers have named the date of the Ether Berlin fork. The developers of Ether slated the Berlin fork to transpire on April 14, this year, at block height 12,244,000. The first Ethereum testnet was launched on March 10 this year at the block 9,812,189 at 21:45:00 UTC.