The decentralized finance sector (DeFi) is gaining popularity among cryptocurrency investors. Recent events in this field highlight significant growth and some challenges.

The volume of funds locked in DeFi protocols has reached a new record of $51.5 billion. In this segment, Lido stands out with $20.7 billion, followed by Maker and JustLend with $8.4 billion and $6.5 billion, respectively. There is also noted growth in TVL within Ethereum applications to $28.4 billion, and the total trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX) over the last month amounted to $77.1 billion. Uniswap continues to lead the DEX market with a 55.7% share.

However, not all news is positive. DEX OKX lost $2.76 million due to a hack caused by a leak of an administrator's private key. Yearn Finance also faced losses, losing $1.4 million due to a transaction error, leading to a significant reduction in treasury funds in one of its pools.

The DeFi project SafeMoon declared bankruptcy, causing a sharp drop in the value of their SFM token. At the same time, the hacker responsible for the Nirvana Finance breach agreed to return the stolen assets amounting to $12.3 million after admitting guilt.

These events underscore the dynamic and sometimes unstable nature of the DeFi sector, highlighting the importance of security and reliability in this rapidly evolving area.