Blockchain Bites: Square's $50M BTC Investment, MetaMask's 1M Users, BitMEX's New CEO

Wallets are a key part of the discussion around DeFi adoption and a focus of the CoinDesk invest: ethereum economy panel "Unlocked: TVL and Beyond - Measuring the DeFi Economy" on Oct. 14.

The MetaMask wallet, a browser extension that allows users to interact with the Ethereum network and its multitude of smart contract-based DeFi applications, has surpassed 1 million users.

Chasing juicy returns in the DeFi space, which can sometimes provide double- or triple-digit returns for lending crypto, is one of the reasons for MetaMask's growth, said John Willock, CEO of Tritium Digital Assets, a crypto liquidity provider.

"I expect MetaMask will continue to dominate as DeFi and other Ethereum applications flourish over the coming months and years," Mosoff added.

Although MetaMask requires some knowledge of mnemonic seed storage by users, it's actually a pretty delightful wallet for an increasingly growing DeFi ecosystem.

How do I make money with DeFi?The value locked up in Ethereum DeFi projects has been exploding, with many users reportedly making a lot of money.

It allows for users to leverage the lending aspect of DeFi to put their crypto assets to work generating the best possible returns.

It's difficult for newcomers to separate the good projects from the bad. And, there has been plenty of bad.As DeFi has increased in activity and popularity through 2020, many DeFi applications, such as meme coin YAM, have crashed and burned, sending the market capitalization from $60 million to $0 in 35 minutes.

Many believe various DeFi projects have the potential to become the next Robinhood, drawing in hordes of new users by making financial applications more inclusive and open to those who don't traditionally have access to such platforms.

In our view, the DeFi experiment demonstrates the need for creating a new set of industry rules: audits, proper risk disclosures and planning to anticipate what could go wrong before it actually happens.