The Cryptodex: Volume VIII (DeFi elders)
Field notes by Professor Oak. UNKNOWN / UNVERIFIED = not confirmed by my sources.
#071 Uniswap
Ethereum AMM by Hayden Adams. v1 Nov 2 2018, v2 May 2020, v3 May 2021, v4 (hooks) Jan 31 2025. UNI retroactive airdrop 2020 (month UNVERIFIED). Unichain UNVERIFIED. 2026 status UNKNOWN. Related: Ethereum #063, Raydium #012.
#072 MakerDAO / Sky
Co-founded 2015 by Rune Christensen. Sai Dec 18 2017; Multi-Collateral DAI Nov 18 2019. Survived Black Thursday (Mar 12 2020). Rebranded Sky Aug 2024 (USDS, SKY); DAI persists. Active 2026 (one source). Related: Ethereum #063, Aave #052, Circle #066.
#073 Curve
Founder Michael Egorov. StableSwap whitepaper late 2019; launch Jan 2020. CRV Aug 2020, veCRV vote-escrow, the Curve Wars. crvUSD May 2023. Vyper reentrancy exploit Jul 2023 (~$73M). Active 2026. Related: Uniswap #071, Maker #072.
#074 Compound
Compound Labs, 2017, Robert Leshner & Geoffrey Hayes. v1 Sep 2018, v2 Nov 2019, COMP liquidity mining June 2020 (DeFi Summer). v3 details UNVERIFIED. 2026: v3 markets paused after bad debt (single source). Related: Aave #052, Maker #072, Curve #073.
#075 Jito
Jito Labs, 2021, Lucas Bruder & Zano Sherwani. Solana MEV: Jito-Solana client + JitoSOL Oct 2022, bundle auctions. JTO Dec 7 2023 airdrop. Restaking announced Jul 2024. Active 2026. Related: Solana #064, Pyth #076.
#076 Pyth
Incubated by Jump Trading, live on Solana Aug 26 2021. Pull oracle, Pythnet appchain, first-party publishers. Douro Labs mid-2023. PYTH airdrop Nov 2023. 600+ feeds, 50+ chains (2026). Related: Chainlink #068, Solana #064.
#077 Wormhole
Cross-chain messaging/bridge. Feb 2 2022 exploit ~$320M (120k wETH minted unbacked); Jump replaced the funds. Certus One origin, Guardians detail, W token UNVERIFIED this pass. Related: Solana #064, Ethereum #063, Sui #079.
#078 Tron
Justin Sun; foundation Singapore Jul 2017; ICO ~$70M. ERC-20 first, own mainnet May 2018, migration Jun 2018. BitTorrent acquired Jul 2018. Major USDT-TRC20 rail (Tether #065). SEC suit 2023; dismissal 2026 single-source. Active 2026.
#079 Sui
Mysten Labs (late 2021): five ex-Meta Diem/Novi engineers (Evan Cheng, Sam Blackshear, Adeniyi Abiodun, George Danezis, Kostas Chalkias). Mainnet May 3 2023. Move, object-centric model. Cetus 2025 exploit UNVERIFIED. Related: Aptos (not filed), Wormhole #077.
#080 Monero
Fork of Bytecoin's CryptoNote code, April 2014, first named BitMonero, launched by Bitcointalk user thankful_for_today, then taken over by a community core team (Riccardo Spagni a lead maintainer, many anonymous). Privacy: ring signatures + stealth addresses (CryptoNote), RingCT 2017 hides amounts (later mandatory). RandomX PoW 2019, CPU-friendly / ASIC-resistant. Exchange delistings in some jurisdictions: specifics UNVERIFIED. FCMP++ upgrade: status in 2026 UNKNOWN. Sources: Monero Academy, Wikipedia, MoneroSwapper. Related: Bitcoin (lineage contrast), Tron #078 (opposite end of the transparency spectrum).
Open questions
Uniswap 2026 status, Compound v3 bad-debt event, Wormhole origin, Cetus exploit, FCMP++ activation.
Volume VIII complete.