Weekly DeFi News Recap Ep8

DeFi Statistics

DeFi activity expanded sharply this week on the back of ETH’s bullish price action, driven in part by excitement around Plasma’s mainnet launch and early growth. TVL rose across the board, with both lending and staking protocols seeing robust inflows. Meanwhile, active Ethereum addresses and transaction counts point to heightened market momentum and strong user participation.

MetaMask’s rewards program to pay out $30M in LINEA in Season 1

MetaMask will roll out an onchain rewards program “in the next couple of weeks,” distributing more than $30M in LINEA during its first season. The package includes referral rewards, mUSD incentives, exclusive partner perks, and access to token deals, with special benefits earmarked for long-time users.

The wallet team also teased “meaningful connections” between the program and the forthcoming MASK token, framing the effort as an ongoing community giveback rather than a short-term farming push for Consensys’ Linea L2. Details on eligibility are still unclear.
Source: theblock.co

Stablecoin market cap tops $300B for the first time

Stablecoins collectively crossed a fresh all-time high, providing record levels of liquidity flowing on-chain alongside the broader crypto rebound. USDT remains the anchor with the largest share, while USDC, USDe, and DAI round out a maturing mix used for trading, payments, and parking dry powder across exchanges and DeFi rails.

Analysts point to Q3’s policy tailwinds (e.g., the GENIUS Act), rising institutional participation, and stronger BTC/ETH prices as key drivers for supply expansion. The milestone could also be a barometer for risk appetite, as issuance growth typically precedes higher activity in lending markets, perps, and tokenized assets.
Source: theblock.co

Pendle brings DeFi yield markets to Plasma with major incentives

Pendle Finance has integrated with the Plasma Foundation’s digital bank to expand its yield offerings to a global audience. The partnership launches five yield markets featuring high APYs on assets such as USDe, sUSDe, and syrupUSDT, supported by weekly XPL rewards designed to boost liquidity and reward both Yield Token holders and liquidity providers.

This move follows Plasma’s successful mainnet rollout and rapid liquidity inflows, which positioned it as one of the leading stablecoin-native Layer 1s. Pendle's aim is to anchor its fixed- and variable-yield products in a highly liquid environment while offering new income opportunities in on-chain savings markets.
Source: crypto.news

CoinGecko considers a new “supply quality” metric as Hyperliquid sparks tokenomics debate

After two prominent Hyperliquid investors proposed burning 45% of HYPE to remove unlikely-to-circulate “unallocated” tokens, CoinGecko said it’s working on ways to better reflect supply in valuations beyond the blunt pair of market cap and FDV. The goal is to reduce investor confusion where FDV can overstate value and simple circulating cap can understate it, especially when large treasuries or emissions buckets may never truly hit the market.

CoinGecko’s TM Lee cautioned any adjustment will be subjective, since projects disagree on what counts as “unallocated,” but acknowledged the industry needs cleaner standards.
Source: dlnews.com

Aster slumps after DeFiLlama yanks perps data amid wash-trade concerns

Aster’s native token fell after DeFiLlama removed the DEX’s perpetuals volume from its dashboards, with founder 0xngmi flagging suspiciously tight correlations between Aster’s reported activity and Binance perps volumes. The scrutiny lands awkwardly given Binance co-founder CZ is an advisor to Aster, which intensifies questions about how the venue reports trading activity just weeks after it sprinted up leaderboards on fees and volumes.

Aggregator delistings can instantly reshape the narrative and capital flows, and rivals like Hyperliquid stand to benefit if doubts linger. For Aster, the near-term task is proving that their liquidity is organic by providing credible data audits, if they don't want to risk a persisting price discount from traders and data providers.
Source: theblock.co

Cronos, Morpho, and Crypto.com team up to launch lending on Cronos, eye RWAs next

Cronos will host Morpho-powered lending markets starting in Q4, with stablecoin markets backed by wrapped assets like CDCBTC and CDCETH and dynamic rates. Crucially, Morpho will be embedded directly in the Crypto.com app and exchange, pushing non-custodial borrowing/lending to a much larger user base while also using Cronos’ recent throughput and fee improvements.

The partners also plan to pilot tokenized real-world assets as collateral inside Morpho Vaults, potentially positioning Cronos to compete for institutional-grade DeFi flows.
Source: finbold.com

Ondo completes acquisition of U.S.-regulated broker Oasis Pro

Ondo Finance has finalized its purchase of Oasis Pro, gaining control of an SEC-licensed broker-dealer and transfer agent to expand its tokenized securities platform in the U.S. This acquisition provides Ondo with a full compliance toolkit for regulated trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs, and strengthens its foothold in real-world asset tokenization.

With competition from traditional and crypto-native players like Robinhood, Kraken, and Coinbase intensifying, Ondo’s move shows its intent to bridge on-chain finance and traditional equity markets under a regulated framework.
Source: theblock.co