DeFi Statistics

This week's market behavior is consistent with a price-driven correction rather than a loss of capital. ETH softened, with staking and lending balances edging lower. However, stablecoin supply on Ethereum increased. This could point to a rotation from volatile assets into cash-equivalents while remaining on-chain. In other words, net liquidity residing on Ethereum grew even as mark-to-market TVL dipped. The drop in addresses, transactions, and DEX turnover coincided with an increase in swap gas costs, which can suppress smaller trades and push order flow toward centralized venues.

Implications are twofold. Near term, elevated fees and lighter spot activity imply softer protocol revenues for DEXs and some yield compression in lending and staking. Strategically, the expanding stablecoin base increases settlement capacity and positions the ecosystem for rapid redeployment once fees normalize or volatility returns. If high gas persists, expect further structural migration to L2s, greater use of batching and account abstraction, and continued decoupling between mainnet activity metrics and underlying adoption. Overall, the data are consistent with a minor correction in price alongside continued accumulation of on-chain dollar liquidity—momentum in adoption remains intact.

$400M USDT Whale Transfer From HTX to Aave Draws Attention

A whale transaction of 400 million USDT moved from the HTX exchange (formerly Huobi) into Aave, evidence that DeFi credit markets routinely absorb nine-figure flows. The transfer, was flagged by Whale Alert and represents one of the largest stablecoin deposits into Aave in recent months. Such moves are often tied to yield farming, collateralized borrowing to lever stables or ETH, or basis trades that borrow on Aave while hedging with perpetuals.

The influx of liquidity could influence Aave’s USDT interest rates while reinforcing market perception of institutional-scale participation in DeFi. While the transfer itself does not affect USDT’s peg, its size shows the growing role of large entities in well-established decentralized protocols. Analysts note that whale deposits of this magnitude serve as a confidence signal in DeFi infrastructure.

Source: bitcoinworld.co.in

Mantle Tops DeFi Treasuries With $4B in Assets

Mantle has surpassed $4 billion in treasury assets, making it the largest treasury in decentralized finance. According to DeFiLlama, the total stands at $4.025 billion, with $3.79 billion held in Mantle’s native tokens. The remainder includes $17.9 million in stablecoins, $56.4 million in BTC and ETH, and $159 million in other assets. This positions Mantle ahead of the Ethereum Foundation, ENS, and Golem Network in terms of treasury size, with its heavy weighting in native tokens providing flexibility for ecosystem growth and incentive programs.

Mantle’s recent expansion is best read as incentive-assisted growth: treasury programs accelerated onboarding and liquidity placement, while concurrent integrations and market conditions lowered frictions for new users. That aligns with the standard L2 playbook. The analytical focus now is conversion, what portion of activity persists as rewards normalize, and how efficiently incentive spend translates into retained usage and depth. Current traction is encouraging; the tapering phases will offer the clearest read on durability without presuming a negative outcome.

Source: coinfomania.com

Aave Launches Horizon to Unlock Stablecoin Borrowing Against RWAs

Aave Labs has introduced Horizon, a new platform that allows institutions to borrow stablecoins against tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). At launch, borrowers can access USDC, Ripple’s RLUSD, and Aave’s GHO by posting collateral such as tokenized short-duration U.S. Treasuries from Superstate, Circle’s yield fund, and Centrifuge’s Janus Henderson products. The initiative aims to make RWAs, a $26 billion market, directly usable in DeFi lending by integrating institutional capital with decentralized liquidity.

Horizon is an Aave V3 market where collateral is allowlisted, but the lending pools remain public and integrable. To ensure that collateral ratios remain accurate, Chainlink’s NAVLink oracle provides up-to-date net asset values. The launch lineup includes Ethena, OpenEden, Securitize, VanEck, Hamilton Lane, and WisdomTree, with more planned. Aave describes Horizon as infrastructure for deeper stablecoin liquidity and round-the-clock institutional access to on-chain credit.

Source: coindesk.com

Ethereum Reclaims DeFi Dominance With 62% of TVL

Ethereum has reasserted itself as the leading DeFi chain, now accounting for 62% of total value locked (TVL), according to analytics firm Sentora. With global DeFi TVL at around $150 billion, Ethereum alone holds $92 billion, driven by large inflows since April. A major contributor has been the surge in liquid staking, which hit record highs as protocols like Lido funneled fresh ETH-denominated liquidity into DeFi without locking assets away. ETH’s recovery to the $4,500 range this month has further amplified on-chain activity, strengthening Ethereum’s position.

Analysts suggest Ethereum’s dominance could prove durable thanks to its central role in liquid staking and deep composability. However, competition remains fierce: Layer-2s like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base, along with alternative L1s such as Solana, BNB Chain, and Tron, continue to expand with lower fees and incentive programs. While Ethereum’s 62% share constitutes a strong rebound, its hold may be tested as rival ecosystems push forward with new yield opportunities.

Source: blockchainreporter.net

Cap Labs’ cUSD Stablecoin Surges Past $67M With EigenLayer-Backed Credit Design

Cap Labs’ new stablecoin, cUSD, surpassed $67 million in circulation in its first week, an early signal of demand for a compliant, yield-layered dollar model. Issued through the Cap Stablecoin Network (CSN), cUSD is fully backed by regulated reserves such as PayPal’s PYUSD, BlackRock’s BUIDL, and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI. Its yield-bearing counterpart, stcUSD, is created when users stake cUSD, with returns generated through a three-party system: operators deploy capital into strategies, restakers underwrite their credit risk, and lenders earn a floating yield currently around 12%.

The design, compliant with the GENIUS Act, separates yield from the payment token, sidestepping the prohibition on interest-bearing stablecoins. Crucially, it uses EigenLayer’s restaking infrastructure for credit underwriting, making stcUSD one of the first stablecoin models to use slashing and redistribution as on-chain enforcement for financial guarantees. Operators like Fasanara, GSR, and Amber are already active, with Gauntlet and Symbiotic providing restaker-backed credit coverage. Analysts compare the system to a CDS-style structure that could mark the start of “financial AVSs,” where restaking evolves beyond infrastructure to programmable on-chain credit risk management.

Source: blockworks.co

Aave Hits $41.1B TVL, Ranking Among Top 2.5% of U.S. Banks

Aave has reached a new all-time high of $41.1 billion in total value locked (TVL), which would make it the 54th largest U.S. commercial bank by deposits, surpassing Prosperity Bank’s $38.4 billion. When including its $28.9 billion in active borrows, Aave’s combined $71.1 billion footprint would elevate it to the equivalent of the 37th largest bank in the country, placing the protocol in the top 1.7% of U.S. banks by size. Founder Stani Kulechov emphasized the point, noting that Aave functions like a top-tier bank “except it isn’t a bank, but a network any financial institution can plug into to unlock non-Fed–correlated yield.”

The protocol continues to dominate DeFi lending, holding about 50% of sector TVL, nearly six times larger than its closest competitor, Morpho. Last week alone, Aave crossed $3 trillion in cumulative deposits and reached $29 billion in active loans, which approaches institutional-grade scale. Indeed, institutional adoption remains a driver of growth, with Nasdaq-listed BTCS and $6.4 billion of Ethena’s USDe deposits flowing into Aave. The AAVE token has risen more than 177% since April, trading near $317 as the market prices in the protocol’s role as core infrastructure for on-chain credit markets.

Source: cryptoslate.com