Decentralized Finance Industry Biweekly Report

1. Industry Observation

1. An investment platform invests in LBTC issuer Lombard. LBTC is a Bitcoin liquid staking token that allows holders to earn yields in Decentralized Finance and leverage Bitcoin assets. Since its launch in August, Lombard has captured 40% of the Bitcoin liquid staking market, with a total locked amount exceeding $500 million and over 12,500 users.

2. A trading platform has launched kBTC, a cross-chain ERC-20 token backed 1:1 by Bitcoin, aimed at extending the value of Bitcoin to DeFi ecosystems such as Ethereum and OP mainnet. kBTC provides strict security guarantees, and users can verify on-chain reserves at any time.

3. ZKsync proposed the "ZKsync Ignite" initiative, planning to distribute 300 million ZK tokens to DeFi users within 9 months, with the goal of making ZKsync Era the liquidity hub of the Elastic Chain.

4. Aptos plans to integrate stablecoins such as Tether and USDY, promoting its emergence as a new foundation for global payment solutions. The Aptos network has 27.7 million active addresses and a total transaction volume of 17 billion, demonstrating its outstanding transaction processing capabilities and stable low fee advantages.

5. The modular DeFi L2 network Mode opens the airdrop for Season 2, while the staking activity for Season 3 unfolds simultaneously. Mode will be the first protocol on Superchain to adopt the ve-model, focusing on staking, protocol voting, and dynamic governance for long-term growth.

6. The crypto derivatives trading protocol Variational has completed a $10.3 million seed round of financing. The first application of this protocol is the Omni platform aimed at the retail market, providing perpetual contract trading. Variational plans to launch an invite-only mainnet by the end of the year and a public mainnet in the first quarter of 2025.

7. The European Commission has approved the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange to conduct spot Bitcoin ETF options trading, marking further legalization and mainstreaming of Bitcoin in regulated markets.

8. The Solana-based memecoin trading platform Pump.fun has launched a new advanced trading terminal "Pump Advanced" for high-level users, and announced that it will issue tokens in the future.

9. ApeCoin launched the Layer 2 mainnet ApeChain on Arbitrum Orbit and officially launched the cross-chain bridge. Users can transfer tokens to ApeChain through the official bridging website of ApeChain and earn native yields on APE, ETH, and stablecoins.

10. Sushi has released the Super Swap roadmap, which will introduce multiple new liquidity protocols, including the Blade impermanent loss automated market maker and the Kubo Decentralized Finance perpetual contract native protocol.

11. A trading platform plans to launch its first native blockchain network "Ink" in Q1 2025, which is a Layer 2 blockchain based on Optimism Superchain and operating within the Ethereum ecosystem.

12. The Verge roadmap of Ethereum aims to reduce the cost of running nodes, allowing smartphones, watches, and even browsers to perform node validation. Its core is to achieve stateless validation technology, which is conducted through a witness mechanism.

2. Data Overview

1. TVL Data: Solana's TVL returned to second place this week, while Sui remains within the top 10.

2. Stablecoin Data: Total Market Capitalization is $172.44 billion, with a 7-day decline of 0.11%. USDT accounts for 69.68%, while USDe's share has risen to 1.52%, making it the fourth largest stablecoin.

3. DEX Data: Uniswap remains in the lead, with Raydium growing by 36.29% to take second place. The performance of DEX on the Solana chain is impressive, with a 7-day trading volume of $16.317 billion ranking first.

3. Industry Outlook

• The expectation of DeFi returning has increased, but the form will be different.
• There are opportunities for new investment in the new public chain DeFi projects.
• Cross-chain liquidity and cross-chain intentions have become mainstream narratives
• DeFi projects combined with CEX may have more advantages
• The Japan-Korea community has begun to enter the Decentralized Finance market, which may become a new indicator.
• Projects that are highly practical or popular among Japanese and Korean users are expected to achieve high returns by 2025.