Gate Research: Ethena TVL Hits New High | Gate Launches Gate Layer L2 Network

Summary

• BTC fell 1.99% this week, ETH dropped 7.69%, while parts of the DeFi sector bucked the downtrend.
• Gate Launches Gate Layer Layer-2 Network, Fully Upgrades GT Ecosystem and Deflationary Mechanism.
• SUI Group disclosed large SUI holdings and a stock buyback, signaling capital strength and market confidence.
• Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade: PeerDAS Opens a New Chapter for L1 Scaling
• The crypto market witnessed the largest liquidation of 2024, with $1.8B wiped out.
• Ethena TVL surpassed $16B, marking a new all-time high.
• AVNT surged 117% in the past week, with daily trading volume exceeding $7B.

Market Overview

Market Commentary

• BTC — BTC declined 1.99% this week. Short-term moving averages are showing signs of turning downward, putting the previous uptrend at risk. The MACD histogram contracted and a bearish crossover formed at the top, signaling weakening bullish momentum. After retreating from a peak of $115,656, BTC is now trading below $113,000. Immediate support lies at the $112,800–$112,400 range. A breakdown could lead to a retest of $111,000, while a rebound above $113,400 would be required to restore bullish structure.
• ETH — ETH fell 7.69% this week, showing persistent weakness. Prices broke below the lower bound of a consolidation range, with the 10MA and 30MA aligned bearishly. The MACD formed a bearish crossover with expanding negative momentum, reflecting sellers regaining control. Rising trading volume confirms active selling pressure. Key support stands at $4,067; a breach could open downside toward the $4,000–$3,950 zone.
• Altcoins — Major altcoins underperformed, with only a handful posting gains. The IP and Perpetuals sectors outshone, with the former gaining 14% and APEX soaring 149%, attracting strong market attention.
• Stablecoins — The total stablecoin market cap stands at $307.8B, with USDC and USDe drawing growing interest.
• Gas Fees — Ethereum network gas fees climbed this week, with the average fee reaching 0.511 Gwei as of Sep

Trending Tokens

Despite the overall weakness in major altcoins this week, certain DeFi sectors — including automated strategy platforms, lending protocols, and derivatives exchanges — showed contrarian strength. According to CoinGecko data, over the past seven days, these protocols benefited from product upgrades, incentive programs, and renewed sector sentiment, which collectively drove strong token performance. Below are several representative DeFi projects with notable gains and the key drivers behind their recent rallies:

IN INFINIT (+71.04%, Market Cap $24.73M)

INFINIT, an automated DeFi strategy execution platform, surged over 70% in a single day. The rally was fueled by the launch of its V2 beta on Arbitrum, featuring the “One-Click Arbitrum DRIP” strategy. This allows users to complete multi-step DeFi operations (borrowing, staking, swapping) in one click, significantly lowering entry barriers. Strong market reception and clear real-world use cases drove rapid price appreciation.

FLUID (+28.10%, Market Cap $263M)

FLUID, a DeFi lending and stablecoin exchange protocol, jumped on news that its TVL surpassed $4.6B just 18 months after launch, ranking #1 among stablecoin DEX/lending DAOs and #4 across all lending protocols. The team also announced a $FLUID buyback program, boosting sentiment. With strong revenue generation (~$19.5M annualized over the past 7 days), capital inflows accelerated.

SNX (+25.26%, Market Cap $295M)

Synthetix, a derivatives protocol enabling on-chain perpetuals and synthetic asset trading, surged following announcements of its upcoming mainnet perpetuals DEX and a $1M trading competition. The move, combined with incentives and privacy guarantees for traders, reignited community interest and lifted SNX by over 25% in a day.

Focus of the Week

Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade: PeerDAS Opens a New Chapter for L1 Scaling

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently stated that the upcoming Fusaka upgrade is designed to address the current bottleneck of data availability on the L1 network. At its core is PeerDAS (Peer-to-Peer Data Availability Sampling), a mechanism that allows nodes to download only a small subset of data blocks and use probabilistic sampling to verify whether more than 50% of the data is available. If the majority of blocks are available, nodes can leverage erasure coding to reconstruct the rest, reducing bandwidth costs while improving data distribution efficiency — laying the groundwork for higher-frequency block data processing in the future.

Vitalik, however, emphasized that security remains Ethereum’s top priority. In the first phase of Fusaka, nodes will still need to obtain complete data during initial broadcasting and reconstruction, ensuring that as long as a single honest participant exists, network security is preserved. He added that over time, Ethereum will gradually increase the number of blobs based on real-world performance, driving coordinated scaling between L1 and L2. This approach reflects Ethereum’s long-standing philosophy of pursuing scalability while maintaining decentralization and security.

SUI Group Discloses Heavy SUI Holdings and Stock Buyback, Signaling Capital Strength and Market Confidence

According to its latest disclosure, as of September 23, SUI Group holds 105,630,660 SUI tokens in its treasury. At a price of $3.40 per token, this amounts to a market value of approximately $359 million, making it one of the largest known SUI holders in the public market. This substantial allocation not only underscores the company’s deep alignment with the Sui blockchain ecosystem but also highlights its strong conviction in the project’s long-term growth. In the context of structural rotations in the crypto market, such transparent treasury disclosures help stabilize market sentiment and build external trust in SUI Group’s capital reserves and strategic foresight.

Beyond its crypto holdings, SUI Group also announced a $1.2 million share repurchase program, buying back 276,296 common shares. Share buybacks are typically interpreted as a signal of management’s confidence in future earnings and intrinsic value. Against the backdrop of macro uncertainty and tech sector volatility, this move reflects a dual strategy: enhancing shareholder returns while boosting market confidence. Overall, SUI Group is reinforcing its strategic positioning at the intersection of Web3 and traditional finance through both on-chain and capital market initiatives.

Gate Launches Gate Layer L2 Network, Fully Upgrades GT Ecosystem and Deflationary Mechanism

Gate has officially launched Gate Layer, a high-performance Layer 2 network, alongside a major upgrade to GT tokenomics. Built on OP Stack, Gate Layer delivers >5,700 TPS, 1-second block times, EVM compatibility, ultra-low gas fees, dual-layer security, and LayerZero-powered cross-chain functionality. GT is now the exclusive gas token on Gate Layer, significantly expanding its utility and driving on-chain demand.

Gate is also rolling out three flagship products:

• Perp: A decentralized perpetuals trading platform offering deep liquidity and CEX-like performance.
• Gate Fun: A no-code token launchpad for small creators and meme projects.
• Meme Go: A real-time aggregator and trading hub for cross-chain meme coins.
• In parallel, GT’s dual deflationary model (scheduled burns + EIP-1559-style on-chain burns) continues to reduce supply, with over 180 million GT (60.18% of total) already burned. The Gate Chain v1.20 upgrade introduces support for EIP-4844, Cancun EVM, and multiple protocol improvements—marking a critical milestone in Gate’s All-in Web3 strategy.

Key Market Data Highlights

Crypto Market Faces Largest Liquidation of the Year, $1.8 Billion Wiped Out

According to data from CoinGlass, on September 22, more than 370,000 traders were liquidated for a total of $1.8 billion in the crypto market — marking the largest long-position liquidation event since September 2021. ETH and BTC positions dominated the liquidation data, with ETH liquidations exceeding $500 million, more than twice the losses of BTC long positions. The total crypto market cap dropped by $150 billion to $3.95 trillion. The liquidation was accompanied by a sharp decline in major tokens: BTC fell below $112,000 on major exchanges, while ETH dropped below $4,150, marking the steepest correction since mid-August. Liquidations typically impact blue-chip tokens and large projects, but this event also spread to other assets that had performed strongly in recent weeks, including the recently expanded ASTER, as well as WLFI, PUMP, and others. The liquidation effectively ended the altcoin season, with the Altcoin Season Index falling from its previous peak of 100 points last week down to 67 points.

Market analysts attributed the selloff to excessive leveraged build-ups, which often trigger large-scale liquidations after failed breakout attempts. BTC’s performance over the past week reflected more technical factors rather than fundamental weakness, with corrections seen as a process of digesting prior overbought conditions. Despite the decline, BTC is only 9.5% off its all-time high, compared to much deeper corrections in previous bull cycles. Historically, September has been a challenging month for BTC, with declines recorded in 8 of the past 13 years. Looking ahead, October has traditionally seen stronger BTC performance, earning it the nickname “Uptober.” On the macro level, supportive monetary policies continue to favor risk assets, including BTC, suggesting that this liquidation event may serve as a reset for sustained long-term trends.

Ethena TVL Surges Past $16 Billion, New All-Time High

According to DeFiLlama, the total value locked (TVL) for Ethena’s USDe and USDtb stablecoins has surpassed $16 billion, with USDe holdings slightly above $14 billion and USDtb at $1.83 billion. On September 12, Ethena Labs launched USDe and staked sUSDe on the Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain, marking a major cross-chain expansion.

USDe is now the third-largest circulating stablecoin, with a market cap of over $14 billion, up 145% from $5.7 billion in June. Between August 2024 and August 2025, USDe grew over 200%, outperforming Circle’s USDC (+87%) and Tether’s USDT (+39.5%) over the same period.

Ethena Labs’ synthetic stablecoin USDtb holds over 90% of its reserves in BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund. USDtb is currently the ninth-largest stablecoin, with a market cap of $1.8 billion.

Analysts suggest that exchange distribution, high APRs, and institutional interest are driving stablecoin adoption at a faster pace than traditional utility or governance tokens.

AVNT Surges 117% in the Past Week, Daily Trading Volume Exceeds $7B

AVNT has been grabbing headlines over the past week. The token plunged 53.09% in a single day, dropping to $1.7443, but still managed to skyrocket 117.13% over the week, doubling from $1.0141. Over the past month, it has soared 1,060.9%. These recent price swings highlight both its high volatility and the growing market attention it commands. Backed by a prolonged market uptrend, AVNT has maintained a strong upward trajectory for several months.

Technical analysis shows that despite the sharp midweek correction, key moving averages remained intact and critical resistance levels have been broken. According to DefiLlama, AVNT’s TVL jumped from $19.68M on Sept. 18 to $24.99M on Sept. 25, pointing to new deposits and staking activity. This suggests that it’s not just short-term traders driving the move, but liquidity providers are also backing AVNT’s rise. CoinGlass data further reveals that AVNT’s open interest now stands at $291.02M, far higher than the $16.63M level at the start of September. While Hyperliquid and its token have long dominated the DEX space, new challengers are beginning to emerge. As a leading DEX on Base with strong backing, many are comparing AVNT with Aster, which has already surpassed $3B TVL. Expectations are growing that AVNT could become the next major contender in the industry.

Funding Weekly Recap

According to RootData, between September 18 - 25, 2025, a total of 15 crypto and related projects announced funding rounds or M&A activity, spanning market infrastructure, Solana infrastructure, DEXs, and more. Fundraising activity remains elevated, highlighting sustained capital deployment in crypto infrastructure and asset tokenization. Top three deals:

Fnality

Announced a $136 million raise on Sept. 23, aimed at expanding its GBP settlement system into USD and EUR markets, targeting the $120 billion cross-border payments industry.

Fnality began as a research initiative exploring how distributed ledger technology (DLT) could transform financial markets by addressing slow, costly, and inefficient cross-border settlement. The project gained traction among a consortium of financial institutions under the “Utility Settlement Coin (USC)” initiative, with the goal of creating peer-to-peer digital cash assets to enable final settlement of tokenized transactions.

Zero Hash

Announced a $104 million raise on Sept. 23, intended to launch mainstream crypto trading services for E*Trade customers in H1 2026, while also building a comprehensive wallet solution.

Zero Hash is a B2B2C embedded infrastructure platform that allows any institution to natively integrate digital assets into their user experience. Neobanks, brokers, and payment firms can leverage Zero Hash to offer crypto trading & custody, crypto-based rewards, round-up spending features, and staking yield. Its turnkey solution manages backend complexities and compliance licensing, enabling platforms to quickly roll out crypto products.

GRVT (Gravity)

Announced a $19 million raise on Sept. 18, to advance privacy-first on-chain finance and unlock trillion-dollar opportunities by addressing long-standing industry challenges such as privacy gaps, security, scalability, and accessibility.

GRVT is an institutional-grade decentralized exchange (DEX), built by finance and tech veterans. It aims to provide institutional traders with a fully private, compliant (KYC/AML), self-custody trading platform.

Next Week to Watch

Token Unlocks

According to Tokenomist data, in the next 7 days (Sept. 25 – Oct. 2, 2025), the market will see several important large token unlocks. The top 3 are as follows:

• SUI will unlock tokens worth about $146M in the next 7 days, accounting for 1.23% of circulating supply.
• EIGEN will unlock tokens worth about $65.91M in the next 7 days, accounting for 10.89% of circulating supply.
• PARTI will unlock tokens worth about $26.62M in the next 7 days, accounting for 78.44% of circulating supply.
  
  
  References:

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/
• jin10, https://rili.jin10.com/
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/view/stablecoin/
• etherscan, https://etherscan.io/gastracker
• Coingecko, https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/announcements/article/47349
• Businesswire, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250924937314/en/SUI-Group-Repurchases-276296-Shares-Under-Newly-Authorized-%2450-Million-Stock-Repurchase-Program
• Globenewsire, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/09/23/3155137/0/en/SOL-Strategies-Inc-Announces-Up-to-C-25-Million-LIFE-Offering-of-Units.html
• Cryptopolitan, https://www.cryptopolitan.com/crypto-liquidations-altcoin-rally-cut-short/
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/crypto-market-suffers-dollar18b-liquidation-wave-as-bitcoin-tests-support
• 99Bitcons, https://99bitcoins.com/news/presales/is-it-all-over-for-hyperliquid-apx-aster-and-gmx-steal-thunder-next-100x-crypto/
• 99Bitcons, https://99bitcoins.com/news/presales/avnt-crypto-and-linea-skyrocket-ahead-of-monday-new-crypto-to-buy/
• Rootdata, https://www.rootdata.com/Fundraising
• Tokenomist, https://tokenomist.ai/

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