DeFi & L1L2 Weekly — 📈 Real-world assets surpassed US$17B in value; Uniswap launched v4 with hooks 

Real-world assets (RWAs) surpassed US$17B in value. Uniswap launched v4 with hooks. USDT integrates into Bitcoin ecosystem.

This week’s DeFi indices showed mixed movements, with the market capitalisation index declining -15.33%, while the volume and volatility indices grew +45.75% and +92.57%, respectively.

• Uniswap Labs announced that Uniswap v4 has gone live, introducing new features such as hooks and gas optimisations. Hooks are deployed contracts that allow developers to build custom logic for pools, swaps, fees, and liquidity provider positions, bringing deeper liquidity and more swaps.

Chart of the Week

According to rwa.xyz, the total value of real-world assets (RWAs) surpassed US$17 billion since 31 January, marking an over 11% increase year-to-date. It has remained above this level at the time of writing.

This uptrend is led by tokenised private credit, which is up 20.8% year-to-date, contributing to the largest share at 69.3% of the total RWA value. The increase came amid key financial leaders, including BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, touting the potential of tokenised RWAs and urging clear regulatory guidelines around them in the US.

News Highlights

• Tether announced the integration of USDT into Bitcoin’s ecosystem, including both its base layer and the Lightning Network. Supported by the new Taproot-powered protocol called Taproot Assets and developed by Lightning Labs, this integration will enable high-speed, low-cost transactions while combining Bitcoin’s robust security and scalability once complete.
• Securitize announced a partnership with asset management firm Apollo to tokenise investment opportunities, beginning with the launch of a new feeder fund, Apollo Diversified Credit Securitize Fund (ACRED). ACRED provides tokenised access to the Apollo Diversified Credit Fund, a diversified global credit strategy investing across corporate direct lending, asset-backed lending, and dislocated and structured credit.
• Ethereum‘s gas limit was raised to nearly 32 million gas units for the first time since late 2021. This increase was automatically implemented after over half of the validators signalled support without needing a hard fork.
• Ethereum’s client, Geth, released its Schwarzschild (v1.14.13) update, which addresses a vulnerability in the peer-to-peer layer that could lead to denial of service attacks on affected nodes and impact Layer-2 clients. 
• Cardano Foundation announced the activation of its Plomin hard fork. The upgrade enables Cardano token holders to delegate voting power to representatives who vote on governance actions, including protocol parameter changes, treasury withdrawals, and hard fork initiations, marking its transition to fully decentralised governance.
• Berachain Foundation announced that the Berachain mainnet will be launched on 6 February, and the Token Generation Event (TGE) will occur at the same time. 
• Injective introduced its native Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) layer, enabling compatibility with Ethereum’s decentralised applications. The Injective EVM is currently undergoing initial testing following the deployment of its private developer network; the final mainnet version is expected to launch later this year.
• ai16z Founder Shaw Walters announced the company’s rebranding to ElizaOS, following a request from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) to avoid brand confusion. This rebranding aims to further enhance collaboration with established players. The ai16z ticker will remain for now, with future changes subject to community voting once the decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) voting module is live.
• Solana-based meme coin launchpad Pump.fun is facing a new class action lawsuit alleging that it operated an illegal securities exchange by offering automated tools that assisted creators in launching more than 50,000 unregistered tokens.

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