DeFi & L1L2 Weekly — 🚀 Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade successfully deployed on the Sepolia testnet; pump.fun saw a significant drop in token launches

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade deployed on the Sepolia testnet; Pump.fun saw a significant drop in token launches; World Network’s messaging app introduced intra-network fund transfers.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, market capitalisation, volume, and volatility indices dropped by -18.00%, -8.45%, and -48.54%, respectively.

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• Unichain, the Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) blockchain launched by Uniswap, saw a significant surge in active addresses over the past 30 days, reaching over 250,000 addresses at the time of writing. This growth is attributed to the US$45 million liquidity incentive programme, which is part of the Uniswap Foundation’s $165 million initiative to supercharge the adoption of Uniswap V4 and Unichain.
• The Aave decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) sought feedback on the creation of sGHO, a low-risk savings product built on its GHO (GHO) stablecoin. The former would help grow the latter’s market capitalisation by providing yield based on the Aave Savings Rate, and sGHO is minted by locking GHO tokens into a smart contract with no deposit or withdrawal fees.

Chart of the Week

Solana memecoin launchpad Pump.fun saw a significant decline in activity, with 12,611 addresses creating tokens and a total of 26,533 tokens launched on March 11. This marked a 73% and 63% drop from its peak in active addresses and launched tokens since 23 January 2025, respectively. The decline was coincident with tumultuous market movements, which saw large-cap meme coins like Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) and Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) dipping 90% from their all-time highs.

News Highlights

• Ethereum‘s Pectra upgrade was successfully deployed on the Sepolia testnet and the Holesky testnet reached finality after weeks of disruption, both of which were important developments towards the mainnet activation. The latter is currently being pruned of old states to ensure node stability.
• World Network, a blockchain venture led by OpenAI’s Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, introduced World Chat, a messaging app that enables users to connect and send money to verified individuals within the network.
• Digital asset management firm Bitwise, which has over $12 billion in assets under management, made its first institutional allocation to decentralised finance (DeFi) through Maple Finance, a real-world asset (RWA) protocol specialising in on-chain credit.
• Decentralised exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch experienced a critical smart contract breach on 5 March that resulted in the theft of $5 million. Negotiations with the hacker led to the successful recovery of the stolen funds, with the hacker keeping a portion as a bug bounty.

Recent Research Reports

• Alpha Navigator: Quest for Alpha [February 2025]: Asset performance was mixed. Crypto and Equities led the drop, while Real Assets and Fixed Income increased. Eurozone, Australia, and New Zealand cut interest rates; China kept rates unchanged.

• Wall Street On-Chain Part 1 – Will Bitcoin be Another Asset?: Bitcoin has made a solid run in the past year to widen the gap between its performance against altcoins. It is also often described as ‘digital gold’ for being seen as a store of value and potential hedge against inflation. Based on its recent developments and adoption in institutions, this report explores if BTC could become another new asset and examines potential contenders to bitcoin.

• The Evolution of the Institutional Crypto Market: From Liquidity to Global Adoption: This article presents the institutional crypto market, focusing on liquidity and global adoption.

Recent University Articles

• Ethereum vs Cardano: Comparing Two Leading Programmable Blockchains: Explore the differences between Ethereum and Cardano, two leading programmable blockchains.

• How Does Inflation Influence the Cryptocurrency Market?: Discover how inflation impacts the cryptocurrency market, from Bitcoin’s role as ‘digital gold’ to central bank policies.

• APY vs APR — What Do They Mean?: Learn the differences between Annual Percentage Yield (APY) and Annual Percentage Rate (APR) in the crypto market.

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