Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market capitalisation increased by +3.21%, while the volume and volatility indices dropped by -5.43% and -47.15%, respectively.

Chart of the Week

Ethereum successfully activated the Fusaka upgrade on 3 December, marking its second major code change of 2025. The upgrade aims to improve network efficiency and reduce users' transaction fees, especially for L2 networks and during periods of high network activity. Key fee-reduction mechanisms included:

• An increased block gas limit from 45 million to 60 million (EIP-7935), to allow more transactions per block and reduce congestion.​
• Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) (EIP-7594), to lower per-validator load and allow the network to support larger blob capacity without increasing hardware requirements. Blob capacity for L2 rollups was expanded, directly driving down L2 transaction fees that could approach near-zero cost as blob capacity grows.​

The median transaction cost for some L2s has yet to reflect a significant change following the Fusaka upgrade. Further observation is required to assess the full impact on cost reduction.

News Highlights

• Crypto.com and 21Shares announced a strategic partnership to launch new investment products tracking the Cronos (CRO) token, including a private trust and ETF, aiming to expand regulated access to the Cronos ecosystem.
• Cronos Labs launched Cronos One, a unified onboarding hub that streamlines Web3 entry through bridging, wallet top-ups, and on-chain verification. Cronos One bridges TradFi and DeFi by creating a privacy-preserving verification layer that enables practical DeFi use for everyday transactions, while establishing foundations for decentralised identity, loyalty programmes, and Sybil resistance across the ecosystem.
• Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain backed by Stripe and Paradigm, launched its public testnet and announced partnerships with major financial institutions including Klarna, Kalshi, Mastercard, and UBS.
• Hyperliquid introduced direct USDC transfers across its HyperCore trading engine and HyperEVM smart contract layer, reducing reliance on the Arbitrum bridge and enabling native minting.
• Farcaster, a blockchain-based social platform, is pivoting from its social networking model to prioritise on-chain wallets after failing to achieve sustainable growth in the social space. After 4.5 years of attempting a ’social-first’ approach, co-founder Dan Romero announced the shift, citing that wallet features within the app have shown strong growth and represent the closest product-market fit the team has achieved.
• China’s Hua Xia Bank issued 4.5 billion yuan (US$600 million) in tokenised bonds, exclusively available to holders of China's digital yuan.
• Matter Labs announced plans to deprecate ZKsync Lite, its first-generation Ethereum L2, in early 2026, framing it as a planned sunset after successfully validating key zero-knowledge rollup concepts. ZKsync Lite, launched in 2020, was a proof-of-concept focused on basic token transfers. It has since been superseded by ZKsync Era, a more advanced zkEVM rollup released in March 2023.
• Solana-based proprietary automated market maker (AMM) HumidiFi scrapped its initial WET token presale after a bot farm sniped the entire supply in seconds, prompting the team to launch a new token on 8 December 2025. The new token will honour users on the ’wetlist’ and JUP staker airdrops, while the snipers will receive their initial funds back.

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