DeFi & L1L2 Weekly — 📈 Solana’s weekly DEX trading volume rebounded by 34%; FIFA teamed up with Avalanche to launch its Layer-1 blockchain

Solana’s DEX TVL rebounded in May with Raydium taking the lead; FIFA teamed up with Avalanche to launch its L1 blockchain for digital collectibles; Circle unveiled the Circle Payments Network.

Quick Take

• Solana saw strong growth in May with its decentralised exchange (DEX) trading volume up 34% and its total value locked (TVL) climbing to nearly US$10 billion. Its growth was mainly fuelled by activity on pump.fun and Raydium. 
• FIFA collaborated with Avalanche to create a new Layer-1 (L1) chain focused on digital collectibles.
• Circle collaborated with Santander and Deutsche Bank to enable real-time cross-border USDC payments, with the aim of ultimately replacing the SWIFT system.
• Dubai unveiled a $16 billion real estate tokenisation project on XRP Ledger, which records property deeds on-chain. 
• Centrifuge launched deJTRSY, a tokenised US Treasury product that can be traded as collateral across Raydium, Kamino, and Lulo. 

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market capitalisation and volatility indices dropped by -4.86% and -11.49%, respectively, while the volume index grew by +14.17%.

Chart of the Week

Solana made a strong comeback in May with its TVL climbing to nearly $10 billion. The weekly DEX trading volume also rebounded to around $30 billion last week, a 34% increase compared to the last week of April, a period of tariff tensions between the US and China. However, the weekly and monthly DEX trading volume still lags behind its weekly peak of around $129 billion in the week of 23 December 2024 and the monthly peak of $118 billion in January 2025. 

Raydium and pump.fun led Solana’s DEX activity over the last month. The trading activity of Raydium’s DEX and its new launchpad, Launchlab, grew by 50% and 111%, respectively. Similarly, the trading activity of pump.fun’s new DEX, PumpSwap, increased by 50%. 

News Highlights

• Avalanche partnered with FIFA to build the football association’s new L1 chain for NFTs and digital fan engagement. FIFA is also migrating its digital collectibles platform, FIFA Collect, from Algorand to the new blockchain. This move comes after FIFA announced its plans to launch the new network in April. 
• Circle launched Circle Payments Network (CPN), a mainnet that offers cross-border payments using USDC. Through partnerships with banks like Banco Santander and Deutsche Bank, Circle aims to replace the SWIFT system with CPN’s real-time, always-on settlement for institutions. 
• Dubai launched a real estate tokenisation platform on XRP Ledger, allowing fractional property ownership of title deeds recorded on-chain as part of a $16 billion digitisation plan.
• Solana staking protocol Marinade unveiled Marinade Select, a compliant staking platform for institutions. It was chosen as the exclusive staking solution for the Canary Marinade Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF), which gives US investors regulated exposure to SOL and the ability to earn staking rewards generated through Solana’s Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism. 
• Centrifuge launched deJTRSY, a tokenised US Treasury product, on Solana. The token can be traded and used as collateral across Solana-based protocols, including Raydium, Kamino, and Lulo, enhancing real-world asset adoption. 
• VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenised Web3 projects on the Avalanche blockchain. Known as the VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, the financial instrument will invest funds into liquid tokens and back projects across various Web3 sectors.
• Bitcoin Layer-2 protocol Bitlayer partnered with top Bitcoin mining pools to support its BitVM implementation, a framework for deploying complex smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain. 
• Sui-based DEX, Cetus, suffered a suspected exploit that drained assets worth over $200 million. Cetus confirmed that $223 million in assets were stolen while another $162 million were frozen. The Sui Foundation and other ecosystem members are currently collaborating to recover the funds.

Recent Research Reports

• Research Roundup Newsletter [April 2025]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our deep dives into ‘The Rise of Crypto Treasury’ and ‘Wall Street On-Chain Part 3: Trading & Liquidity’.
• The Rise of Crypto Treasury: This report examines the conceptual framework, global adoption trends, and stock performance of companies embracing crypto treasuries.
• Wall Street On-Chain Part 3: Trading & Liquidity: This report compares liquidity between popular TradFi assets and major crypto assets, and delves into the development of crypto exchanges.

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