DeFi & L1L2 Weekly — 📉 Ethereum’s income from L2 blob fees reached its lowest level; Sony’s Soneium partnered with Animoca Brands to attract anime fans

Ethereum’s income from L2 blob fees reached its lowest level. Fidelity is creating its own stablecoin. Polymarket faced backlash over the prediction outcome of a Trump-Ukraine mineral deal.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market capitalisation index dropped by -7.48%, while the volume and volatility indices increased by +0.73% and +19.12%, respectively.

Chart of the Week

Ethereum’s income from Layer-2 (L2) blob fees dropped significantly, setting a new low for 2025. According to Etherscan and Dune, Ethereum only earned 3.18 ETH (~US$6,000) in blob fees in the last week of March, a 72% drop from the previous week, and a 96% decline compared to two weeks prior. This decline raised concerns about the post-Dencun revenue model, as Ethereum relies heavily on L2s for transaction throughput. The upcoming Pectra upgrade aims to change how Ethereum allocates blob space, potentially impacting fee revenue further.

News Highlights

• Fidelity is creating its own stablecoin as part of its strategy to enter the tokenised government bonds market. The company also recently filed for an on-chain version of its Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX) that consists almost entirely of US treasury bills.
• The team behind the Soneium blockchain partnered with Animoca Brands to attract anime fans to a metaverse experience supported by Sony. The collaboration aims to bring in users from the anime community via cultural engagements using NFTs and other digital assets.
• Sonic Labs cancelled plans for an algorithmic stablecoin in favour of a dirham-denominated alternative. This decision follows an announcement by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to launch its digital dirham central bank digital currency (CBDC) at the end of 2025. The strategy shift came after the original plan raised concerns about a potential repeat of Terra’s collapse.
• Polymarket faced controversy over a prediction market about a potential Trump-Ukraine mineral deal. The market unexpectedly settled towards ‘yes’ despite no deal being made. A whale allegedly used 5 million UMA tokens, which constituted 25% of the votes, to control the outcome via a governance attack. Despite strong criticism, Polymarket and UMA Protocol refused to refund users, citing no market failure.
• Hyperliquid came under scrutiny after a vault attack on 26 March resulted in approximately $6.2 million being extracted from the platform. The attack involved a trader shorting JELLYJELLY, then self-liquidating the short position by artificially increasing the token’s price to profit from the trade. Hyperliquid closed the market and settled positions at a profit, sparking controversy and claims of centralised control within the Hyper Foundation.
• Synthetix’s algorithmic stablecoin sUSD depegged from the US dollar and dropped to $0.92, which could be attributed to the removal of the peg stabilisation mechanism and the dynamics introduced by the SIP-420 proposal. Previously, SNX stakers could buy depegged sUSD to repay their debt at a discount. By shifting to a collective minting model, lowering the collateralisation ratio, and locking stakers into a 12-month debt forgiveness period in SIP-420, the arbitrage incentive that supported the peg was removed.

Recent Research Reports

• Research Roundup Newsletter [February 2025]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our deep dives into ‘Will Be Another Asset’ and ‘Institutional Crypto Market: From Liquidity to Global Adoption’.

• 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.