DeFi & L1L2 Weekly — 📈 Hyperliquid’s trading volume grew by 32% MoM; Tether launched gold-backed stable XAUt0 on TON

Hyperliquid’s trading volume rose by 32% MoM; Tether launched gold-backed stablecoin XAUt0on TON. Sui validators voted to implement a hard fork of the chain.

Quick Take

• Hyperliquid’s weekly trading volume surged by 32% month-over-month, accounting for 80% of the decentralised perpetuals trading market in the last week of May.
• Tether launched XAUt0, an omnichain gold-backed stablecoin on TON, to facilitate cross-chain transfers without wrapping.
• Consensys acquired Web3Auth to improve the user experience in the MetaMask Wallet and accelerate support for non-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains like Solana and Bitcoin.
• Sui validators approved a proposal to implement a hard fork of the Sui blockchain to recover US$162M after the Cetus Protocol was hacked.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market capitalisation, volume, and volatility indices showed a decrease of -6.20%, -6.22%, and -14.38%, respectively.

• Rocket Pool integrated with the Ronin blockchain via Chainlink, allowing for cross-chain transfers of its liquid staking token, rETH, between Ethereum and the network.

Chart of the Week

Hyperliquid’s trading volume totalled $248 billion in May, surging by 32% month-over-month. Its weekly trading volume accounted for about 80% of the on-chain perpetuals trades in the last week of May. Additionally, Hyperliquid’s total value locked (TVL) doubled from $751.54 million at the end of April to around $1.54 billion at the time of writing.

News Highlights

• Tether launched XAUt0, an omnichain version of its gold-back stablecoin, on The Open Network (TON), allowing for cross-chain transfers. Backed by physical gold stored in a Swiss vault, the newly launched token competes with its Ethereum-based version, XAUt, Paxos’s Pax Gold (PAXG), and traditional gold ETFs. 
• Consensys, the developer of the MetaMask Wallet, acquired wallet infrastructure provider Web3Auth to enhance MetaMask’s user experience. This integration is expected to speed up MetaMask’s support for non-EVM chains like Solana and Bitcoin. 
• Sui validators voted to implement a hard fork of the blockchain to restore $162 million in stolen funds to the previously hacked Cetus Protocol. The vote ended within two days due to overwhelming support from validators representing 90% of the funds staked. The move has been compared to Ethereum’s hard fork following its hacking incident in 2016. Cetus Protocol aims to restart operations within a week. 

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.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining the Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback helps make our reporting more insightful. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter by taking the survey below. It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you!

Authors

Research and Insights Team

Get the latest market, DeFi & NFT updates delivered to your inbox:

Be the first to hear about new insights:

Disclaimer

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.