Weekly DeFi Index

This week, market cap, volume and volatility indices increased by +1.27%, +4.37% and 55.11%, respectively.

• Ethena (ENA) formed strategic lending partnerships with Anchorage and Maple Finance to overhaul its USDe reserves, signaling a shift toward more sophisticated, institutional-grade backing for synthetic stablecoins.
• Morpho (MORPHO) introduced “Morpho Agents” in beta, enabling AI systems to interact directly with its DeFi lending protocols on Ethereum and Base through read, simulate, and write capabilities.
• Chaos Labs terminated its risk management partnership with Aave (AAVE), citing disagreements over risk management, inadequate funding, and the operational strain following the departure of other core contributors. Having managed Aave's risk since 2022, the firm stated it operated at a loss for three years and required at least $8 million to sustain work on V3, V4, and institutional services — exceeding Aave Labs' $5 million offer.
• Solana aggregator Jupiter (JUP) launched an Express Verification API, aiming to improve user safety and listing efficiency by automating the token verification process.

Chart of the Week

Non-USD stablecoin supply on Ethereum surpassed $760 million by February 2026, a 10.8% increase compared to January 2023. However, Ethereum’s share of the non-USD stablecoin supply dropped to 65% as of February 2026, down from 88% in early 2023, according to data from Dune. In the same period, Solana’s share of the supply grew from 4.9% to 13.7%. This data reflects an increasingly diversified stablecoin landscape, with other blockchains gaining traction even as Ethereum maintains its foundational role.

News Highlights

• Solana-based perpetuals exchange Drift Protocol reported a vault exploit resulting in an over $280 million loss. Drained assets included stablecoins, wrapped Bitcoin, liquid staking tokens, JLP, and meme coins, indicating a full collateral sweep. The protocol attributed the exploit to a sophisticated six-month social engineering campaign.
• Ethereum Foundation reached its 70,000 ETH staking target after committing an additional $93 million in Ether, moving toward a self-sustaining funding model through staking rewards.
• Circle plans to launch "cirBTC," a wrapped Bitcoin token aimed at providing a regulated, institutional-grade bridge to bring Bitcoin liquidity into DeFi.

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