DeFi & L1L2 Weekly — 📈 Solana’s daily DEX trading volume beat Ethereum’s by 84%; Sony launched its L2 blockchain, Soneium 

Solana’s daily DEX trading volume beat Ethereum’s by 84%. Sony launched its L2 blockchain, Soneium. Compound integrated Ethena’s stablecoin and Mantle’s liquid staking token.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week’s DeFi indices showed negative movements, with the market capitalisation, volume, and volatility indices dropping -8.87%, -15.27%,and -13.36%, respectively.

• Compound Finance (COMP) approved the integration of Ethena’s USDe stablecoin and Mantle’s mETH liquid staking token (LST) into its ecosystem. This integration aims to leverage the increasing popularity of yield-bearing stablecoins and staking tokens in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space. 
• Aave (AAVE) announced the launch of Aave V3 on the Aptos testnet, marking the protocol’s first deployment outside the Ethereum network. A testnet phase will validate Aave V3’s safety, stability, and performance on Aptos ahead of a potential mainnet launch.

Chart of the Week

According to DeFiLlama, Solana’s daily decentralised exchange (DEX) trading volume recorded US$4.18 billion on 15 January, surpassing Ethereum’s $2.27 billion by 84%. Raydium took the lead with $1.97 billion in trading volume, followed by Lifinity with $676.7 million.

Solana’s trading volume rise is likely driven by heightened network activity and a surge in meme coin trading. Additionally, the total value locked (TVL) on Solana significantly increased, surpassing $9.5 billion on 5 January to reach a three-year high.

News Highlights

• Sony Block Solutions Labs announced the launch of its Layer-2 (L2) mainnet, Soneium, as part of a comprehensive Web3 update that includes a rebrand of their crypto exchange and the release of an NFT issuance platform. The Soneium mainnet leverages Optimism’s OP Stack technology and seeks to foster a diverse ecosystem of decentralised gaming, finance, and entertainment apps.
• The Arbitrum decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) has received unanimous support from community members for its proposal to introduce Arbitrum BoLD, a new dispute resolution protocol that replaces the current version. The new network will be more resilient to transaction delays, and voting will conclude on 24 January.
• Singapore became the latest country to impose restrictions on Polymarket, after the US, France, and Taiwan. Singaporean users experienced issues accessing the site and were directed to a warning that deemed the use of Polymarket as illegal under the country’s Gambling Control Act. Violators could potentially face penalties of up to S$10,000, six months in prison, or both.
• Stablecoin issuer Usual Protocol switched to a revenue-sharing model in response to community backlash after its staked stablecoin, USD0++, sharply de-pegged from $1. The de-peg occurred following the introduction of a new floor price mechanism and exit options, which prompted sell-offs and community debate. Through the revenue switch, Usual Protocol will share its estimated monthly earnings of $5 million with the community, translating to an annual percentage return (APR) of more than 50%.
• Babylon Labs, the team behind the bitcoin staking protocol, Babylon, announced its collaboration with Bitcoin development team Fiamma to develop a trust-minimised Bitcoin bridge on the Cosmos network. The project uses a BitVM2 computing paradigm, which enables Ethereum-style smart contracts on Bitcoin to improve interoperability between chains.
• Shytoshi Kusama, the lead developer of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, announced the launch of WHY Combinator, a decentralised programme designed to find, incentivise, and empower meme coin projects. The initiative will focus on different areas like artificial intelligence (AI), Web3 gaming, and decentralised identity solutions.

Recent Research Reports

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Recent University Articles

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