Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap, volume and volatility indices dropped by -0.99%, -32.35% and -51.57%, respectively.

• Ondo Finance partnered with Broadridge Financial Solutions to introduce proxy voting for tokenized stocks and ETFs, bridging a critical gap between traditional corporate governance and blockchain-based asset ownership.
• Sky proposed a transition to a "rules-bound" treasury management model, shifting from irregular governance-determined spending to a predictable, revenue-linked expense structure.

Chart of the Week

The stablecoin market is currently showing a notable divergence in on-chain activity. While the total supply, number of holders, and active addresses are all increasing, the volume of transfers is declining.

Stablecoin total supply grew by 1.3% to reach $323 billion on April 27. Monthly active addresses also saw an approximate 4.4% increase. However, the adjusted transaction volume dropped by around 7%, settling at $6.9 trillion over the last 30 days.

The decline in transfer volume coincided with specific supply trends among major issuers. USDT led the supply increase with +$5.9 billion, followed by XAUT at +$2.6 billion and PAXG at +$2.3 billion. Conversely, decreases were led by Ethena’s USDe with a drop of -$2.1 billion, followed by PYUSD at -$443 million.

News Highlights

• Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) launched the Stablecoin Reserves Portfolio (MSNXX), a government money market fund designed as a regulated repository for stablecoin issuer reserves. The fund invests exclusively in high-quality, liquid instruments  — such as the U.S. Treasury bills and repurchase agreements — maintaining a stable $1 net asset value to eliminate price volatility while offering daily liquidity. This move positions Morgan Stanley as a key infrastructure provider in the stablecoin ecosystem, offering a regulated reserve management solution that may become mandatory as U.S. legislation progresses.
• Western Union is preparing to launch a U.S. dollar stablecoin, USDPT, in May to modernize its interbank settlement infrastructure. CEO Devin McGranahan clarified that the stablecoin, — built on the Solana blockchain and issued in partnership with Anchorage Digital — is initially designed for B2B use to replace the legacy SWIFT settlement network with agents rather than for direct consumer transactions.
• DeFi United, a coalition formed in response to the Kelp bridge exploit, released a technical implementation plan to restore backing for the rsETH token. Key components of the recovery plan include:
• • Restoring Backing: Convert committed Ether (ETH) into rsETH in tranches and depositing it into the affected bridge lockbox, allowing normal bridge operations to resume.
  • Collateral Recovery: It plans to liquidate approximately 107,000 rsETH across seven exploiter-linked Aave and Compound positions to cover the shortfall.
  • Technical Execution: To facilitate controlled liquidations, the rsETH oracle price will be temporarily adjusted. Recovered collateral will move to a DeFi United multisig. After the oracle is restored, these funds will clear deficits in affected markets.
  • Funding and Support: The initiative has secured over $302M in commitments. Aave Labs requested 30,765 ETH frozen by the Arbitrum Security Council be released to support the effort. LayerZero and Kelp added security measures before the bridge's full return to operation.
• Tether introduced the Mining Development Kit (MDK), an open-source, modular framework aimed at standardizing Bitcoin mining operations and reducing vendor lock-in for hardware and software management.
• Volo Protocol, a Sui-based liquid staking protocol, reported a $3.5 million exploit affecting three isolated vaults. The team successfully froze approximately $2 million of the stolen funds and intends to absorb the remaining losses to protect users.

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