Gate DeFi Daily (November 11): Monad airdrops 3% tokens; Uniswap launches UNIfication proposal

On November 11, due to BTC dropping below $105,000 and ETH oscillating around $3,550, the overall DeFi market experienced a slight pullback. The total value locked (TVL) across the network decreased to $135.187 billion, down 0.76% over the past 24 hours, with capital flows becoming more cautious. Structurally, Aave maintained steady growth with a 1.05% increase, Spark saw a modest 0.10% rise, while liquidity staking protocols like Lido, EigenLayer, and ether.fi declined between 0.8% and 1.2%, indicating funds are migrating toward lower-risk assets amid volatility.

Decentralized exchange (DEX) activity remained high, with a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $15.916 billion. The top three platforms by volume were PancakeSwap ($3.894 billion), Uniswap ($3.371 billion), and HumidiFi ($1.411 billion). BNB Chain surpassed Ethereum for the second consecutive day, reflecting a reshaping of multi-chain liquidity structures.

Meanwhile, Monad disclosed details of its institutionalized ICO market-making structure; Uniswap announced the launch of the “UNIfication” governance plan; and Balancer proposed a v2 migration plan—these three events drew the most attention today, signaling that the DeFi market is transitioning from a phase of price volatility to one of structural adjustment.

DeFi Market Overview

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Total DeFi TVL across the network: On November 11, amid a slight correction in the crypto market, BTC fell below $105,000 and ETH hovered around $3,550; the current total DeFi TVL is $135.187 billion, down 0.76% in 24 hours.

24-hour DEX trading volume: approximately $15.916 billion, with the top three platforms being PancakeSwap ($3.894 billion), Uniswap ($3.371 billion), and HumidiFi ($1.411 billion).

Top Protocols and On-Chain Performance

Based on TVL, the top ten DeFi protocols are as follows:

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Notable protocols include:

• Aave: approximately $33.421 billion TVL, up 1.05% in 24 hours
• Lido: approximately $30.766 billion TVL, down 0.88%
• EigenLayer: approximately $14.782 billion TVL, down 0.98%
• Spark: approximately $9.332 billion TVL, up 0.10%
• ether.fi: approximately $8.656 billion TVL, down 1.16%
• Ethena: approximately $8.609 billion TVL, down 0.43%

In terms of protocol fees over the past 24 hours, the top projects are:

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Uniswap generated about $5.19 million in protocol fees, ranking third after Tether ($23.36 million) and Circle ($7.88 million). Hyperliquid earned around $3.6 million, ranking fourth, and Pump earned about $3 million, ranking fifth.

Major Project News

1. According to Coinbase’s official documents, Monad’s ICO became the first case where a large institution fully disclosed the market maker list, funding scale, and execution cycle. The documents state that MF Services (BVI) Ltd., the issuer of Monad, has signed token lending agreements with five market-making firms: CyantArb (50 million MON, 1 month), Auros (30 million MON, 1 month), Galaxy (30 million MON, 1 month), GSR (30 million MON, 1 month), and Wintermute (20 million MON, 1 year). Short-term agreements are renewable monthly, with Coinwatch acting as a third-party monitor to verify the usage and idle balances of these market-maker accounts.

Additionally, MF Services plans to utilize up to 0.20% of the initial MON supply to provide early liquidity support for some decentralized exchanges, aiming to improve tradability and market stability during token launch. This measure is part of the “ecosystem development” allocation, representing short-term liquidity injection and carrying DeFi market volatility risks.

2. According to 10x Research, the current crypto market is undergoing significant shifts. US regulatory clarity is improving, and billions of dollars in stablecoins are migrating to Ethereum, though prices have not yet reacted significantly. Data shows capital is accumulating rather than trading, indicating the early phase of a genuine cycle.

Since Trump’s election, Ethereum-based stablecoin issuance has surged by $48 billion, far exceeding Tron’s $15.8 billion, suggesting capital may be preparing for future deployment. Moreover, signals from user trading volume and TVL-based valuation models are more indicative than price alone, implying the market may be entering a new phase of DeFi.

3. On-chain analyst Yu Yan reports that recent hackers attacking Balancer have been converting ETH staked derivatives and other non-ETH assets into ETH over the past few days. The hacker’s wallet now holds approximately 25,300 ETH, worth about $91.69 million at current prices.

The Chinese community on GoPlus posted that the Balancer hacker exploited the Permit authorization to perform a “cloak and dagger” maneuver. Earlier this morning, the attacker used permit() to authorize the transfer of 195 stS tokens (worth about $3 million) from the frozen address 0xf19…fae2 to a new address 0x0e9c…44D5, then exchanged them for WBTC/ETH. The freeze was ineffective because it only affected native chain tokens (S tokens) and did not impact other ERC20 tokens like stS. The permit() method allows off-chain signatures that do not require the frozen address to pay for S tokens, leading to the freeze’s failure.

4. Megaeth member @bread_ posted on X that, based on historical data, if UNI enables the fee switch, 0.3% of LP fees will be split into 0.25% (LP) and 0.05% (UNI). With an annualized fee volume of about $2.8 billion, UNI would buy back approximately $38 million worth of tokens every 30 days. This amount exceeds Pump’s $35 million but is less than Hype’s $95 million.

5. Davide Crapis, head of AI team dAI under the Ethereum Foundation, announced that he is working with the Foundation’s management to develop the 2026 roadmap. The goal is to make Ethereum a global decentralized settlement and coordination infrastructure for AI, enabling autonomous agents and robots to trade, prove work, and collaborate under transparent rules, which anyone can audit and extend, safeguarding user sovereignty over identity, assets, and data.

The plan mentions that standards like ERC-8004 and x402 are emerging as neutral protocols for agent commerce, but realizing their full potential requires collaboration. Similar efforts are needed in other high-trust domains. Without Ethereum’s leadership, closed platforms or centralized entities could dominate and control the emerging AI economy.

6. Alexander, CEO of Dromos Labs behind Aerodrome and Velodrome, posted on X that he never expected the biggest competitor to make such a critical mistake on the day Dromos Labs’ milestone. DeFi influencer Cap’n Jack Bearow commented that Aerodrome might announce cross-chain expansion on Wednesday, while Uniswap’s fee switch could reduce LP profitability, benefiting Aerodrome’s competitiveness.

7. MegaETH co-founder Namik Murodoglu posted on X that any participant who locks tokens for over a year must meet these conditions: (1) acquire tokens with their own account without resale or transfer intent; (2) avoid illegal transfer, resale, or hedging transactions. Public discussions of OTC or hedging plans on Twitter will result in quota cancellation and full refunds. The oversubscription was 28x. Distributing tokens to those planning to resell before receiving them is pointless. Allocating tokens to committed holders willing to keep them until the lock-up ends benefits MegaETH and large holders.

8. According to Businesswire, SUI Group (NASDAQ: SUIG) announced a strategic partnership and lending agreement with Sui ecosystem DEX Bluefin. SUI Group will leverage its institutional network to promote Bluefin’s trading and lending products in traditional finance, accelerating entry for hedge funds, asset managers, and market makers. The agreement involves lending 2 million SUI tokens to Bluefin and receiving 5% revenue share paid in SUI tokens.

9. Balancer announced that following last week’s attack, it proposes a BIP to deprecate v2 stable pools and encourage LPs to migrate liquidity to v3. Balancer v3 remains fully operational and unaffected.

10. ZK Nation, a community on X, posted that the ZK token upgrade proposal “ZIP-14,” which includes a permissionless burn feature, has been submitted on-chain. The proposal will undergo a 3-day delay, with voting starting around 00:00 (Beijing time) on November 14.

11. The Block reports that Uniswap plans to activate the protocol fee switch following a proposal jointly submitted by Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation on Monday. The plan aims to reduce the supply of UNI tokens via mechanisms like token burns. The “UNIfication” proposal involves multiple measures: burning protocol fees earned from Uniswap’s DEX and Unichain sequencer, and burning 100 million UNI tokens held in the treasury—tokens that should have been burned after the fee switch activation. It also proposes preventing Uniswap Labs from earning fees through the interface, wallet, and API, with the Ethereum frontend having earned $137 million. The exact fee portion allocated for burning remains unclear, but annualized revenue from all versions could exceed $2 billion. Besides rewarding token holders, the plan intends to incorporate the nonprofit Uniswap Foundation into the development of the protocol and Unichain L2.

12. Monad announced its tokenomics plan, with 7.5% of total supply to be sold at a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of about $2.5 billion, and 3% allocated for airdrops. The remaining 89.2% will be distributed among the ecosystem fund, team, early investors, and treasury.

Leading DeFi Projects by Ecosystem

Solana DEX leads with approximately $4.309 billion in 24-hour trading volume, with the top three projects being:

• HumidiFi ($1.411 billion)
• Meteora ($1.047 billion)
• Orca ($561 million)

BNB Chain DEX ranks second, with a 24-hour volume of about $3.964 billion, surpassing Ethereum for two consecutive days, with a weekly increase of roughly 19%. Top projects include:

• PancakeSwap ($3.558 billion)
• Uniswap ($48.601 million)
• Pendle ($189.72 million)

Ethereum DEX volume is around $3.081 billion, with leading platforms:

• Uniswap ($1.816 billion)
• Fluid ($330.68 million)
• Curve Finance ($293.71 million)

Gate DeFi Token Price Overview

According to Gate’s market data, the top ten DeFi tokens by price performance on November 11 are:

• UNI: $8.57 (+23.01% in 24h)
• AAVE: $217.25 (-2.93%)
• WLFI: $0.1555 (+1.43%)
• MORPHO: $1.99 (-0.66%)
• INJ: $7.72 (-1.4%)
• MYX: $2.35 (-4.8%)
• CRV: $0.4927 (+0.22%)
• SYRUP: $0.4528 (-4.83%)
• 2Z: $0.1874 (-5.21%)
• BAT: $0.2214 (-3.4%)

Market Trend Analysis

1. Slight TVL correction, main protocols remain resilient

While overall DeFi TVL has dipped slightly, lending protocols like Aave and Spark still posted positive growth of 1.05% and 0.10%, respectively, indicating that funds are favoring stable, predictable-yield top protocols during short-term market fluctuations. Liquidity staking protocols such as Lido, EigenLayer, and ether.fi declined modestly, reflecting the immediate impact of ETH volatility on LSD ecosystems.

2. Divergence in DEX activity, BNB Chain and Solana stay ahead

Total DEX volume across the network is about $15.916 billion, with BNB Chain accounting for over 24%, surpassing Ethereum for two days in a row, highlighting PancakeSwap’s sustained activity. Solana DEXs generated $4.309 billion, demonstrating its high-performance chain’s ability to attract active trading capital. Ethereum DEXs remain steady around $3 billion, mainly concentrated in Uniswap and Curve.

3. Fee concentration in stablecoins and major DEXs

In the past 24 hours, Tether, Circle, and Uniswap earned protocol fees of $23.36 million, $7.88 million, and $5.19 million, respectively, showing that trading activity remains centered around stablecoins and leading protocols. Emerging protocols like Hyperliquid and Pump also rank in the top five, indicating growing activity in layer 2 ecosystems and new AMM protocols.

4. Project news highlights, liquidity and compliance focus

Monad’s disclosure of its institutional market-making system involving firms like Auros, Galaxy, GSR, and Wintermute signals a move toward standardized, transparent liquidity organization. Meanwhile, Uniswap’s “UNIfication” governance proposal aims to implement a fee switch and token burn, fueling token deflation expectations. Balancer’s decision to deprecate v2 stable pools and migrate to v3 reflects ongoing protocol governance and security improvements following recent security incidents.

( Analyst Insights

Short-term correction is normal; core funds remain stable

Despite the TVL decline, capital inflows into leading protocols persist, indicating the market’s correction is mainly profit-taking rather than systemic sell-off.

Monad’s institutional model may usher in a new era of ICO transparency

The disclosure of top market makers sets a precedent, potentially inspiring more projects to adopt similar transparent liquidity arrangements.

Fee switch plans in Uniswap could enhance token value capture

The “UNIfication” plan is seen as a milestone for protocol self-sustainability, combining token burn, revenue governance, and protocol development, likely boosting UNI’s long-term intrinsic value.

Security and governance evolution as industry benchmarks

Balancer’s swift response and migration proposal demonstrate protocol resilience. Analysts believe that security governance will be a key focus in the next phase of DeFi competition.

Conclusion

On November 11, the DeFi market is in a phase of “structural correction and reform initiation.” While TVL has slightly decreased, the liquidity landscape remains stable, with leading protocols continuing to attract capital. Initiatives like Monad’s institutional ICO, Uniswap’s deflationary governance plan, and Balancer’s security upgrades collectively mark a transition from high volatility to a new cycle emphasizing standardization and security in DeFi.