Gate Decentralized Finance Daily (, September 17: TVL once again falls below $160 billion, MYX big pump 45% leading the zone.

As of September 17, the total DeFi TVL across the network slightly decreased to $159.485 billion, falling below the $160 billion mark, with market funds remaining cautious overall. DEX trading volume shrank to $16.374 billion, down nearly 19% day-on-day, indicating a decrease in short-term activity. At the protocol layer, Pump protocol fees remain high, while leading projects like Pendle and Ethena maintain steady growth. Notably, in the token market, MYX experienced a big pump of over 45%, becoming the biggest highlight of the day in the zone, indicating that funds are still searching for high-yield opportunities in specific emerging tracks.

DeFi Market Overview

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Total DeFi TVL across the network: After several days of continuous decline, it has fallen below 160 billion USD, currently at 159.485 billion USD, with a 24H slight decrease of 0.27%.

DEX 24-hour volume: approximately $16.374 billion, a decline of about 18.7% compared to the previous day ($19.433 billion). The top three are: Uniswap ($3.41 billion), PancakeSwap ($2.783 billion), Meteora ($1.241 billion).

Popular Protocols and On-chain Performance

According to TVL, the top ten DeFi protocol data is as follows:

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Among them, the top-ranked protocol data performance is as follows:

Aave: TVL approximately $41.053 billion, a rise of 3.54% over the past week;

Lido: TVL approximately 38.985 billion USD, increased by 4.31% over the past week;

EigenLayer: TVL approximately 19.36 billion USD, with a rise of 2.79% over the past week;

Ethena: TVL approximately 13.773 billion USD, rose 3.45% in the past week;

Pendle: TVL approximately 13.056 billion USD, rise of 9.42% in the past week.

In addition, the top ten projects ranked by protocol fees in the past 24 hours are as follows:

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Among them, the Pump protocol fees in the past 24 hours reached 6.12 million USD, ranking third after Tether and Circle; Aave ranked fourth with protocol fees of 4.26 million USD in the past 24 hours; Uniswap made it into the top five with 3.39 million USD.

Project News Overview

1. Hyperliquid perpetual contract is live with SKY, supporting up to 3x leverage.

2. Movement Labs officially transforms into an L1 blockchain to enhance performance, support native staking, and launch Move 2.0.

3. Sui announced that it has become one of the first partners of Google's newly launched Agentic Payments Protocol (AP2) - this standard allows AI agents to conduct transactions on behalf of users. Google has released a new payment solution aimed at making it easier for different AI applications to send and receive funds. This open-source protocol supports not only traditional payment methods like credit cards and debit cards but also stablecoins.

4. The trading volume of the decentralized derivatives trading platform Hyperliquid has now reached about 14% of the top CEX trading volume.

5. DWF Labs' Falcon Finance announced the establishment of an independent entity, the FF Foundation, which has full jurisdiction over all FF Tokens. The unlocking and distribution of tokens will be conducted according to a fixed schedule, managed by an independent mechanism to ensure fairness and consistency.

6. Circle invests in HYPE, plans to become a network node validator, and explores the HyperEVM and HIP-3 incentive program.

7. Circle announced that the native USDC and CCTP V2 have been launched on HyperEVM, allowing developers, institutions, and traders to access USDC on HyperEVM.

8. Maple and Plasma announced the launch of a $200 million syrupUSDT deposit pool, aimed at providing initial support for liquidity while offering exclusive XPL rewards to participants. The deposit pool will officially open at 21:00 Beijing time on September 16, with a lock-up period of 2 months and a minimum deposit of $125,000. Supported assets include syrupUSDT, USDT, or USDC, and it is open to all users without permission. With the launch of the Plasma mainnet, participants will also have the opportunity to engage in Plasma DeFi, providing additional syrupUSDT returns. On the first day, there will be $2 billion available for lending.

9. Kaito founder Yu Hu tweeted that the recent Boundless (ZKC) initial public sale distribution did not meet user expectations. The Kaito team sincerely apologizes for this and points out that the main issues include: distribution delays, high Ethereum Gas fees during the use of smart wallets, and wallet loading failures due to traffic overload.

The allocation delay is due to integration issues with the partners, resulting in a delay of approximately 1.5 hours for the distribution of tokens in users' wallets; some users experienced high Ethereum Gas fees during the initialization of smart wallets and while using them, mainly due to short-term Gas peaks on the Ethereum network and the consumption during smart wallet initialization. The surge in traffic also caused website congestion, affecting transactions and transfers.

To compensate users, Kaito will refund 120% of the Gas fees to users who have already withdrawn or traded. Users who have not yet operated will also receive additional Gas limits, which can be fully withdrawn on Base. The team recommends that users check their smart wallets and confirm refunds before 24:00 Beijing time, and provides support through the Discord community.

10. The decentralized trading platform Aster announced that the ASTER Token airdrop claim will open at 5 PM Beijing time on September 17, the APX Token swap for ASTER will start at 6 PM, and the Token trading will go live at 8 PM.

11. The liquidity incentive program BonkFun USD1, jointly launched by WLFI and BONK, has been launched. As the largest USD1 pool of BonkFun and the first USD1 trading pair ICM protocol, Freya Protocol announced that 100% of the revenue from the USD1 trading pair will be used for a matching incentive mechanism for buybacks, aiding the popularization and ecological growth of USD1.

Overview of Major Leading DeFi Projects

Solana DEX's 24-hour volume remains at the top, approximately 4.332 billion USD, with a rise of 30.82% over the past week, and the top three projects are:

Meteora ($1.241 billion), HumidiFi ($766.37 million), Raydium ($539.14 million);

Ethereum DEX ranks third in 24-hour trading volume, approximately 3.191 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

Uniswap ($1.487 billion), Fluid ($678.56 million), Curve Finance ($346.81 million);

Base DEX's 24-hour volume ranks in the top four, with a rise of 15.24% over the past week, approximately 1.476 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

Aerodrome ($631.18 million), Uniswap ($573.28 million), PancakeSwap ($227.47 million).

Gate DeFi zone Token market data

According to the data on the Gate market page, the price performance of the top ten tokens in the DeFi zone is as follows:

(Source: Gate DeFi Sector Quotes)

As of September 17, the cryptocurrency market shows signs of recovery, with varying performances of tokens in the DeFi zone, specifically:

UNI is currently priced at 9.28 USD, with a 24-hour fall of 0.11%;

WLFI is currently reported at 0.2173 USD, with a 24-hour fall of 2.89%;

AAVE is currently reported at 297.01 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 0.28%;

MYX is currently at $15.84, with a 24-hour rise of 45.19%, standing out uniquely;

INJ is currently priced at $13.75, with a 24-hour rise of 0.64%;

CRV is currently priced at 0.729 USD, with a 24-hour fall of 1.07%;

MORPHO is currently reported at 2 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 2.33%.

Market Trend Interpretation

TVL falls below the integer threshold: The total DeFi TVL across the network has dropped to 159.485 billion USD, continuing the slight adjustment trend, with overall market risk preference becoming cautious.

Volume decline: DEX 24-hour volume has dropped to 16.374 billion USD, a decrease of 18.7% compared to the previous day, indicating a decline in short-term capital activity and an increase in market wait-and-see sentiment.

Solana maintains its lead, Ethereum falls: Solana DEX volume is approximately $4.332 billion, continuing to rank first; Ethereum DEX volume is $3.191 billion, showing a significant pullback; Base volume remains at $1.476 billion, indicating that the ecosystem still has financial support.

Protocol Hotspot Continues: The Pump protocol's 24-hour fees reached $6.12 million, continuing to rank in the top three; Maple and Plasma jointly launched a $200 million pre-deposit pool, strengthening on-chain credit; Circle increases investment in the HyperEVM ecosystem, promoting stablecoin applications.

Analyst Views

Analysts believe that TVL falling below $160 billion may intensify cautious market sentiment, and in the short term, funds are more likely to concentrate on projects with clear incentives or growth expectations.

Some opinions point out that the continued trading activity of Solana and Base shows that funds are still positioning in emerging ecosystems, especially as Base may continue to attract attention due to the anticipated potential token mechanism.

Researchers emphasize that the big pump of MYX highlights the preference for small-cap high-growth Tokens, but it also means a higher concentration of risk, and investors need to pay attention to short-term fluctuations.

In the medium to long term, protocols such as Pendle, Ethena, and Pump are continuously innovating through cross-chain, fee switching, and incentive models, and are seen as the core driving force of the next phase of Decentralized Finance.