Gate Decentralized Finance Daily ( September 18, ): Fed cuts interest rates to boost the market, TVL returns to $162.5 billion; CRV leads the rise in the Decentralized Finance zone.

After the Fed announced a 25 basis point rate cut, the crypto market as a whole rebounded, with a return of funds to DeFi. The total DeFi TVL across the network returned to 16.2598 billion USD, with a 24-hour growth of 1.82%. DEX volume rose to 18.938 billion USD, an increase of 15.7% day-on-day, indicating a significant improvement in market trading activity. On-chain performance, Solana DEX continues to hold the top position in trading volume, and the Base ecosystem maintains high growth; in the token market, CRV experienced a big pump of 8.2%, becoming the leading token in the DeFi zone for the day, while mainstream protocol tokens like AAVE and INJ also generally rose.

DeFi Market Overview

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Total DeFi TVL across the network: After the Fed announced a 25 basis point rate cut, the crypto market shows signs of recovery, with the total DeFi TVL returning above $160 billion, currently at $162.598 billion, a 24H rise of 1.82%.

DEX 24-hour volume: approximately 18.938 billion USD, up about 15.7% from the previous day (16.374 billion USD), with the top three being: Uniswap (4.276 billion USD), PancakeSwap (3.425 billion USD), Meteora (1.376 billion USD).

Popular Protocols and On-Chain Performance

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

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Among them, the top-ranked protocol data performances are:

Aave: TVL approximately 42.031 billion USD, monthly rise 15.81%;

Lido: TVL approximately $39.324 billion, monthly growth 5.20%;

EigenLayer: TVL approximately 19.532 billion USD, monthly growth 0.93%;

Ethena: TVL approximately 13.799 billion USD, monthly rise 18.99%;

Pendle: TVL approximately 13.13 billion USD, monthly rise 39.14%.

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

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Among them, Uniswap's protocol fees in the past 24 hours reached 6.06 million USD, second only to Tether and Circle, once again ranking in the top three; Pump ranked fourth, with protocol fees of 4.85 million USD in the past 24 hours; Hyperliquid ranked fifth with 4.02 million USD.

Project News Review

1. According to the monitoring by Shield, the NGP Token of New Gold Protocol was attacked, resulting in a loss of approximately 2 million USD. The price of the NGP Token dropped 88% within an hour. The attacker has deposited the stolen funds of 443.8 ETH into the privacy protocol Tornado Cash.

2. Meteora officials confirmed in the community Discord that JUP stakers will be eligible for the MET Token airdrop. Previously, Meteora announced that the TGE will take place in October.

3. According to monitoring by the blockchain analysis platform Bubblemaps, the top five traders of the new Token STBL launched by Tether co-founder Reeve Collins are correlated and have profited over 10 million dollars.

Its analysis states that the top five profit-making traders of STBL received funding support at the exact same time, which was 1 year and 187 days ago. The funding source was obtained through Tornado Cash, and then a bot borrowed USDC from Venus Protocol, with total profits exceeding 10 million dollars. Bubblemaps added that there is currently no concrete evidence to suggest that these traders are associated with the core team, and this bot organization has previously profited from other tokens.

4. According to a report by The Block, DeFi Development Corp has once again purchased 62,745 SOL, worth approximately 14.6 million USD. The total amount of SOL held by the company has exceeded 2 million, valued at nearly 500 million USD. The company currently has about 25 million shares outstanding, which calculates its "per share corresponding SOL value" indicator to be about 19.44 USD. If the warrants issued in the recent financing round are included, the total number of shares for DFDV will increase to 31.5 million. The company intends to continue "staking the recently acquired tokens to multiple validation nodes," including the Solana validation node operated internally.

5. Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov proposed a new plan called "Yield Basis" to issue 60 million USD crvUSD stablecoins to support the operation of three Bitcoin trading pools. Specifically, the plan will return up to 65% of the income to veCRV holders and allocate 25% of the "Yield Basis" tokens to the Curve ecosystem. At the time of this proposal, Michael Egorov was under scrutiny due to multiple CRV liquidation events, including a massive loss of 140 million USD on June 1 and a loss of 882,000 USD in December.

6. L1 network Mavryk Network announced the completion of a $10 million financing, led by MultiBank Group. Mavryk Network will expand its real-world assets (RWA) tokenization plan, to tokenize real estate in the United Arab Emirates valued at over $10 billion through MultiBank's RWA platform.

7. The decentralized trading platform Aster announced that the ASTER Token has officially launched for trading on Aster Spot today at 20:00. Users can now claim the ASTER Token and receive it directly in their Aster Spot spot trading account. The withdrawal function for ASTER will be open on October 1.

8. Superform Labs announced the completion of a $1.4 million community round of financing through the Echo platform, with Polymer Pals leading the investment and Tea Club and Tachyon participating. Superform is a permissionless cross-chain yield market that allows DeFi protocols to list their treasuries or asset pools, where crypto users can deposit funds into these treasuries and earn yields.

9. Wormhole announced the Token 2.0 upgrade. The announcement stated that Wormhole will bring the on-chain and off-chain protocol revenue and value generated by Wormhole, Wormhole Portal, and ecosystem applications into W, and will contribute the proceeds to the Wormhole reserve.

In addition, Wormhole 2.0 redefines yields. W holders who continuously contribute to governance will soon start to receive more stable yields. While the rewards for Staking are variable, holders can earn higher rewards by becoming active users of ecological applications. The yields will come from a combination of the existing Token supply and protocol revenue. W will not introduce inflation, and the total supply cap remains at 10 billion.

Starting from October 3, 2025, the unlocking frequency of W will change from a significant fluctuation of once a year to once every two weeks, making it smoother and more predictable. Wormhole contributors ensure that investors and Guardian validators comply with the protocol for an additional 6 months before October 2028. Although core contributor tokens will unlock WF every two weeks, all agreements with these entities will still follow the original annual unlocking schedule.

10. Nasdaq-listed company DeFi Dev Corp (DFDV) announced an increase in its holdings of 62,745 SOL, bringing its total SOL holdings in the treasury to 2,095,748 coins, valued at approximately $499 million as of September 16, 2025.

11. Falcon Finance opens registration for the FF Token claiming wallet. The team stated that users must register their wallets before September 28, 2025, 23:59 (UTC). This step is mandatory, and wallets not registered before the deadline will lose their eligibility to claim. In addition, the top 200 winners from Miles and Yap2Fly, as well as Kaito stakers, can check the token claiming results at this stage, but claiming is not yet open.

12. Data shows that pumpfun spent 14,098.99 SOL (approximately 3.297 million USD) yesterday to repurchase 405.9 million PUMP. Since starting to repurchase PUMP on July 15, a total of approximately 10.08 million USD worth of PUMP Tokens have been repurchased, which has reduced the total circulating supply by 6.794%.

Overview of Major Leading DeFi Projects

Solana DEX has maintained its position at the top with a 24-hour volume of approximately $4.398 billion, a 26.7% rise over the past week, with the top three projects being:

Meteora ($1.376 billion), Orca ($1.047 billion), Raydium ($687.73 million);

Ethereum DEX ranks third in 24-hour trading volume, approximately $3.357 billion, with the top three projects being:

Uniswap ($1.705 billion), Fluid ($604.95 million), Pendle ($285.24 million);

Base DEX 24-hour volume ranks in the top four, with a rise of 19.94% over the past week, approximately 2.033 billion dollars, among which the top three projects are:

Aerodrome ($971.34 million), Uniswap ($665.74 million), PancakeSwap ($362.35 million).

Gate DeFi zone Token market data

According to the data from 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 18, at the time of publication, the crypto market has rebounded overall, with tokens in the DeFi zone rising broadly, specifically:

UNI is currently reported at 9.57 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 3.56%;

WLFI is currently reported at $0.2225, with a 24-hour rise of 2.58%;

AAVE is currently reported at 308.68 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 4.43%;

MYX is currently reported at 16.89 dollars, with a 24-hour rise of 2.66%;

INJ is currently priced at 14.51 dollars, with a 24-hour rise of 5.96%;

CRV is currently reported at 0.7842 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 8.2%;

MORPHO is currently reported at 2.07 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 4.24%.

Market Trend Analysis

TVL rises to $162.5 billion: The Fed's interest rate cut releases a loose signal, driving capital back into the crypto market and pushing the total locked value of DeFi back above the key threshold.

DEX trading activity increases: The 24-hour volume reached $18.938 billion, with Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and Meteora ranking in the top three, indicating a growing demand for multi-chain ecosystem trading.

Protocol performance is stable: Leading protocols like Aave and Lido maintain positive monthly growth, with Pendle's monthly increase reaching 39.14%, highlighting its sustained advantage in the yield sector.

Token Market Broadly Rises: CRV rises 8.2%, performing the strongest in the DeFi zone; AAVE, INJ, MORPHO, etc. all have rises of 4%–6%, and market sentiment has clearly warmed up.

Ecological Pattern Differentiation: Solana volume of 4.398 billion USD continues to lead, Base DEX volume of 2.033 billion USD grew nearly 20% in a week, further narrowing the gap with Ethereum.

Analyst Insights

Analysts believe that after the Fed cuts interest rates, the risk appetite for funds has increased, and the DeFi zone is benefiting simultaneously, with short-term prospects for a continued rebound, signaling the arrival of the altcoin season.

Researchers have pointed out that the strong performance of Solana and Base indicates that funds are spreading from a single main chain to a multi-chain ecosystem, cross-chain liquidity has become a new growth point in the market. Ethereum's competitors are catching up, and Solana has repeatedly topped the DEX trading volume charts.

Market commentators emphasize that the short-term big pump in CRV prices is mainly stimulated by the new proposal from Curve, but its long-term trend still depends on the improvement of protocol revenue.

Institutional analysis believes that Pendle's rapid growth demonstrates the capital-raising effect of yield protocols. If the interest rate environment remains loose in the future, yield-based DeFi projects may welcome a new round of capital influx.