Gate Decentralized Finance Daily ( September 19, ): MetaMask confirms issue coin; Plasma announces TGE date, Aave V4 to launch in Q4.

On September 19, in the recovery market after the Fed's interest rate cut, the DeFi market entered a phase of consolidation. The total TVL across the network slightly decreased to $161.73 billion, with a minor drop of 0.06% over 24 hours. The total trading volume of DEX fell back to $17.299 billion, a decrease of 8.7% month-on-month. In terms of on-chain patterns, Ethereum DEX surpassed Solana again with a daily trading volume of $3.861 billion, reclaiming the top spot; Meteora, Fluid, and Pendle remain active. Overall, the DeFi zone tokens showed mixed performance, with CRV and MORPHO rising against the trend, while MYX experienced a rollercoaster with a big fall of nearly 25%.

DeFi Market Overview

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Total DeFi TVL across the network: After the Fed announced a 25 basis point interest rate cut, the crypto market showed signs of recovery, with the total DeFi TVL returning above $160 billion, currently at $161.73 billion, a slight decrease of 0.06% in the last 24 hours.

DEX 24-hour volume: approximately $17.299 billion, a decrease of about 8.7% compared to the previous day ($18.938 billion). The top three are: Uniswap ($3.315 billion), PancakeSwap ($2.851 billion), and Meteora ($1.322 billion).

Popular Protocols and On-Chain Performance

Based on TVL, the data of the top ten DeFi protocols is as follows:

(Source: DeFiLlama)

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

Aave: TVL approximately 42.459 billion USD, daily increase of 1.51%;

Lido: TVL approximately 39.052 billion USD, decreased by 0.69% in a single day;

EigenLayer: TVL approximately $19.334 billion, daily decrease of 1.02%;

Ethena: TVL approximately 14.084 billion USD, daily increase of 2.06%;

Pendle: TVL approximately 13.375 billion USD, daily growth of 1.87%.

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

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Among them, Ethena's protocol fees reached 13.34 million dollars in the past 24 hours, leading the way, second only to Tether; Pump ranked fourth with protocol fees of 3.72 million dollars in the past 24 hours; Uniswap ranked fifth with 3.71 million dollars.

Project News Summary

1. According to official data, the daily active users of the pumpfun App have risen by over 450% in the past 90 days.

2. According to the official announcement, the voting for the implementation of a delay upgrade penalty for upgrading MKR to SKY has officially started. If the vote passes, starting from September 22, 2025, all operations to upgrade MKR to SKY will incur a 1% upgrade penalty. Thereafter, the delay upgrade penalty will gradually increase by 1 percentage point every three months.

3. Digital asset financial service provider Hex Trust announced that it has integrated custodial and staking support for Lido stETH (liquid staking token issued through the Lido protocol). This integration combines Lido's liquid staking protocol with Hex Trust's institutional-grade custodial platform. The move aims to ensure that clients can securely earn staking rewards while maintaining liquidity, as stETH can be used in decentralized finance ( DeFi ) applications. Additionally, this initiative aims to eliminate the operational overhead of institutions managing their own staking infrastructure.

4. Consensys CEO Joe Lubin stated, "The MetaMask Token is about to be launched, and it may arrive "sooner than you expect."

5. Arthur Hayes received 796,383 ETHFI from the investor allocation address, worth 1.297 million dollars.

6. Pendle's multi-signature wallet (0x811...6ee1) transferred 1.2 million PENDLE to CEX again, worth 6.44 million USD.

7. The hybrid crypto trading platform GRVT announced the completion of a $19 million Series A financing round, led by ZKsync and Further Ventures, with participation from EigenCloud and 500 Global. The new funds will help GRVT expand its product range, covering cross-trading platform vaults, cross-chain interoperability, and plans to utilize the programmable privacy features of EigenDA.

8. Monad announces the launch of the ecosystem incentive program Monad Momentum, with the first round of applications closing on September 28. The Monad Momentum program utilizes an incentive-driven matching model, meaning project recipients participate, and the team first invests its own resources, with Monad Momentum playing a supplementary role. The team must have a good track record of providing high-quality products, rich experience, and effective capital allocation measures to combat gaming behavior.

9. Plasma has released a video teaser, announcing that the TGE will occur at 8 AM Eastern Time on September 25, and the mainnet will go live. After the mainnet Beta version launches, the Plasma team will additionally distribute 25 million XPL tokens to reward small deposit users who complete Sonar verification and participate in the public sale. The official team has also reserved 2.5 million XPL for existing and future members of the stablecoin alliance. Furthermore, on the first day of Plasma's launch, $2 billion worth of stablecoins will be put into use. The funds will be deployed across more than 100 DeFi partner platforms, including Aave, Ethena, Fluid, Euler, and others. The goal is to achieve instant utility: value-preserving savings, a deep USD market, and the industry's lowest USD lending rates.

10. Robinhood US will list CRV.

11. Aave has released an update to its roadmap, indicating that V4 will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year. V4 will introduce the ERC-4626 standard for asset accounting and will launch a modular Hub-and-Spoke framework to maximize efficiency while controlling complexity. It is reported that ERC-4626 is a token standard that improves the technical parameters of yield-bearing vaults. It provides a standard API for yield vaults representing shares of a single underlying ERC-20 token.

Overview of Major Eco-Head DeFi Projects

Ethereum DEX 24-hour volume surpasses Solana to return to the top, approximately 3.861 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

Uniswap ($1.456 billion), Fluid ($1.057 billion), Pendle ($417.63 million);

Solana DEX ranks second in 24-hour volume, approximately $3.534 billion, with the top three projects being:

Meteora ($1.322 billion), Raydium ($673.17 million), Orca ($662.05 million);

Base DEX ranks fourth in 24-hour trading volume, approximately 1.893 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

Aerodrome ($778.48 million), Uniswap ($535.65 million), PancakeSwap ($230.77 million).

Gate DeFi zone Token market data

According to the data from Gate's 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 19, the cryptocurrency market is down more and up less, with mainstream coins like AVAX rising against the trend due to positive news; the tokens in the DeFi zone show mixed performance, specifically:

UNI is currently at $9.35, with a 24-hour fall of 2.44%;

WLFI is currently at 0.2221 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 0.22%;

AAVE is currently reported at 307.01 USD, with a 24-hour fall of 0.41%;

MYX is currently reported at 12.86 USD, with a 24-hour fall of 24.89%;

INJ is currently at 14.38 USD, with a 24-hour fall of 0.66%;

CRV is currently priced at 0.7937 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 2.07%;

MORPHO is currently reported at 2.2 dollars, with a 24-hour rise of 6.34%.

Market Trend Analysis

TVL remains relatively stable: Against the backdrop of loose macro policies, the total locked value in DeFi maintains at the level of 161.7 billion dollars, with no significant outflows of funds.

DEX volume differentiation: The total volume has decreased to $17.299 billion, with Ethereum DEX regaining the top position, and mainstream liquidity is concentrating towards the ETH ecosystem.

Protocol Performance is Steady: Aave, Ethena, and Pendle achieved daily growth on average, demonstrating a balanced allocation of funds between yield-generating and lending protocols. Ethena's 24-hour protocol fees are far ahead, highlighting its potential.

Token Market Polarization: CRV rises by 2.07%, MORPHO rises by 6.34%, showing resilience; MYX plunges by 24.89%, becoming the biggest risk point in the market.

Project News Focus Upgrade and TGE: Plasma announced TGE on September 25 and will launch the mainnet, with $2 billion stablecoins to be deployed on the first day; Aave announced V4 roadmap update, with the new version officially launching in the fourth quarter; MetaMask confirmed token issuance, attracting attention for the "largest airdrop in history."

Analyst's Viewpoint

Researchers have pointed out that the current DeFi market is in a "capital wait-and-see period," with TVL stable but lacking new inflows. In the short term, the trend will still follow the macro environment and the progress of leading projects.

Analysts believe that Ethereum DEX has returned to the top of the volume rankings, indicating that funds are more inclined to concentrate on mainstream assets and leading protocols in the context of declining risk appetite.

Institutional views indicate that the Plasma TGE and Aave V4 upgrade will become two key catalysts in the recent market, respectively strengthening the "stablecoin liquidity" and "lending protocol efficiency" core tracks.

Market commentators remind that although some tokens like CRV and MORPHO are rising against the trend, the significant fall of MYX highlights the high volatility risk, and investors need to cautiously assess the risk exposure of a single protocol; in the future, particular attention can be paid to the dynamics of MetaMask, as its token issuance plan is bound to ignite a new round of airdrop frenzy.