This last week was filled with a ton of launches and updates from the projects.
We see assets still holding their value, without any major drawdowns after last week’s surge. This trend appears to continue as broader positive sentiment timidly surfaces.
Some of the biggest updates this week came from Ethena, including USDe backing, ENA buybacks, and more. With that, we also cover in this week’s Chronicle:
Solana’s Disinflation double proposal passed, which means staking rewards and $SOL issuance will decrease.
Hyperliquid is in talks with Kraken parent company, Payward, to launch in the U.S. market.
Revolut launched a Euro-backed stablecoin EURR.
Rain Card Infrastructure hack, which led to $1.1 million in lost value.
On our Radar: Robinhood DEX Activity touched its all-time high, with Fomo and Pons revenue peaking as well; Kamino launched a Fixed-Rate market private beta, Wintermute Baskets, and Morpho and In-Kind Redemptions.
More yield for USDe, ENA buybacks, and a Neobank
Equity perpetuals in crypto have grown to over $6 billion in open interest and pay 15-20% in funding on average. Ethena already executes crypto basis, which is part of its portfolio and represents 14.5% of USDe backing, but with equity basis, the yield sUSDe earns can increase due to higher funding rates.
Source: https://app.ethena.fi/dashboards/transparency
Current funding rates across major venues like Hyperliquid, Binance, Bybit, OKX, and Bitget for equity perps average around 15%. However, the net yield boost sUSDe gets depends on Ethena’s strategy execution and the portion of the portfolio they allocate to the equity basis.
Another interesting update around Ethena is about its governance token ENA. Ethena Foundation recently announced four critical changes around the asset that change its dynamics.
The foundation bought back seed investors’ ENA.
Ethena’s IP now comes under the DAO and is governed by tokenholders.
ENA programmatic buybacks based on USDe supply, starting once supply reaches $7.5 billion.
Removal of unlock overhang through the release of any unvested VC tokens.
Another cool update came from Ethena today: Ethena Pay, its neobank, launched in partnership with Avax as a settlement layer.
Can my crypto card get hacked?
Most crypto cards use Rain card infrastructure. They had a vulnerability in their outdated Solana contract, which led to a $1.1 million hack of user funds. The biggest impact was on Avici and Tria, neobanks using Rain infrastructure, as their users lost $500k and $430k, respectively.
Though both cards have now refunded their users in full plus 10%, it points to multiple dependencies in the system that could break at any time, leading to user losses.
Crypto card spending is every growing and last month touched $1.1 billion. The category is expected to grow even more because of its large TAM, so protocols need to audit their dependencies better to keep user funds safe at all times.
Solana Disinflation Doubled
Last week, Solana passed a major proposal doubling $SOL disinflation from 15% to 30% per year. The proposal barely passed with 67% “for” votes, above the 66.67% threshold.
This proposal ultimately reduces $SOL issuance and the staking rewards. Solana projects to reach a 1.5% inflation rate as its benchmark rate. This proposal accelerates the road there, targeting H1 2029 instead of H1 2032 and reducing the SOL issuance by 18 million. For staking rewards, it is expected to decline from the current 5.84% to 2.25% by year 3.
Stablecoins beyond USD
The stablecoin category is heavily skewed towards dollar-denominated stablecoins, with over $300 billion in circulation primarily represented by USDT and USDC.
Only 0.5% of the stablecoins in circulation are non-USD-pegged, totalling $1.55 billion, led by A7A5, a RUB-pegged stablecoin, and EURC and EURCV, Euro-pegged stablecoins.
This leaves plenty of room to experiment with non-USD stablecoins. To compete in this market, Revolut also recently launched EURR, which is euro-backed and currently has a market cap of $600k.
We expect non-USD-denominated stablecoins to thrive as well because demand is growing and they currently represent a small market share that can easily expand.
On the Radar
We launched a report on fixed-rate lending covering different fixed-rate and fixed-maturity products in DeFi at the design level. While DeFi solved the problem of getting instant loans against collateral, it couldn’t solve the problem of knowing the cost of borrowing before the loan is over. Read the full report here: https://docsend.com/v/sjv2g/fixed-rate-lending
Last week, in the White House, President Trump announced that they are bringing Hyperliquid to the U.S. in a regulated manner. Now Hyperliquid is in talks with Kraken Parent, Payward, to establish a U.S. entity where registered users can trade.
Fomo touched another ATH revenue of $950k yesterday as Robinhood volumes surged. On top of this, Fomo also touched $1 billion in weekly volume last week.
Robinhood DEX activity is continuously touching higher peaks, with today’s volume already being over $1.5 billion. This growth is also reflected in tokenised equities on the chain, which are being paired with memecoins and attracting volume through it.
PONS touched its ATH revenue of $1 million a few days ago. Now it trades at a P/S multiple of 4.2, which is higher than Pump, which trades at 2.64.
LayerZero announced ATLAS (Aggregated Trading Liquidity and Settlement), which would act as a backend infrastructure handling order matching, clearing, settlement, and risk management in a single venue. Exchanges can build on top of ATLAS, benefiting from its already built-out infrastructure.
Morpho went live with In-Kind Redemptions, enabling users to exit the vault even when it becomes illiquid.
Kamino launched its Fixed-Rate Markets private beta. The protocol extends existing variable-rate protocols, making fixed-rate borrowing additive. It introduces a reserve grid that lets lenders and borrowers express intent across rate, duration, and size.
Wintermute launched Custom Basket Swaps, bringing multi-asset exposure into one synthetic position so institutions can manage entry, resizing, and exit at the basket level.
That’s the wrap.
Meet you next week.
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In our newsletter, we may discuss projects or tokens in which we hold positions. While we aim to provide informative content, our views are not financial advice. Please conduct your research and consult professionals before making investment decisions. Crypto markets are volatile, and past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. Invest responsibly, and be aware of the risks. Your capital is at risk, and we do not accept liability for any losses.