Gate Decentralized Finance Daily ( September 12, ): Meteora October TGE; Ethena daily fees exceed 13 million USD.

On September 12, the DeFi market overall warmed up, with the total TVL returning above 160 billion USD, and DEX trading volume maintained at 16.1 billion USD. Meteora continues to lead the Solana ecosystem with expectations for TGE and Airdrop, with daily trading volume exceeding 1 billion USD; WLFI announced a buyback and burn proposal, strengthening the long-term value narrative. Meanwhile, protocols such as Ethena and Pendle have performed outstandingly in terms of revenue and TVL rise, showing that funds are concentrating towards yield-generating protocols.

Decentralized Finance Market Overview

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Total DeFi TVL across the network: returning above 160 billion USD, currently at 160.283 billion USD, with a 24H rise of 2.7%.

DEX 24-hour volume: approximately 16.113 billion USD, with the top three being: Uniswap (3.348 billion USD), PancakeSwap (2.4 billion USD), Hyperliquid (1.143 billion USD).

Popular Protocols and On-Chain Performance

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

(Source: DeFiLlama)

The performance data of the top-ranked protocols are as follows:

Aave: TVL approximately 4.1194 billion USD, rise of 4.75% in the past week, 24-hour fees approximately 3.3 million USD;

Lido: TVL approximately 39.2 billion USD, rise of 4.19% in the past week, 24-hour fees approximately 3 million USD;

EigenLayer: TVL approximately $19.524 billion, rise of 2.45% in the past week, and approximately $620,000 in fees over the last 24 hours;

Ethena: TVL approximately $13.549 billion, rise of 6.2% over the past week, with 24-hour volume around $13.47 million, far exceeding other projects;

Pendle: TVL approximately $12.321 billion, a rise of 10.41% over the past week, with a significant increase, and 24-hour fees of about $100,000.

Project News Review

1. Aave founder Stani Kulechov posted on social media that the Aave protocol's revenue has been continuously rising in recent years: $5.22 million in 2022, $22.54 million in 2023, and expected to reach $90.42 million in 2024. As of 2025, it has already achieved $86.27 million in revenue, which will soon exceed last year's total.

2. Guy Young, the founder of Ethena Labs, posted on social media that through direct communication with community members and validator nodes, Ethena Labs has seriously considered some key issues, namely:

· Ethena is not the native team of Hyperliquid.

· Besides USDH, Ethena has other product lines.

· Ethena's vision is not limited to collaboration with a single trading platform.

In light of the current situation being nearly clear, Ethena Labs will respectfully withdraw the proposal so that verification nodes can freely support other options.

3. World Liberty Financial has released a new proposal that requires all fees generated from the Protocol Owned Liquidity (POL) of WLFI to be used for repurchasing WLFI on the open market and implementing a permanent burn. It is reported that the “owned liquidity” refers to fees generated solely from the liquidity controlled by WLFI, and fees from community and third-party liquidity providers (LPs) are not affected.

In simple terms, WLFI officially collects fees generated from its own liquidity positions on chains such as Ethereum and Solana. These fees are used to repurchase WLFI tokens in the market, and the repurchased tokens are transferred to a burn address to achieve a permanent reduction in supply.

The official stated that if this proposal is passed, WLFI will use this as the basis for a continuous buyback and burn strategy. As the ecosystem develops, we will explore incorporating revenue sources from other protocols into this plan, gradually expanding the scale of WLFI buybacks and burns.

4. Ant Group's CTO Yan Ying announced the launch of the “Agentic Contract” at the 2025 Inclusion Bund Conference Token Economy Forum, which will be natively deployed on its next-generation Layer 2 blockchain Jovay. “This is a fundamental upgrade for smart contracts,” she stated, noting that smart contracts will transition from “automation” based on preset rules to “autonomy” with environmental awareness and dynamic decision-making capabilities, facilitating the intelligent leap of the global value network.

5. The SSV team released a detailed post-event analysis of two recent forfeiture incidents, with the monitoring system first marking a forfeiture event on Wednesday at 11:51 UTC. About 90 minutes later, a larger forfeiture event affected 39 validators. Investigations show that both incidents originated from external factors related to the SSV protocol and were clearly associated with validator key management.

In the two incidents, the larger one is related to the long-term staking service provider Ankr, which acknowledged that due to a configuration error in operational maintenance, the validator keys were active simultaneously in two different infrastructures, leading to this penalty. The company immediately shut down the affected operators and collaborated with SSV Labs to confirm the root cause. The smaller incident involves validators that were previously migrated from the custody service provider Allnodes, which is still under investigation, but investigators suspect that auxiliary validator settings may have also played a role.

Alon Muroch, CEO of SSV Labs, stated that the validator penalty incident did not harm the SSV protocol, and operators or stakeholders need not take any action. Reviewing the logs of the two incidents, no signs of double signing or faults on the SSV end were found.

Overview of Major Ecosystem Leading DeFi Projects

Solana DEX 24-hour volume has ranked first for five consecutive days, at approximately $4.435 billion, with the top three projects being:

Meteora ($1.055 billion), HumidiFi ($756.1 million), Orca ($704.09 million);

Ethereum DEX ranks second in 24-hour trading volume, with approximately $3.085 billion, among which the top three projects are:

Uniswap ($1.619 billion), Fluid ($488.98 million), Curve Finance ($235.09 million);

Base DEX ranks fourth in 24-hour trading volume, approximately 1.523 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

Aerodrome ($710.89 million), Uniswap ($480.07 million), PancakeSwap ($321.98 million).

Gate DeFi Sector Token Market Data

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

(Source: Gate DeFi Sector Quotes)

As of September 12, the cryptocurrency market has overall rebounded, with the DeFi sector experiencing a broad rise. Specifically:

UNI is currently priced at 9.99 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 1.51%;

WLFI is temporarily reported at 0.2002 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 0.1%;

AAVE is currently reported at 309.79 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 2.00%;

MYX is currently reported at 17.5 USD, with a 24-hour decline of 7.43%;

INJ is currently priced at 14.21 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 0.59%;

CRV is currently priced at 0.8234 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 4.09%;

MORPHO is currently reported at 2.10 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 2.8%.

Market Trend Interpretation

TVL returns to 160 billion USD, market rebound signals strengthen.

The total DeFi TVL across the network reports 160.283 billion USD, rising 2.7% in the last 24 hours, indicating signs of capital inflow. The DEX 24-hour volume is approximately 16.113 billion USD, still dominated by Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and Hyperliquid.

Meteora volume leads Solana ecosystem

Solana DEX daily volume reached 4.435 billion USD, ranking first among all public chains for five consecutive days. Among them, Meteora contributed 1.055 billion USD, continuing to hold a core position in the ecosystem, with market expectations for its TGE and Airdrop significantly boosting liquidity.

WLFI buyback and burn plan strengthens long-term narrative

The new WLFI proposal shows that all fees generated from the protocol's own liquidity will be used for market buybacks and token burns, permanently reducing supply. Although this mechanism helps to enhance long-term value, the WLFI price only slightly rose by 0.1% on September 12, facing short-term volatility and consolidation pressure.

Ethena protocol revenue far exceeds its peers, Pendle rise is remarkable

The TVL of the Ethena protocol has reached 13.549 billion USD, with a daily income exceeding 13.47 million USD, continuing to lead the industry. Pendle's TVL has increased by over 10% in a week, reaching 12.321 billion USD, showing that the capital activity in the yield sector is continuously heating up.

Analyst Opinions

Analysts believe that the recovery of the DeFi market on September 12 was mainly led by the overall rebound of the crypto market. Additionally, the expected influx of funds driven by the Meteora TGE and the narrative effect of the WLFI buyback and burn plan also played a role.

The activity level of the Solana ecosystem is the most prominent in the current market, with Meteora becoming an important hub for capital flow; in terms of yield protocols, Ethena's income ability and Pendle's rapid expansion are gradually attracting more capital.

Overall, the DeFi market has entered a phase of capital differentiation: liquidity is concentrated in the Meteora and Solana ecosystems, the value capture logic is led by WLFI, and the yield-driven growth track is dominated by Ethena and Pendle.

Overview

Overall, on September 12, the DeFi market, driven by a rise in liquidity, saw the TVL return above $160 billion, with Solana's ecosystem continuing to lead in activity. The expected TGE of Meteora and the buyback and burn narrative of WLFI have become market focal points, while Pendle and Ethena represent a growth direction of “fixed income + income capture.” In the short term, the market may remain active under incentives and emotional drives, but from a long-term perspective, security and governance remain core considerations for the development of DeFi.