Space Review | When Trading Returns to On-Chain, Decoding the Core Logic of the New Cycle in the DeFi Ecosystem

As market narratives gradually fade, industry focus is returning to the essence: trading behaviors continue to settle on-chain, liquidity begins to shed short-term incentives, and moves toward a healthier endogenous cycle. In this transition, what kind of system can truly carry value and retain users becomes the core question of the current cycle.

Against this backdrop, DeFi, especially decentralized trading systems, has once again become the center of discussion. This is not only a rotation of hot topics but also a structural shift in driving logic. This is precisely the critical stage SUN.io ecosystem is entering—shifting from an innovative concept to a trading and financial protocol that genuinely possesses the capacity to carry and circulate liquidity.

This issue of SunFlas Roundtable revolves around the theme “Trading behaviors returning on-chain, liquidity beginning to form an endogenous cycle, why does the new cycle focus on the DEX ecosystem?” Engaging in in-depth dialogue with multiple industry observers and builders, the discussion features diverse perspectives colliding and corroborating, forming a consensus that the market is shifting from “narrative-driven” to “structure-driven,” and providing an in-depth analysis of how SUN.io is building a sustainable financial protocol ecosystem. Below is a summary of the core content of this dialogue.

When the tide recedes: why is the market refocusing on the fundamental value of DeFi?

In the discussion on Space, all guests agreed that when market incentives retreat and sentiment cools, DeFi’s re-emergence as a market focus is fundamentally due to the industry shifting from emotion and narrative-driven to valuing sustainable, verifiable on-chain financial structures.

TianTian pointed out that the overall contraction of market liquidity makes investors more focused on “real value.” She observed that current on-chain trading volume has significantly shrunk, and funds are no longer blindly chasing short-term hot spots but are paying more attention to projects with genuine trading, real settlement, and real user demand. She believes that the core task of DeFi is to reliably transplant traditional financial functions onto the chain through trustworthy smart contracts, thereby building a sustainable foundation in an environment of capital scarcity.

OxPink further describes this shift as “a return to value.” He states that after market enthusiasm wanes, projects sustained solely by stories and subsidies are quickly eliminated, and industry attention naturally shifts to systems that can reliably complete trading and settlement regardless of market conditions. The competitive logic thus fundamentally changes: from competing in narrative ability to competing in who can provide genuine trading depth and settlement reliability.

Mr. MiSi confirms this trend from the perspective of market participants. He notes that even “yield farming” users now pay more attention to the core background and user experience of projects, and narrative-based projects are becoming less favored. The current focus has shifted to structural issues such as capital efficiency, protocol revenue, and risk control. He believes DeFi is returning to its essence of “verifiable, sustainable” transparent financial infrastructure—projects that can generate fee income continuously during bear markets and have been repeatedly validated by the market will naturally re-emerge during the cooling period.

In summary, the retreat of market funds and sentiment has essentially completed a natural screening and value discovery process. Industry attention has shifted from superficial price fluctuations and short-term stories to the fundamental reliability, sustainability, and real utility of on-chain financial systems. The “return” of DeFi is, in fact, the market’s reaffirmation of its long-term value as a foundational infrastructure in the crypto world amid cyclical fluctuations.

Building a sustainable ecosystem, decoding SUN.io’s practical path

As the discussion deepens, the guests’ views converge into a clear consensus: the market-driven logic is undergoing a fundamental shift from “narrative priority” to “structure priority.” A healthy ecosystem capable of enduring cycles must be built on genuine demand, transparency, trustworthiness, and efficient collaboration. The standard for excellent trading systems has also shifted from conceptual innovation to stable, smooth, reliable user experience. This evolution of dual recognition points to the core proposition of DeFi’s new stage—sustainability.

Overall, a sustainable and cycle-transcending ecosystem is built on three pillars:

Transparent and Trustworthy Infrastructure

Wang FengAnc pointed out that the underlying logic of ecosystem operation must be clear and verifiable, which is the starting point of all trust. Web3 CaicaiZi also stated that transparent on-chain settlement and genuinely auditable transaction behaviors are prerequisites for ensuring fund security and ecosystem health. Any “black box” operations will expose fundamental flaws in long-term development.

Genuine Demand-Driven Collaborative Network

Guests unanimously agree that false prosperity built solely on short-term incentives cannot last. A healthy ecosystem must have real transaction demand and deep liquidity as engines, forming a sustainable revenue and growth flywheel. Meanwhile, organic collaboration among products and deep community governance form the backbone of ecosystem evolution, ensuring efficient expansion in bull markets and resilience in bear markets.

User Experience-Centered Capital Efficiency

Mr. MiSi approached from the most direct perceptual level, pointing out that system “usability” has become a basic threshold for user retention. This is specifically reflected in extreme execution efficiency (low slippage, high transaction success rate) and smooth, stable interactions. On a deeper level, whether capital can be efficiently and repeatedly utilized within the ecosystem—rather than becoming static deposits—determines the system’s long-term attractiveness and liquidity depth.

This series of industry consensus on sustainability has been systematically practiced and mapped in SUN.io’s development path.

In building transparent and trustworthy infrastructure, SUN.io strictly adheres to the core principle of on-chain verifiability. All its trading and liquidity rules are defined and executed by smart contracts, allowing users to trace the flow and state changes of funds. This thorough on-chain transparency is the first cornerstone for establishing trust.

Furthermore, SUN.io extends this principle to the ecosystem governance layer by establishing the decentralized community organization SUN DAO. Composed of SUN token holders, it makes key decisions through secure, transparent on-chain voting mechanisms, truly realizing co-creation, co-governance, and shared development of the ecosystem. The governance process itself is also under a publicly verifiable transparent framework.

In driving genuine demand and building a collaborative network, SUN.io has successfully constructed a multi-scenario protocol matrix. Its core product ecosystem includes: decentralized trading platform SunSwap, Meme fair launch platform SunPump, decentralized perpetual contract trading platform SunX, stablecoin exchange tool SunCurve, and AI-powered suites SunAgent and SunGenX.

These products are not isolated; they form an organic synergy through meticulous mechanism design: SunSwap provides core liquidity and spot trading scenarios, SunPump introduces community-accepted new assets, SunX meets advanced needs for leverage and risk hedging, SunCurve ensures efficiency and stability for stablecoin exchanges. The introduction of AI tools further reduces user participation barriers and enhances capital utilization through intelligent strategies. This product synergy creates an interconnected, mutually reinforcing loop, enabling capital and users to flow seamlessly within the ecosystem according to demand, jointly building a self-growing, continuously expanding collaborative network.

Ultimately, all structural efforts of SUN.io in transparent infrastructure and collaborative network serve a core goal: providing users with a trustworthy, smooth experience and creating high-efficiency capital circulation pathways. Its product evolution logic clearly indicates that the true moat is not short-term incentive data but the stable, reliable practical value resulting from integrating on-chain verifiability, scenario synergy, and technical execution efficiency—this is the most direct response to the “structure priority” era.

It is worth noting that SUN.io recently released key signals via its official X platform, announcing an upcoming Chinese brand upgrade and a new brand image. This move marks a new stage in its ecosystem development and demonstrates its commitment to continuously strengthening strategic consistency and brand recognition in building a global decentralized financial infrastructure.

As revealed in this discussion, the profound shift from narrative to structure is driving DeFi ecosystems to evolve from mere trading venues into foundational infrastructure that carries value and trust. Its core mission is no longer just about providing the concept of “decentralization,” but about building a transparent, efficient, and sustainable liquidity circulation system. When trading behaviors truly return on-chain, protocols that have built systematic verifiability, scenario collaboration, and user experience will naturally become the core hubs and value carriers of new cycle liquidity.