Author: Ignas Source: Ignas | DeFi Research Translation: Shan Oba, Golden Finance

I like it very much meme currency, but this "mania" seems to be approaching its limit.

My Crypto . The recent market decline has given me the opportunity to take a closer look at these developments. However, this decline did not last long.

In this article, I want to share 10 things about DeFi and the broader crypto ecosystem These developments deserve your close attention.

1. Avalanche 9000: Is L1 the new L2?

Avalanche has just released its largest upgrade, Avalanche 9000, making it easier, cheaper and more flexible to create L1 blockchains.

L1 is the new L2? The old subnet model is gone.

Developers no longer need to verify the mainnet or stake 2000 AVAX (worth approximately $100,000), and only need to pay a small ongoing fee, significantly reducing costs.

Sounds like Polkadot and a bit like Cosmos, right?

Inspired by Ethereum's EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding), making Avalanche L1 fee close to Celestia-based rollup, but with better interoperability performance and reliability.

The upgrade also introduces L1-only validators, allowing each L1 to manage its own rules, whether it's a PoS or proof-of-authority blockchain. This means better token economics and value premiums.

It reduces the cost of running the validator from 2K AVAX ($100,000) to 1.33 AVAX per month.

< p style="text-align: left;">Avalanche has launched a $40 million funding program called Retro9000. There are currently 700 L1 projects in development, ranging from games to DeFi

Avalanche is successfully attracting traditional financial (TradFi) partners through tokenization and attracting gaming projects such as Off The Grid. In the competition between Solana and Ethereum, Avalanche seems to have found its market position

2. The combination of NEAR and AI

Although Base and Solana continue to release AI. Agency related projects (such as Virtuals and ai16z) has caused FOMO (fear of missing out), but NEAR is quietly opening up its own path of AI innovation

NEAR already supports agent-driven on-chain functions. , and more tools and features are being developed

It's different in many ways. Chain AI The proxy's native chain abstraction makes it easier for developers to build interconnected systems.

In addition, NEAR Intents also introduces a new transaction model. Enables cross-chain settlement between AI agents, services, and end users. Personally, the coolest collaboration is the one between Infinex and Near, so you can trade BTC, XRP, or BTC on one decentralized platform.

NEAR launches NEAR.ai, an AI assistant that connects to other AI agents and across The web2 and web3 services act on behalf of the user. You need a Near wallet to log in.

To be honest, Near.The wallet experience on Android used to be pretty bad, but things are much better now (I recommend Near Mobile).

Interestingly, NEAR-based social agents are starting to host Twitter Spaces with each other.

In addition, NEAR has launched a research center to explore new AI models and collaborated with Delphi on an AI accelerator program to support builders in the field .

It is worth noting that the blind computing blockchain Nillion Network is being built on the basis of NEAR, bringing privacy protection technology to private LLM training and sensitive data inference.

This can unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence owned by users.

3.Liquity v2 was released

LQTY price increased by 120% in one month. reason?

•The market is generally bullish

•The release of Liquidity v2

Problems with the traditional DeFi lending model:

Fund markets like Compound and Aave set interest rates based on utilization, resulting in Costs are unpredictable.

Governance-based protocols such as MakerDAO are slow to adjust, and interest rates are often stuck due to governance delays.

Even Liquity V1’s fixed-fee model cannot adapt to market changes.

Liquity V2 solves this problem with user-set interest rates and BOLD, a stablecoin focused on decentralization, user control, and yield.

Borrowers activate "Trove" to set interest rates - a lower rate for savings and a higher rate to avoid redemptions. Trove with the lowest interest rate will be redeemed first.

Liquity V2 has an LTV of up to 90% and a leverage of up to 11 times, making it extremely efficient.

Borrowers can not only use ETH, but also use LST such as wstETH and rETH as collateral, borrowing BOLD while still receiving staking rewards.

As a result, BOLD is fully backed by ETH and LST, can be redeemed at any time, and is not subject to TradFi risk.

Unlike USDC, it does not rely on RWA, thus avoiding counterparty and censorship risks. Its peg to $1 is maintained through a simple mechanism:

If $BOLD falls below $1, arbitrage will encourage ETH redemptions.

If $BOLD rises above $1, lower borrowing rates will increase supply.

Stable pool depositors can receive 75% of the protocol revenue through BOLD and ETH liquidation proceeds, while 25% of fees will be used for protocol incentivized liquidity (PIL) , to support BOLD liquidity in DeFi.

A big change is Forkonomics for Liquity V2, as Liquity is one of the most forked protocols in DeFi.

Now, the team needs permission to use Liquidity code (and some airdrops to LQTY holders), but in return they will receive Liquidity support, Access to the liquidity network, shared security resources, and potential LQTY rewards.

It's a win-win situation: forks are better supported, and BOLD can scale across chains without the usual hacking or mismanagement risk.

4.Pendle New Protocol - Boros

Most people thought Pendle V3 was just another fork or small update, but Pendle unexpectedly launched a brand new squareTo: Boros, Pendle’s “Brother’s Agreement,” takes earnings trading into new territory.

Boros’ core highlights:

• Designed for leveraged income trading.

•Users can trade yield through leverage.

Boros focuses on funding rates (the cost of borrowing leveraged positions), solving the current pain point of lack of hedging or effective trading methods for funding rates.

What is the problem? Until now, there has not been an effective way to hedge or trade these rates. This is where Boros comes into play. With it, traders can:

Hedge funding rate exposure for predictable returns.

Use leverage to speculate on fluctuations in financing interest rates

Take Ethena as an example, its profitability is very high Depends largely on financing interest rates. With Boros, Ethena can hedge against volatility and lock in stable returns. At the same time, speculators can take advantage of the rise and fall in financing rates to make greater profits.

You may ask, why is the financing rate?

Perp exchanges handle $150-200 billion in trading volume every day, and funding rates are central to the functioning of these markets. However, they are overlooked in DeFi.

Boros makes financing rates tradable. This means protocols, market makers and traders can now integrate funding rate strategies into their portfolios.

Pendle has now developed into a comprehensive income trading platform. V2 and Boros complement each other perfectly:

V2 focuses on tokenized on-chain yields such as staking, RWA, and BTCfi.

Boros takes a deep dive into financing rates and off-chain opportunities.

As is Pendle's usual practice, they've made things simple for the community. There are no new coins.

The same $PENDLE and vePENDLE tokens power V2 and Boros. Revenue distribution also remains the same — 80% to vePENDLE holders, 10% to the protocol treasury, and 10% for operations.

As the Points meta cools off, Boros arrives on time.

5.Zircuit

This is probably the most confusing L2 in encryption.

Zircuit recently concluded its first and second airdrops on November 20, distributing 300 million tokens for claiming. They seem to be very generous with offering airdrops to every partner agreement.

What’s next for Zircuit? How do they plan to keep users engaged and create real use cases for their token?

The answer seems to be the hottest topic right now: artificial intelligence.

Zircuit is developing a new product called Gud AI.

It is an AI agent similar to AIXBT that can discover alpha. There is also a native AI token, $GUD, whose fair launch requires staking $ZRC.

This is a good strategy for new L2s.

Zircuit is layer 2, but it takes a different approach to layer 2 infrastructure. It doesn't just focus on scaling, but also on security, efficiency, and usability.

One ​​of Zircuit's primary features is Sequence Level Security (SLS). While most blockchains perform malicious transactionsThey are not detected until after the transaction, but SLS can identify threats even before they reach the chain.

In the re-staking era of Ethereum, LRT on Zircuit was very noticeable, attracting more than $2 billion in TVL. Phase 2 of Zircuit’s mainnet is accelerating and is now online:

The bridge between Ethereum and Ethereum. The bridging process only takes a few minutes and is incredibly fast. Since launch, Zircuit’s net deposits have jumped to $300 million.

Some native DeFi dApps, such as ZeroLend and Elara Labs for lending, Ocelex and Dodo for exchange and liquidity mining.

Recently, Zircuit distributed 2% of its supply to over 190,000 EigenLayer re-holders.

Zircuit is backed by Binance Labs, Pantera Capital and Dragonfly Capital, but is still not on Binance Available (probably soon).

6.Starknet

Although the STRK airdrop was once negatively affected, Starknet has recently made significant progress and pushed the boundaries of Layer 2 technology, which deserves in-depth attention.

One ​​of the major initiatives is the launch of the staking function of its native token STRK. As the first L2 to offer native staking functionality, STRK staking is now available on the mainnet. Bitwise, a company that manages $11 billion in crypto assets and has $3.5 billion in pledged ETH, has also officially joined the Starknet ecosystem and supports STRK staking.

On a technical level, deployment costs drop to just $5, while verification costs are as low as under $1. Through a multi-team effort, it is now even possible to verify SNARK proofs, giving developers the power to build systems based on zero-knowledge technology.Real-world applications such as private authentication or secure document verification offer possibilities.

In addition, the v0.13.3 update reduces blob gas costs by 5 times through smarter compression and block consolidation technology, effectively controlling expenses, even if Ethereum Keep costs low as your blob usage grows. Starknet's future plans include more efficiency upgrades, and even Vitalik gives his thumbs up.

Another exciting development is its trustless bit developed in partnership with sCrypt Coin Bridge (OP_CAT proof-of-concept bridge). This move demonstrates that interconnection between Starknet and Bitcoin is possible, opening important doors for interoperability and hopefully unlocking more interesting use cases.

7.Mode

After the airdrop, Mode launched two important initiatives: veMODE and AIFi ecosystem.

Mode is the first protocol based on the voting escrow (ve) governance model of Layer 2 of the OP stack. Through veMODE, users can stake MODE or MODE/ETH liquidity tokens to obtain voting rights. The longer the pledge time, the voting rights increase up to 6 times. Unlike traditional models, veMODE does not vote for a specific liquidity pool, but instead focuses on supporting the growth of the entire ecosystem. In Season 3, $2 million in OP incentives will be distributed through this system. In the future, there are plans to introduce a bribery market and AI agents to simplify the participation process and allow AI agents to vote on behalf of users.

Where Mode really shines is its focus on AIFi. With $6 million in funding from Optimism, Mode is bringing AI agents to DeFi to simplify and scale on-chain interactions. These agents can handle tasks such as yield farming, risk management and even governance with little to no human intervention.

Mode's AIFi ecosystem is built on a three-layer architecture:

AI Security Layer 2 Sequencer, which can detect and prevent malicious transactions from entering the blockchain;

On-chain agent infrastructure, deploying agents with partners such as Giza, Olas and RPS AI, while allowing agents to learn and execute advanced strategies through Mode's Dapp Intents SDK;

AI-driven interfaces, such as Mode’s AI wallet, make DeFi easier to use by simplifying interactions.

To launch the AIFi ecosystem, Mode launches AI Agent App Store, an AI agent discovery platform designed specifically for DeFi. Some highlight agents include:

Giza's ARMA, used to optimize USDC in the capital market. Yield;

MODIUS (coming soon) developed by Olas, an AI-driven liquidity farming strategist;

Brian, empowering DeFi through natural language prompts Interactions are more conversational;

Sturdy V2, an AI-driven revenue vault designed to optimize returns. : left;">So, Near, Mode, Zircuit entered the AIFi metadata on time.

8. Polkadot

DOT token rose in a month 75%. There are multiple factors behind this. The Polkadot network has reached new heights in activity over the past few months, with the number of transactions hitting an all-time high. Metrics such as fees, active users and transaction volume have all grown significantly. Fees have grown at an annual rate of 300%, and active users and transaction volume have also increased steadily.

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The key factor driving this momentum is the release of Polkadot 2.0.

Previously the cost of running a parachain was approximately $16,700 per month; In Polkadot 2.0, this cost is reduced to only 1,000 to 4,00Ranging from $0. Projects can lease block space through DOT, thereby creating ongoing demand for the token. Depending on governance decisions, part of the revenue may be burned, reducing the token supply. This creates a positive cycle: demand for DOT rises, supply decreases, and the entire ecosystem becomes stronger.

Polkadot’s cross-chain interoperability has also been significantly improved. Hyperbridge connects Polkadot to networks such as Ethereum and BNB, promoting cross-chain interactions and creating more possibilities for developers. The network performance was also very strong, processing over 3.3 million transactions in a single day, proving that it is ready for large-scale applications such as gaming.

In the field of DeFi, Polkadot also performs well. The Hydration ecosystem is growing rapidly, with active users up 50% since October and fees doubling to an all-time high. Hydration integrates trading, lending and stablecoins into a single application chain, and its Omnipool simplifies liquidity, supports single-sided deposits, and has exceeded $68 million in TVL. Hydration’s stablecoin 2-pool (USDT-USDC) has an annualized yield of up to 36%, including fees and vDOT rewards.

Hydration has recently launched a lending function, which is a forked version of Aave V3 based on Polkadot . Its on-chain priority liquidation mechanism can liquidate at the beginning of each block, effectively reducing borrower losses and preventing front-running attacks. At the same time, liquidation penalties will be converted into protocol revenue, benefiting HDX stakers and supporting governance decisions.

9.dYdX

perp Competition in the DEX space has intensified and leaders have changed... dydx, GMX, Vertex, and now HyperLiquid.

However, I believe the real losers are the CEXs that are losing out to the rapidly innovating emerging DEXs.

While Hyperliquid took the top spot after a successful airdrop, dYdX chose a more retail approach with the launch of dYdX Unlimited, which includes a host of new features: instant market listings, MegaVault, and affiliate programs.

With instant market listings, anyone can create and trade markets instantly, with no governance required Approval or long wait. It's simple: pick a market, deposit USDC into MegaVault, and start trading.

This is a major advantage that CEX cannot provide.

MegaVault is the core of the system, providing liquidity to all markets by pooling USDC.

It funds the market while depositors receive passive income. Half of the dYdX protocol fees go to MegaVault, making liquidity provision rewarding. It's very similar to Jupiter's JLP Vault.

dYdX also launches an affiliate program that pays referrals lifetime USDC commissions. Part of the reason for Bybit's rapid growth is the affiliate program :)

Trading rewards, monthly distribution of $1.5 million in DYDX tokens, and deposits for MegaVault offers a prize pool of up to 100,000 USDC.

dYdX has had some great success since then, raising over $40 million at an annual interest rate of 51%.

10.Aptos

Following Sui, Aptos is also based on Move’s blockchain in TVL and the fastest-growing project in the DeFi field, its TVL exceeded US$1 billion for the first time, a 19-fold increase year-on-year.

Riding on the TradFi wave on Aptos, BlackRock has expanded its BUILD fund on Aptos, the only non-EVM chain to be integrated.

Franklin Templeton will also link it to the U.S. currencyFunds extend to Aptos (one of seven supported chains).

Bitwise and Libre have launched their own tokenized funds on the blockchain.

Tether launched native USDt on Aptos in August. Since then, USDT supply on Aptos has been increasing. Since its inception, USDT supply has increased from approximately $20 million to approximately $142 million.

Following Tether, Circle also announced the launch of native USDC and cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP ), and is supported by Stripe encryption products on Aptos.

With the injection of native stablecoins into Aptos, the ecosystem is gaining positive indicators, with TVL continuing to remain above $1 billion and 1 million new users joining the ecosystem system.

Some DeFi milestones on Aptos:

Daily DEX trading on Aptos last year Volume increased by 2,700% (28 times).

Aries Markets, the leading lending protocol on Aptos, reaches a new high in total locked volume (TVL) , with more than $800 million in total deposits, of which more than $450 million was lent.

emojicoin dot fun, a pumpdotfun project based on Aptos, has gone live on mainnet and reported 16,700 unique addresses within 24 hours of going live.

I guess APT is following in the footsteps of SUI, which is doing really well. I think SUI, APT, and other L1s are fighting for Solana's market share, all competing at the execution layer, and ETH... being ETH!