Recent Hot Topics in the DeFi Industry: stablecoins, Super Chains, and Ecosystem Development

In the past week, there have been several important developments in the DeFi space, involving stablecoins, Layer 2 scaling, and ecosystem building.

Active in the stablecoin field

The USDtb stablecoin launched by Ethena has sparked a new wave of stablecoin craze. USDtb is supported by a product from a well-known asset management company. Ethena has partnered with Usual, with both sides strengthening their market positions through mutual provision of TVL and incentives. In addition, WLFI has also collaborated with Ethena to integrate sUSDe into its lending market.

Unlike the previous competition among stablecoins, this round of stablecoin projects shows a clear trend of collaboration, demonstrating more maturity and steadiness. Usual adopts a multi-party game embedded stablecoin mining mechanism, which has similarities with the liquidity mining during the DeFi Summer period, but introduces the concept of Real World Assets (RWA) and further refines the game model. Certain large trading platforms and other partners provide ample liquidity exit channels for it.

Resolv, as another notable stablecoin project, has seen its total value locked (TVL) grow by nearly 400% in the past two weeks. Resolv employs a neutral stablecoin mechanism similar to Ethena, but introduces Risk Liquidity Providers (RLP) as a buffer layer against market volatility. This design offers differentiated participation options for users with varying risk preferences.

Frax is also making important adjustments, including a partnership with Symbiotic, the launch of the veFRAX multi-yield structure, and considering incorporating products from a certain asset management company into the collateral pool of Frax USD.

Layer 2 Ecosystem Expansion

The Ink network developed by a certain exchange has officially launched and joined the superchain ecosystem. Dinero subsequently launched the first liquid staking token (LST) on Ink. Velodrome plans to integrate with Ink in 2025 and has locked a large amount of veVELO tokens. This indicates that compliant exchanges developing their own Layer 2 networks is becoming a trend, and the market has high expectations for Ink's performance.

Decentralized Finance Innovation and Cross-Chain Development

Traditional DeFi projects are also actively innovating. A well-known yield aggregation platform has partnered with a liquidity staking platform to launch the decentralized stable protocol Resupply, whose reUSD stablecoin is backed by yield-generating stablecoins from the lending market.

GammaSwap is about to complete the development of Yield Token and enter the auditing phase. This project aims to hedge impermanent loss, allowing LP coins to be lent and restructured to achieve a yield curve similar to options.

Ethena is considering integrating a certain options and perpetual futures platform. If approved, this platform will become an on-chain hedging and trading venue for Ethena's $60 billion TVL.

Other noteworthy developments include: a certain public chain project has replaced its CEO, and the new leadership will place greater emphasis on Decentralized Finance development; Babypie is incentivizing mBTC-BTC liquidity across multiple chains and decentralized exchanges; Fluid is expanding to a certain Layer 2 network; a certain public chain foundation has launched AI-related initiatives; a certain lending protocol is considering deploying its core smart contract across multiple chains.

These developments indicate that the DeFi industry is moving towards a more diverse, cross-chain, and innovative direction, with various projects seeking new growth points and collaboration opportunities.