ETH upgrades RWA, cooking, DeFi giants join forces to start exclusive Lego time, thoughts on DeFi in the past week:
1/ ETH has seen a sharp rise in the past two weeks, coinciding with the Pectra upgrade (1) I personally think the rise is somewhat related to this, but not the main reason (2) It is more due to excessive fud, and there is also the expectation of ETF pledge passing (3) The ETH/BTC exchange rate has already approached the lowest point. However, the content of this upgrade is still worth reading. It would be a bit long to elaborate, so I have summarized it in the gitbook.
2/ Aave Uniswap, a group of DeFi giants
Aave plans to launch the Uniswap V4 Hook to support Uni V4 LP collateralized borrowing of GHO. This plan requires applying for a portion of funds from the Uniswap DAO. In return, the interest income from GHO lending will be shared with the Uniswap DAO in the future.
This is the most practical Hook currently, and the two giants benefit at the same time. The efficiency of LP funds is improved, and the combinatoriality and flexibility of Hook begin to emerge. With the leading projects taking the lead, we can expect more innovations in the future.
3/ DeFi giants join forces to build Aave Pendle Ethena
(1) Ethena PT tokens are integrated into Aave, and the demand is strong. (2) Ethena continues to deepen its integration with Aave and launches USDtb, increasing the supply cap of USDe and sUSDe, and at the same time increasing the cap of PT tokens. After PT enters Aave: Old DeFi people who like revolving loans have started to work. This is another cooperation that benefits all three parties. As DeFi blue chips begin to mature, it will enter the exclusive Lego time of DeFi top projects. Compared with DeFi Summer Lego, it has stronger stability and larger capacity.
4/ Unichain Liquidity Mining Status
(1) Unichain liquidity mining output is halved (2) The incentives for WBTC Pool will be migrated Gauntlet said that the KPI was exceeded, so the income was lowered. The TVL did not drop too much, and the income was still within the acceptable range of the market. It should be noted that after 7 days, the rewards for WBTC related pools will gradually be transferred to WBTC0 (OFT version). Unichain is currently deeply bound to L0.
5/ SSV Network announced the launch of the SSV 2.0 testnet, proposing a new concept, bApps, a new type of decentralized application that directly utilizes Ethereum validators to ensure security instead of relying on additional capital. Validators can earn additional income by providing security services for bApps.
At first glance, it sounds like Restaking, but there is actually a slight difference: Restaking locks the staked ETH into new protocols to provide security for these protocols.
These assets are subject to slashing, and if there is a problem with the protocol, the validator's assets may be lost.
Ethereum itself may also be affected. The feature of SSV 2.0 is that the staked ETH of the validator will not be slashed due to protocol problems, protecting Ethereum from cascading risks. This means that if there is a problem with bApps, it will not affect the stability of the Ethereum mainnet.
Since Restaking’s ability to find customers is relatively limited at this stage and there is not enough demand, this service may not be able to gain attention in the short term. From a mechanism perspective, SSV 2.0 does have its own characteristics and is superior to Restaking in theory.
Back to the DVT track itself, it failed to stand firm in the last cycle, and it is even more difficult in this cycle. The advantage is that the demand is relatively certain, but the problem is that most of them will be integrated by giants. Now SSV and Obol are actively changing the situation, hoping to break the circle from other angles. It is worth paying attention to and it remains to be seen.
6/ Obol announces Obol Stack
The design of Obol Stack packages the autonomous operation of the validator, which means that everyone can directly call and deploy the validator node and sequencer. The official/third party packages this infrastructure into an "App" and publishes it to the Obol App Store, and users can directly obtain and deploy their own nodes.
This is a step closer to Vitalik’s original vision of everyone being able to run an Ethereum node in every corner of the world.
7/ USD₮0 is expanding rapidly
USDT0 is a full-chain stablecoin jointly launched by Tether and LayerZero. It realizes full-chain circulation based on L0's OFT technology and already supports many mainstream chains.
This solution directly competes with USDC CCTP. The difference is that USDC's solution is more native and centralized, while USDT0 relies on LayerZero, and USDT0 has also obtained a lot of resources in terms of ecology.
For example, you can mine on Unichain and provide liquidity on Flare to obtain ecological subsidies.
In general, there will be many farming opportunities. Judging from the background, it is also supported by Tether. In the future, we will see more and more USDT (USDT0) on the chain.
8/ Pay attention to the actions of two old DeFi
(1) Liquity V2 announced that it will be back online soon and fix the vulnerability (2) Alchemix foreshadows its imminent return Liquity V2 suffered a security vulnerability around April 15, 2025, causing the protocol to suspend operations. This vulnerability involves a complex attack, and it remains to be seen after it is back online. In fact, V1 is a design that I prefer. Although V1 has some problems in efficiency and scalability, it is simple and effective and has been forked by many projects. The changes in V2 are a breakthrough, but the security handling does have some points reduced, and it is under observation.
Alchemix is one of the highlights of DeFi 2.0 in the last bull market. It may start to reshape itself in the near future. However, compared with Euler and Maple, Alchemix is a community-oriented project. If it does not have any killer moves, its competitiveness will be limited. You can keep an eye on it.
9/ RWA has a lot of moves
Securitize issued a packaged version for DeFi for BlackRock’s tokenized fund, which I think is a relatively important one
Others include: (1) VanEck and Securitize cooperate to launch a tokenized fund (2) Stripe launches a stablecoin financial account (3) Arbitrum approves the allocation of 35M ARB to tokenized US Treasury bonds (4) Aave's RWA platform Horizon cooperates with AntChain to allow the collateralization of RWA assets to borrow stablecoins. An interesting one is USDB supported by Stripe financial accounts. Its incentive mechanism is that when using USDB, the income of the underlying assets (such as the interest of money market funds) will be paid to the developer in the form of fees.
10/ RWA It is also worth mentioning that Chainlink, JP Morgan and Ondo Finance have joined forces to realize cross-chain settlement of tokenized US Treasury bonds.
Ondo Chain is a public chain, while Kinexys is a permissioned chain. The interoperability of these two chains requires additional technical support, and the Chainlink solution is currently used.
It is expected that in the field of RWA cross-chain settlement in the future, Chainlink has occupied a certain ecological niche. If RWA explodes as expected, then $LINK will be a good target, and it will also have the leading position of oracle to back it up.
