Gate DeFi Daily Report ( September 12, ): DeFi TVL returns to 160 billion USD; Aave's revenue exceeds 86 million USD year-to-date in 2025.

On September 12, the DeFi market as a whole rebounded, with the total TVL returning above $160 billion, and DEX volume maintaining around $16.1 billion. Meteora continues to lead the Solana ecosystem with expectations for TGE and Airdrop, with daily trading volume surpassing $1 billion; WLFI announced a buyback and burn proposal, strengthening the long-term value narrative. Meanwhile, protocols like Ethena and Pendle have shown outstanding performance in revenue and TVL rise, indicating that funds are concentrating towards yield-generating protocols.

DeFi 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, with the top three being: Uniswap ($3.348 billion), PancakeSwap ($2.4 billion), Hyperliquid ($1.143 billion).

Popular Protocols and On-chain Performance

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

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Among them, the data performance of the top-ranked protocols is as follows:

Aave: TVL approximately $41.194 billion, rise of 4.75% in the past week, 24-hour fees approximately $3.3 million;

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

EigenLayer: TVL is approximately $19.524 billion, with a rise of 2.45% in the past week, and 24-hour fees are about $620,000;

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

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

Project News Review

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

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

· Ethena is not the native team of Hyperliquid

· Besides USDH, Ethena has other product lines.

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

Given that the current situation is almost clear, Ethena Labs will respectfully withdraw the proposal so that verification nodes can freely support other options.

3. World Liberty Financial has issued 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 permanent burn. It is reported that 'owned liquidity' refers only to fees generated from liquidity controlled by WLFI, and the fees from community and third-party liquidity providers (LPs) remain unaffected.

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

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

4. Ant Group 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-analysis of two recent confiscation incidents. The monitoring system first flagged a confiscation event on Wednesday at 11:51 UTC. About 90 minutes later, a second, larger confiscation event affected 39 validators. Investigations show that both incidents stemmed from external factors related to the SSV protocol, specifically concerning validator key management.

In the two incidents, the larger one is related to the long-term staking service provider Ankr, which admitted that a configuration error in operational maintenance caused the validator keys to be active simultaneously in two different infrastructures, leading to the penalty. The company immediately shut down the affected operator and collaborated with SSV Labs to confirm the root cause. The smaller incident involves validators that were migrated from the custody service provider Allnodes, which is still under investigation, but investigators suspect that the auxiliary validator setup may also have 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 do not need to take any action. Reviewing the logs of the two incidents, no signs of double signing or failures on the SSV end were found.

Overview of Major Eco-Leading DeFi Projects

Solana DEX has ranked first in 24-hour trading volume for five consecutive days, 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, approximately $3.085 billion, with the top three projects being:

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, with the top three projects being:

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

Gate DeFi 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 Market)

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

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

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

CRV is currently reported 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 at 160.283 billion USD, with a rise of 2.7% in 24 hours, indicating signs of capital inflow. The DEX 24-hour trading volume is about 16.113 billion USD, still dominated by Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and Hyperliquid.

Meteora volume leads Solana ecosystem

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

WLFI buyback and burn plan strengthens long-term narrative

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

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

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

Analyst's Viewpoint

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 in driving this.

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

Overall, the DeFi market has entered a period of capital differentiation: liquidity is concentrated in the Meteora and Solana ecosystems, the value capture logic is led by WLFI, and the yield-driven rise 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 remaining active. The TGE expectations of Meteora and the buyback and destruction narrative of WLFI became the market focus, while Pendle and Ethena represented the growth direction of "fixed income + income capture." In the short term, the market may remain active due to incentives and sentiment, but from a long-term perspective, security and governance remain the core considerations for the development of DeFi.