ETH Upgrade RWA, Cooking, DeFi Giants Uniting to Start Exclusive Lego Time, Recent Thoughts on DeFi from the Past Week:
1/ ETH has seen a significant rise in the last two weeks, coinciding with the Pectra upgrade (1) Personally, I think the rise is somewhat related to this, but not the main reason (2) More so it is a reaction to excessive FUD, and there are also expectations of ETF staking approval (3) Previously, the ETH/BTC exchange rate had approached a low point. However, the content of this upgrade is still worth looking into; it's a bit lengthy to elaborate, so I've summarized it in a GitBook.
2/ DeFi Giants Unite: Aave Uniswap
Aave plans to launch Uniswap V4 Hook, supporting Uni V4 LP collateral borrowing GHO. This plan requires a portion of funding to be requested from the Uniswap DAO, and in return, future GHO borrowing interest income will be shared with the Uniswap DAO.
This is currently the most practical Hook, benefiting two major players simultaneously. It enhances LP's capital efficiency, and the composability and flexibility of the Hook are beginning to show. With leading projects taking the lead, we can expect more innovations in the future.
3/ DeFi Giants Unite: Aave Pendle Ethena
(1) Ethena PT tokens integrated into Aave, with strong demand (2) Ethena continues to deepen integration with Aave, launching USDtb, increasing the supply cap of USDe and sUSDe, while also raising the cap for PT tokens. After PT enters Aave: Old DeFi enthusiasts who enjoy cyclical lending are now at work, leading to another tripartite benefit cooperation. As DeFi blue chips begin to mature, we will enter a time of exclusive Lego for top DeFi projects. Compared to the DeFi Summer Lego, it has stronger stability and larger capacity.
4/ Unichain Liquidity Mining Situation
(1) Unichain liquidity mining output is halved (2) Incentives for the WBTC Pool will be migrated. Gauntlet claims that they have exceeded their KPI, so they have lowered the yields. The TVL has not decreased much, and the yields are still within a market-acceptable range. It is important to note that after 7 days, rewards for the WBTC-related pools will gradually shift to WBTC0 (OFT version), and Unichain is currently deeply integrated with L0.
5/ SSV Network Announces Launch of SSV 2.0 Testnet and Introduces a New Concept: bApps, a new type of decentralized application that directly leverages Ethereum validators for security instead of relying on additional capital. Validators can earn extra income by providing security services for bApps.
At first glance, it sounds like Restaking, but there are some differences: Restaking locks already staked ETH into a new protocol to provide security for these protocols.
These assets can be subject to slashing, and if there are issues with the protocol, the validators' assets may be at risk.
Ethereum itself may also be affected. The feature of SSV 2.0 is that the staked ETH of validators will not be slashed due to protocol issues, protecting Ethereum from cascading risks. This means that if there are problems with bApps, it will not affect the stability of the Ethereum mainnet.
Due to the limited ability of Restaking to attract customers at this stage and insufficient demand generated, this service may find it difficult to gain attention in the short term. Mechanically, SSV 2.0 indeed has its own characteristics and appears to be superior to Restaking in theory.
Returning to the DVT track itself, it struggled in the last cycle and is even harder in this cycle. The advantage is that demand is relatively certain, but the problem is that most will be integrated by giants. Currently, SSV and Obol are actively changing the situation, hoping to break the mold from different angles, which is worth observing.
6/ Obol Announces Obol Stack
The design of Obol Stack packages the autonomous operation of validators, allowing everyone to directly call and deploy validator nodes and sorters. Official/third-party entities will package this infrastructure into 'Apps' and release it on the Obol App Store, allowing users to directly obtain and deploy their own nodes.
This brings us closer to Vitalik's original advocacy that everyone in every corner of the world can run an Ethereum node.
7/ USD₮0 is Rapidly Expanding
USDT0 is a cross-chain stablecoin launched jointly by Tether and LayerZero, realized through L0's OFT technology, and has already supported many mainstream chains.
This solution directly competes with USDC CCTP, the difference being that the USDC solution is more native and centralized, while USDT0 relies on LayerZero, and USDT0 has also garnered many resources in the ecosystem.
For example, you can mine on Unichain and provide liquidity on Flare to receive ecological subsidies.
Overall, there will be many farming opportunities, and given the background, it can be seen as supported by Tether, and we will see more and more USDT (USDT0) on-chain in the future.
8/ Noticed some actions from two old DeFi players
(1) Liquity V2 announces it will be relaunched soon, fixing vulnerabilities (2) Alchemix hints at a return. Liquity V2 encountered security vulnerabilities around April 15, 2025, leading to a suspension of the protocol. This vulnerability involved a complex attack, and its relaunch remains to be seen. In fact, I quite like V1's design; although V1 had some issues with efficiency and scalability, it was simple and effective, and has been forked by multiple projects. The changes in V2 represent a breakthrough, but the handling of security has indeed lost some points, still under observation.
Alchemix is one of the highlight projects from the last bull market's DeFi 2.0 period, and it may begin to reshape soon. However, compared to Euler and Maple, Alchemix is more community-oriented, and if it doesn't present some killer feature, its competitiveness is relatively limited. It's worth keeping an eye on.
9/ Many Actions in RWA
Securitize issues a tokenized fund for BlackRock for use in DeFi, which I think is quite significant.
Others include: (1) VanEck partners with Securitize to launch a tokenized fund (2) Stripe launches stablecoin financial accounts (3) Arbitrum approves the allocation of 35M ARB to tokenized US Treasury bonds (4) Aave's RWA platform Horizon collaborates with AntChain to allow the collateralization of RWA assets for stablecoin loans. One interesting note is that the USDB supported by Stripe's financial account pays developers fees based on the underlying asset's yield (e.g., interest from money market funds) when using USDB.
10/ Another noteworthy RWA action is that Chainlink, J.P. Morgan, and Ondo Finance have joined forces to achieve cross-chain settlement of tokenized US Treasury bonds.
Ondo Chain is a public chain, while Kinexys is a permissioned chain. The interoperability between these two types of chains requires additional technical support, and the current solution uses Chainlink.
In the future, in the field of RWA cross-chain settlement, Chainlink has already occupied a certain ecological niche. If RWA explodes as expected, then $LINK is a good target, and it has the backing of being a leading oracle.
