Gate Research Institute: Ethena TVL Hits New High | Gate Launches Gate Layer Second Layer Network

###Summary

1. This week BTC fell by 1.99%, ETH fell by 7.69%, while some DeFi sectors rose against the trend.
2. Gate launches Gate Layer, a second-layer network, fully upgrading the GT ecosystem and deflationary mechanism.
3. SUI Group disclosed its heavy investment in SUI and stock buybacks, demonstrating capital strength and market confidence.
4. SOL Strategies completed a $25 million private placement financing to accelerate the expansion of digital asset and treasury allocation.
5. The crypto market faces its largest liquidation of the year, with $1.8 billion sold off.
6. Ethena TVL突破 16 billion USD, setting a new record.
7. AVNT has surged 117% in the past week, with a daily trading volume exceeding $7 billion.

###Market Interpretation

####Market Commentary

• BTC Market — This week, BTC has dropped by 1.99%. The current short-term moving average shows signs of a reversal, and the original upward structure is facing a test. The MACD indicator shows a shortening of the red bars and a death cross at high levels, indicating a significant weakening of bullish momentum. After falling from the high of 115,656, it is currently trading below 113,000, with short-term support focusing on the 112,800 to 112,400 range. If it cannot stop the decline, it may test the previous low support at 111,000; conversely, if it can stabilize and rebound with volume, it needs to regain a foothold above 113,400 to hope to restore a strong structure.
• ETH Market —— This week ETH fell by 7.69%. The ETH hourly chart shows relatively weak performance, with prices having dropped consecutively over multiple candlesticks, breaking below the lower edge of the consolidation range. The 10MA and 30MA moving averages are in a bearish arrangement. The MACD has formed a death cross and is trending downwards, with green bars increasing, indicating a shift in momentum to bearish, reflecting that the bears have regained control of the pace. Trading volume has also increased, showing active selling pressure. Current support lies at 4,067, and if this level is broken, it will further test the support strength in the range of 4,000 to 3,950.
• Altcoins —— This week, the overall performance of mainstream altcoins has been relatively weak, with mixed gains and losses, and only a few tokens recorded an increase. However, the IP and Perpetuals sectors performed relatively strongly, with related tokens averaging a rise of over 5% in the past 7 days. Among them, IP increased by 14%, and APEX skyrocketed by 149%, attracting widespread attention and discussion in the market.
• Stablecoins - The total market capitalization of stablecoins is currently $307.8 billion, with stablecoins such as USDC and USDe continuing to attract market attention.
• Gas Fee —— This week, the Gas fee on the Ethereum network has increased. As of September 25, the average Gas fee for that day was 0.511 Gwei.

####popular tokens

Although the overall trend of mainstream altcoins has been weak this week, some DeFi sectors (such as automated strategies, lending protocols, and derivatives trading platforms) have shown a contrary upward trend. According to CoinGecko data, over the past 7 days, related protocols have benefited from product updates, market incentive mechanisms, and improved sector sentiment, leading to a significant strengthening of token prices. Below are the representative DeFi projects that have performed well recently, along with an analysis of their upward drivers:

#####IN INFINIT (+71.04%, Market Cap 24.73 million USD)

According to Gate's market data, the current price of the IN token is $0.10575, with a 71.04% increase in the last 24 hours. INFINIT is an intelligent execution platform focused on automating DeFi strategies, designed to simplify complex on-chain operations with a "one-click execution" approach. Its platform is powered by AI Agent Swarm, capable of integrating multiple protocols within ecosystems like Arbitrum to achieve one-click execution of over 20 steps, optimizing yield acquisition efficiency.

The recent surge is mainly driven by the rapid fermentation of product launches and market consensus. INFINIT announced that its V2 public beta version has now expanded to Arbitrum, officially launching the "One-Click Arbitrum DRIP" strategy, allowing users to complete complex operations such as lending, staking, and exchanging across multiple protocols without step-by-step interaction, significantly lowering the entry threshold. The official emphasized that this feature can provide users with a more efficient, precise, and controllable yield execution experience. This news quickly received positive market feedback, and with clear actual use cases on the platform, it boosted market sentiment, leading to a more than 70% increase in token prices in a single day.

#####FLUID Fluid (+28.10%, Circulating Market Cap 263 million USD)

According to Gate.io market data, the current price of the FLUID token is $6.674, having risen by 2.63% in the last 24 hours. Fluid is a DeFi lending and stablecoin exchange protocol focused on improving capital efficiency, dedicated to building a safer and more efficient liquidity infrastructure. The core of the protocol focuses on deploying cross-chain currency markets, currently covering mainstream ecosystems such as Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Solana, and rapidly expanding through DAO governance and an automated interest rate mechanism.

The recent surge is mainly driven by multiple positive factors. Fluid announced that 18 months after its launch, its TVL has surpassed $4.6 billion, maintaining its position at the top of the growth chart for stablecoin exchanges and lending DAOs, and ranking fourth overall among lending protocols. Additionally, it will initiate a $FLUID buyback mechanism to strengthen market expectations. Meanwhile, community data shows its 7-day annualized revenue has reached $19.5 million, primarily from the deployment of money markets on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Solana, demonstrating strong and stable revenue capability. The combination of positive factors and the recovery of the DeFi sector has attracted concentrated market funds.

#####SNX Synthetix (+25.26%, circulating market cap $295 million)

According to Gate.io market data, the current price of the SNX token is $0.8604, up 25.26% in the last 24 hours. Synthetix is a derivatives protocol built on Ethereum that focuses on supporting on-chain perpetual contracts and synthetic asset trading. Through a modular clearing and trading engine, Synthetix provides a permissionless, slippage-free, and infinitely liquid synthetic asset market, gradually expanding to Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism to serve a broader DeFi user base.

The recent rise is mainly driven by the expectation of the launch of the mainnet perpetual contract DEX and incentive activities. Synthetix announced the launch of the first perpetual contract DEX on the Ethereum mainnet, along with a trading competition with a total prize pool of up to $1 million to attract numerous top traders to participate in testing. There are a total of 100 participant slots in the event, with 50 by invitation, 35 open to the public, and 15 reserved for community OGs. The project team also emphasized that the platform will default to protecting users' account privacy information, enhancing trading anonymity and further increasing the willingness of professional traders to use it. This series of announcements has attracted significant attention from the community, coupled with a resurgence in the DeFi sector's activity, driving the SNX token to achieve a daily increase of over 25%.

###This Week's Focus

####The Ethereum Fusaka upgrade focuses on data availability and security, while PeerDAS opens a new chapter in L1 scaling.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently stated that the Fusaka upgrade aims to address the bottleneck of data availability in the current L1 network. The core mechanism, PeerDAS (Peer-to-Peer Data Availability Sampling), allows nodes to download only a small number of data blocks to probabilistically determine whether over 50% of the data is available. If the majority of data blocks are available, nodes can use erasure coding to reconstruct the remaining parts, thereby reducing bandwidth costs while improving data distribution efficiency, laying the foundation for higher frequency block data processing in the future.

However, Vitalik also emphasized that security remains the primary consideration in Ethereum's design. In the first version of the Fusaka upgrade, nodes still need to obtain complete data during initial broadcasting and data reconstruction; as long as there is one honest participant, network security can be ensured. He added that in the future, the number of blobs will be gradually increased based on operational results to promote the coordinated scaling process of Ethereum on L1 and L2. This strategy demonstrates Ethereum's commitment to decentralization and security while pursuing scalability.

####SUI Group disclosed its heavy investment in SUI and stock buybacks, demonstrating capital strength and market confidence.

According to the latest disclosure from SUI Group, as of September 23, it holds a total of 105,630,660 SUI tokens in its treasury, estimated at $3.40 per token, with a total market value of approximately $359 million, making it one of the largest holders of SUI in the public market. Such a large amount of token assets not only reflects the company's deep binding with the Sui public chain ecosystem but also demonstrates its high recognition of the project's long-term development. In the face of the current structural rotation in the cryptocurrency market, this kind of transparent treasury disclosure helps stabilize market confidence and enhances external trust in its capital reserves and strategic vision.

In addition to its layout of crypto assets, SUI Group also announced an investment of approximately $1.2 million to repurchase 276,296 shares of common stock, demonstrating its commitment to company valuation and shareholder equity. Repurchase actions are generally interpreted as a positive signal from management regarding the company's future profitability and intrinsic value. In the context of the current macroeconomic environment and the volatility of tech stocks, this move by SUI Group can be seen as a dual strategy to enhance shareholder returns and boost market confidence. Overall, SUI Group is consolidating its strategic positioning at the intersection of Web3 and traditional finance through a dual layout in both on-chain and capital markets.

####Gate has launched Gate Layer, a second-layer network, to comprehensively upgrade the GT ecosystem and its deflationary mechanism.

Gate announced the launch of the high-performance Layer 2 network Gate Layer, alongside the optimization of the GT token economic mechanism, to promote the large-scale implementation of blockchain technology and the long-term sustainable development of the GT ecosystem. Gate Layer is built on the OP Stack, featuring a transaction processing capacity of over 5700 transactions per second, 1-second block time, full EVM compatibility, ultra-low gas fees, dual security guarantees, and LayerZero cross-chain capabilities, significantly lowering the barriers for users and developers to enter Web3 and creating an efficient, low-cost on-chain interaction experience. At the same time, Gate Layer will serve as the foundational application scenario for GT as the sole gas fee token, greatly increasing the actual demand for GT.

In terms of ecological construction, Gate will launch three core products around Gate Layer: the Perp decentralized perpetual trading platform, the Gate Fun incubator supporting no-code issuance, and the full-chain Meme coin trading hub Meme Go, forming a comprehensive Web3 toolset covering asset issuance, trading, and circulation. The GT platform token mechanism is simultaneously strengthened, constructing a dual deflationary model through "regular burns + on-chain burning," with more than 180 million tokens burned cumulatively by Q2 2025, resulting in a circulation decrease of over 60%. Along with the v1.20 upgrade of Gate Chain (supporting EIP-4844, Cancun EVM, etc.), this update is not only a technical iteration but also a key upgrade of Gate's "All in Web3" strategy and GT value capture mechanism.

###Highlight Data

####The crypto market faces the largest liquidation this year, with 1.8 billion dollars being sold off.

According to data from CoinGlass, on September 22, over 370,000 traders in the crypto market were liquidated for a total of $1.8 billion, marking the largest liquidation of long positions since September 2021. Among them, ETH and BTC positions dominated the liquidation data, with ETH liquidations exceeding $500 million, more than double the losses of BTC long positions. The cryptocurrency market cap fell by $150 billion to $3.95 trillion. The liquidations were accompanied by major declines in leading cryptocurrencies, with BTC dropping below $112,000 on major exchanges, while ETH fell below $4,150, marking the largest pullback since mid-August. Liquidations typically affect blue-chip tokens and large projects; this time, the liquidation event impacted more other assets that had performed strongly in recent weeks, including the recently expanded ASTER, as well as WLFI, PUMP, and others. The liquidations ended the altcoin season, with the altcoin season index dropping from a previous peak of 100 points to 67 points over the past week.

Market analysts attribute this sell-off to excessive accumulation of leverage, which typically triggers large-scale liquidations after failed attempts to break through price levels. The performance of BTC over the past week reflects more technical factors rather than fundamental weakness, which will take time to correct and eliminate previous overbought conditions. Despite the decline over the past week, BTC has only retraced 9.5% from its historical peak, whereas previous bull market corrections have seen deeper pullbacks. Additionally, history has shown that September is challenging for BTC, with declines in 8 of the past 13 years. Looking ahead, BTC usually performs better in October, earning the nickname "Uptober" among traders. From a macro perspective, supportive easing policies continue to benefit risk assets, including BTC, so liquidation events may reset the positioning of ongoing long-term trends.

####Ethena TVL breaks through 16 billion dollars, reaching a new high.

According to data from DeFiLlama, the total locked value (TVL) of Ethena's USDe and USDtb stablecoins has now exceeded $16 billion, with USDe holding just over $14 billion and USDtb holding $1.83 billion. On the news front, on September 12, Ethena Labs launched USDe and the staked version sUSDe on the Layer 1 blockchain Avalanche, marking a significant cross-chain expansion.

Ethena's stablecoin USDe is currently the third largest circulating stablecoin, with a market capitalization exceeding $14 billion, a 145% increase from $5.7 billion in June. The increase from August 2024 to August 2025 is expected to exceed 200%, surpassing the 87% growth of Circle's USDC and the 39.5% growth of Tether's USDT during the same period. Ethena Labs' synthetic stablecoin USDtb holds over 90% of its reserves in BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized treasury fund. It is currently the ninth largest stablecoin, with a market capitalization of $1.8 billion. Analysts point out that exchange distribution, high annual percentage yields (APR), and institutional interest are driving the adoption of stablecoins faster than traditional functional tokens or governance tokens.

####AVNT has surged 117% in the past week, with a daily trading volume exceeding 7 billion dollars.

AVNT has certainly caught a lot of attention in the past week, with a one-day plunge of 53.09%, reaching $1.7443, but soaring 117.13% over the week, doubling from $1.0141, and skyrocketing 1060.9% in a month. The recent price fluctuations highlight its high volatility and increasing market interest, with AVNT maintaining a clear upward trend for several months driven by sustained long-term growth in the market. Technical analysis shows that although there was a significant pullback mid-week, the major moving averages were unaffected, and key resistance points have been overcome. DefiLlama shows that the TVL surged from $19.68M on September 18 to $24.99M on September 25, indicating a substantial increase in new deposits and new staking, pointing to not just short-term traders, but liquidity providers are also supporting AVNT's rise. According to CoinGlass, the current open interest for AVNT is $291.02M, far exceeding $16.63M at the beginning of September. Hyperliquid and its token have dominated the DEX space for a while, but now new competition is stepping in to challenge this leading edge. As a leading DEX on the Base chain with strong support, many are comparing Avantis with Aster, which has already surpassed $3B, and expectations are rising that AVNT could become the next standout in the industry.

###Financing Weekly Report

According to RootData, from September 18 to September 25, 2025, a total of 15 crypto and related projects announced the completion of financing or mergers and acquisitions, covering multiple sectors including financial market infrastructure, SOL infrastructure, DEX, and more. Overall financing activity remains high, indicating that capital continues to invest in key areas such as crypto infrastructure and asset tokenization. Below is a brief introduction to the top three projects ranked by financing scale this week:

####Fnality

Announced on September 23 that it has completed a $136 million financing, mainly to expand its pound system into the dollar and euro markets, targeting the cross-border payment market worth over $120 billion.

Fnality started as a research project aimed at exploring how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) can transform financial markets by addressing the issues of slow, costly traditional payment systems and lengthy settlement times for cross-border transactions. The project garnered interest from a coalition of financial institutions, known as the "Universal Settlement Coin (USC) project," with the primary goal of creating a peer-to-peer digital cash asset for the final settlement of tokenized transactions.

####Zerohash

Announced on September 23 that it has completed a $104 million financing, mainly to launch mainstream cryptocurrency trading services for E Trade customers in the first half of next year, and to seek to create a complete wallet solution for customers.

Zero Hash is a B2B2C embedded infrastructure platform that enables any platform to quickly and conveniently integrate digital assets natively into its user experience. New banks, brokerages, and payment institutions can provide the following services through Zero Hash: digital asset trading and custody, reward and spending aggregation plans based on crypto assets, and earning rewards through staking, among others. Zero Hash's one-stop solution handles all the backend complexities and required compliance licenses, allowing platforms to smoothly launch digital asset-related products.

####GRVT

Announced on September 18 the completion of a $19 million financing, primarily aimed at promoting privacy-centric on-chain finance and tapping into the trillion-dollar market, addressing long-standing industry issues including privacy vulnerabilities, security, scalability, and accessibility, and reshaping the decentralized on-chain finance ecosystem.

GRVT (Gravity) is a decentralized exchange (DEX) designed for institutional-level use. Built by professionals from the technology and financial markets, Gravity is committed to providing institutional traders with a completely private, compliant (KYC & AML), and self-custody wallet trading platform.

###Focus Next Week

####Token Unlock

According to Tokenomist data, the market will see significant token unlocks over the next 7 days (2025.9.25 - 2025.10.2). The top 3 unlocks are as follows:

• SUI will unlock tokens worth approximately $146 million in the next 7 days, accounting for 1.23% of the circulating supply.
• EIGEN will unlock approximately $659,100 worth of tokens in the next 7 days, accounting for 10.89% of the circulating supply.
• PARTI will unlock approximately 26.62 million dollars in the next 7 days, accounting for 78.44% of the circulating supply.
  Reference Source

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/
• jin10, https://rili.jin10.com/
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/view/stablecoin/
• etherscan, https://etherscan.io/gastracker
• Coingecko, https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/announcements/article/47349
• Businesswire, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250924937314/en/SUI-Group-Repurchases-276296-Shares-Under-Newly-Authorized-%2450-Million-Stock-Repurchase-Program
• Globenewsire, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/09/23/3155137/0/en/SOL-Strategies-Inc-Announces-Up-to-C-25-Million-LIFE-Offering-of-Units.html
• Cryptopolitan, https://www.cryptopolitan.com/crypto-liquidations-altcoin-rally-cut-short/
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/crypto-market-suffers-dollar18b-liquidation-wave-as-bitcoin-tests-support
• 99Bitcons, https://99bitcoins.com/news/presales/is-it-all-over-for-hyperliquid-apx-aster-and-gmx-steal-thunder-next-100x-crypto/
• 99Bitcons, https://99bitcoins.com/news/presales/avnt-crypto-and-linea-skyrocket-ahead-of-monday-new-crypto-to-buy/
• Rootdata, https://www.rootdata.com/Fundraising
• Tokenomist, https://tokenomist.ai/

Disclaimer Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves high risks. Users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products purchased before making any investment decisions. Gate does not assume any responsibility for losses or damages arising from such investment decisions.