Gate Decentralized Finance Daily ( September 16 ): Base "Exploring Issue Coin" Ignites Market Enthusiasm; DEX volume increases by 25%

As of September 16, the total DeFi TVL across the network held firm at 160 billion USD, with DEX trading volume breaking through 19.4 billion USD, a 25% increase compared to the previous day. The trading activity of Solana and Ethereum has significantly increased, while Base has seen a substantial rise in DEX trading volume within its ecosystem due to the potential favourable information from "exploring issue coin." On the other hand, the Pump protocol fees surged to the second highest across the network, and Pendle launched cross-chain PT, while Ethena is preparing to switch fees, all indicating that core protocols are continuously iterating on functional expansion and revenue models. The overall market is in a state of consolidation, with some DeFi blue-chip tokens strengthening.

DeFi Market Overview

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Total DeFi TVL across the network: still maintaining above 160 billion USD, currently at 160.556 billion USD, with a 24H slight decrease of 0.46%.

DEX 24-hour volume: approximately $19.433 billion, an increase of about 25% compared to the previous day ($15.567 billion). The top three are: Uniswap ($4.29 billion), PancakeSwap ($2.458 billion), HumidiFi ($1.349 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 performance data of the top-ranked protocols are as follows:

Aave: TVL approximately 41.813 billion USD, increased by 4.76% over the past week;

Lido: TVL approximately $39.028 billion, an increase of 4.22% over the past week;

EigenLayer: TVL approximately 19.308 billion USD, an increase of 2.49% in the past week;

Ethena: TVL approximately 13.909 billion USD, increased by 6.2% in the past week;

Pendle: TVL approximately 12.912 billion USD, with a growth of 9.96% in the past week.

In addition, the top ten projects ranked by protocol fees in the past 24 hours are as follows:

Among them, Pump's protocol fees in the past 24 hours reached 8.52 million USD, ranking second only to Tether; Uniswap ranked fourth with protocol fees of 4.81 million USD; Jupiter made it into the top five with 3.90 million USD.

Project News Review

1. Pumpfun stated on social media, "Yesterday (September 15), over 4 million dollars in creator rewards were paid, most of which went to users creating for the first time. With the push of tokenization, a 'Cambrian explosion' of creativity is unfolding."

In addition, data shows that pumpfun spent 12,706 SOL (approximately $3.056 million) on September 15 to repurchase 368.7 million PUMP. Since starting the repurchase of PUMP on July 15, a total of approximately $97.3 million worth of PUMP tokens have been repurchased, reducing the total circulating supply by 6.671%.

2. Pendle announced the launch of cross-chain PT, the first PT-USDe deployed on Avalanche (November 2025).

PT has become an indispensable part of DeFi as a fixed income source, supporting over 5.8 billion USD of PT as collateral through major lending markets like Aave, Morpho, and Euler on Ethereum. Pendle plans to continue expanding its fixed income landscape by using PT on different public chains and even extending to off-chain yields in the near future.

3. The Ethena Foundation confirms that the fee switch parameters set by the Risk Committee have met the requirements. It is expected that the fee switch for ENA will be activated once the Risk Committee approves the implementation details and completes the subsequent governance process. The Ethena Risk Committee is currently discussing the implementation details, which will be made public once finalized—at that time, ENA holders will be required to vote to confirm the proposed framework.

In addition, Ethena stated, "After announcing a strategic investment and cooperation with Based, a trading platform based on Hyperliquid's omnichannel trading, Based's revenue increased fourfold within a week, currently accounting for about 20% of Hyperliquid's 24-hour perpetual contract trading volume." On September 8, Ethena announced a strategic investment and cooperation with Based, continuing to support the Hyperliquid ecosystem. Currently, Based accounts for about 7% of Hyperliquid's perpetual contract trading volume. Through this cooperation, Based will become an important partner in promoting the adoption of USDe, USDtb, and other unreleased Ethena products on Hyperliquid.

4. According to official news, Sky Protocol spent 700,000 USD last week to repurchase 9.4 million SKY Tokens. So far, Sky Protocol has repurchased over 1.19 billion SKY Tokens.

5. Plasma announced a partnership with Maple Finance to strengthen the on-chain credit layer and launched the syrupUSDT pre-deposit pool to provide seed funding for initial liquidity. The official statement indicated that Plasma is the optimal deployment choice for the Maple USDT market, thus becoming the third public chain deployed by Maple. By connecting USDT liquidity with the Maple market, both parties will build a core institutional credit layer on Plasma.

Maple will collaborate with Midas to open a pre-deposit pool to support liquidity on the launch day of the Plasma network. The syrupUSDT deposit pool has a cap of $200 million, and users can deposit mainstream stablecoins and syrupUSDT. This will be the final deposit pool before the Beta version of the Plasma mainnet goes live. The deposit pool will officially launch at 21:00 Beijing time on September 16. Along with Maple's deployment, this on-chain asset management company will also launch syrupUSDT on Plasma, fully integrating into Plasma's Decentralized Finance ecosystem.

6. Japan's Credit Saison's venture capital firm Saison Capital announced the establishment of a blockchain-focused investment fund, Onigiri Capital, with an initial target size of 50 million USD. The fund has currently secured commitments of 35 million USD and will focus on investing in startups developing stablecoins, payments, asset tokenization, DeFi, and real-world asset (RWA) solutions for financial market infrastructure.

7. The co-founder and CEO of a large CEX stated, "We are exploring issuing a native Token for the Base network. It could become an important tool for accelerating decentralization and promoting the growth of creators and developers within the ecosystem. It is important to clarify that there are currently no definite plans. We are just updating our vision. So far, we are still in the exploration stage."

Overview of Major Ecological Leaders in DeFi Projects

Solana DEX's 24-hour volume remains strong, staying at the top with approximately $5.865 billion, a growth of 32.5% over the past week, with the top three projects being:

HumidiFi ($1.349 billion), Meteora ($1.295 billion), Pump ($770.16 million);

Ethereum DEX ranks second in 24-hour trading volume, approximately $4.721 billion, nearly doubling compared to the previous day ($2.409 billion), with the top three projects being:

Uniswap ($2.263 billion), Fluid ($1.048 billion), Curve Finance ($434.98 million);

Affected by the "Exploration of Issuing Coins" news, Base DEX's 24-hour trading volume has entered the top four, growing by 12.55% over the past week to approximately 1.826 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

Aerodrome ($865.68 million), Uniswap ($606.05 million), PancakeSwap ($298.47 million).

Gate DeFi Sector Token Market Data

According to the data from Gate's market page, the price performance of the top ten tokens in the DeFi sector is as follows:

(Source: Gate DeFi Sector Quotes)

As of September 16, the cryptocurrency market is showing a volatile consolidation trend, with a slight recovery currently. The DeFi sector is mixed, specifically:

UNI is currently reported at 9.29 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 1.71%;

WLFI is currently priced at 0.2238 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 8.27%;

AAVE is currently reported at 296.13 USD, with a 24-hour decline of 1.84%;

MYX is currently reported at 10.92 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 5.67%;

INJ is currently priced at 13.66 USD, with a 24-hour increase of 0.16%;

CRV is currently reported at 0.7366 USD, with a 24-hour decline of 3.86%;

MORPHO is currently reported at 1.95 USD, with a 24-hour decline of 1.29%.

Market Trend Interpretation

TVL and volume maintain high levels: The total DeFi TVL across the network is reported at 160.556 billion USD, with a slight short-term adjustment, but overall remains solid. DEX trading volume exceeded 19.4 billion USD in a single day, indicating that market liquidity and activity remain at a high level, with funds still concentrated in leading protocols and on-chain ecosystems.

Solana and Ethereum Lead: Solana DEX volume exceeds 5.8 billion USD, maintaining its top position; Ethereum DEX volume nearly doubled from the previous day to 4.721 billion USD, indicating a significant rebound in mainstream chain DeFi activity.

Base Volume Surge: The news of Base "exploring issuing coins" has led to a jump in Base DEX trading volume to $1.8 billion, with a weekly increase of over 12%. This event has strengthened market expectations for potential token issuance on emerging public chains.

Protocol Layer Hotspot: The 24-hour protocol fees for Pump reached 8.52 million USD, second only to Tether, showing that the Meme narrative remains strong; Pendle expands cross-chain PT, further extending the fixed income landscape; Ethena is about to launch the fee switch for ENA, which may create new income channels for token holders.

Analyst's Viewpoint

Analysts have pointed out that the potential issue coin signal of Base may become a short-term focus for funds, with volume already reflecting market sentiment. If it is officially launched in the future, it could become another explosive point in the on-chain ecosystem following OP and ARB.

Researchers generally believe that the trading volume of Solana and Ethereum is rising simultaneously, indicating a two-way flow of funds between mainstream chains, reflecting that DeFi users have not massively exited due to overall market fluctuations, but are instead seeking opportunities across different ecosystems.

On the other hand, the performance of Pump, Pendle, and Ethena indicates that innovation at the protocol layer is driving the iteration of fee and revenue models. Analysts expect that the three main lines of fixed income (Pendle), fee distribution (Ethena), and Meme narrative (Pump) may become key directions for capital chasing in the next stage of DeFi.