Yield Basis Deposits Live, Plasma Launches Across Major DeFi Protocols, Metamask Launches Perps Trading, and more...
Launches 🚀
Plasma launched its mainnet and native token XPL, positioning itself as a stablecoin-focused L1 with over 100 DeFi integrations, including Aave, Ethena, Fluid, and Euler. The chain enables fee-free USDT transfers via PlasmaBFT and opened with $2B TVL, placing it among the top 10 blockchains.
XPL’s fully diluted valuation exceeded $8B, with CEO Paul Fax highlighting stablecoins as “money 2.0” to expand global dollar access and investment opportunities.
Spiral Stake opened deposits, offering up to 100% APY through looping stablecoin PT pools powered by Pendle and flash leverage via Morpho. Users can deposit into pools of leading stablecoins such as USDe, sUSDe, pUSDe, USR, rUSD, cUSD, and more, all vetted for issuer backing and risk.
By combining Pendle PTs for stable yields with a one-click Flash Leverage system, Spiral Stake locks in borrow rates upfront, removing manual complexity and making stable, predictable looping yields accessible at scale.
YieldBasis deposits are now live, letting users LP BTC in Curve without impermanent loss by using 2× leveraged BTC/crvUSD positions. Depositors provide BTC and receive ybBTC, which represents a leveraged LP share backed by borrowed crvUSD. This setup keeps the position at 50% debt-to-value, ensuring it tracks BTC 1:1 while still earning trading fees.
Users can stay unstaked to earn fees in BTC or stake ybBTC to earn YB emissions and fee-sharing rights. Unlike traditional AMMs where LP value grows with √p (causing IL), YieldBasis’ constant 2× leverage aligns growth with p, eliminating IL at the root.
Reserve introduced the CF Large Cap Index DTF ($LCAP), now tradable on Kraken, offering investors exposure to 95% of the crypto market cap in a single token. Powered by Reserve and benchmarked by CF Benchmarks, $LCAP provides a simplified way to gain broad crypto market exposure through one asset.
Gate launched Gate Layer, a new Layer 2 network built on OP Stack and anchored by GateChain, aiming to improve transaction throughput and reduce costs. Alongside the rollout, GT tokenomics were upgraded, making GT the exclusive gas token for the chain while maintaining its deflationary burn model, which has already removed over 180M GT (~60% of initial supply).
Gate Layer will support products like Perp (a perps hub), Gate Fun (a no-code token launch incubator), and Meme Go (a cross-chain meme tracker), positioning the exchange to expand its Web3 ecosystem—similar to Coinbase’s move with Base.
Drake Exchange launched its testnet on Monad, introducing a CLOB-based perps trading platform focused on execution speed and accurate pricing. Users can now trial perpetuals trading directly on the testnet.
Updates 📰
Ethena launched on Plasma with USDe and sUSDe live across Aave, Fluid, Curve, and Balancer. Aave’s Plasma instance supports $950M in deposits backed by $1–2B USDT from Binance Earn, enabling large-scale looping at competitive rates. Deposits earn Ethena Points, with Liquid Leverage rewards via Merkl, and Pendle PT markets set to launch soon.
Spark announced a partnership with PayPal to expand PYUSD supply by $1B in the coming weeks, following $200M in deposits already. Using its Liquidity Layer and SparkLend, Spark provides issuers with predictable, cost-efficient bootstrapping by dynamically deploying Sky’s $8B balance sheet instead of relying on external LPs.
The system also manages DEX liquidity on Uniswap and Curve, enabling institutional-scale PYUSD swaps against USDC and USDT.
Jito launched BAM early mainnet, open-sourcing its validator client as initial validators begin onboarding across 5+ regions. A bug bounty program will roll out soon, supporting the network’s push into a new era of validator infrastructure.
Circle launched USDC and CCTP V2 on Ink, enabling native USDC support for DeFi trading, 24/7 settlement, and cross-chain liquidity. Ink users can now move USDC seamlessly across 17 chains with CCTP V2, bringing native support to 28 blockchains overall. Day-one partners include Bungee, CctpExchange, Interport, Velodrome, and Wormhole.
Pear Protocol announced its deployment on Base, with users now able to access the beta version through its trading platform.
Enso launched Checkout, a universal Web3 payment layer that unifies CEX balances, fiat, and onchain assets into one experience. Designed as a crypto-native Stripe, Checkout enables deposits from any chain, fiat onramps via card or bank, and direct use of CEX funds from platforms like Binance, Bybit, and OKX, aiming to bring millions of centralized exchange users seamlessly into DeFi apps.
Kamino launched its Security Page, outlining the safeguards behind its flawless three-year track record: $4B+ secured deposits, 140K+ loans, and $120M liquidated with zero bad debt. The protocol has completed 18 audits, 3 formal verifications, triple-audited oracles, verifiable builds, redundancy across systems, and advanced fuzzing and stress tests—cementing its position as Solana’s most secure money market.
LayerZero Foundation repurchased 50M ZRO from early investors, equal to 5% of supply, bringing total buybacks this year to over $150M following its April deal with a16z Crypto. Funded by Stargate revenues, the program underscores ZRO’s positioning as diversified exposure to payments, tokenization, stablecoins, and blockchains, with the foundation noting it may pursue further discretionary buybacks if opportunities arise.
Kamino announced that $FORD from Forward Industries will be added as a collateral asset on Kamino Lend, marking the first of several planned integrations between the two on Solana.
Based introduced a Trading Terminal update with Universal Search, letting users quickly access token charts, set candle intervals, and navigate directly to key sections like homepage, portfolio, and leaderboard for a faster, streamlined experience.
Elixir announced it will soon stop hosting deUSD conversions for elxETH depositors and will open a dedicated claim page for affected LPs. The team urged users who opted into conversions to complete them promptly, with further details to be shared on the blog.
YZi Labs expanded its investment in Ethena Labs, backing the growth of USDe, now the third-largest USD asset in crypto with over $13B supply and TVL. The renewed support will drive Ethena’s expansion on BNB Chain, wider USDe adoption across CEXs and DeFi, and the rollout of new products, including USDtb, a fiat-backed stablecoin, and Converge, an institutional settlement layer developed with Securitize and BlackRock partners.
YZi Labs was an early backer of Ethena, investing before its public launch in 2024, and says it remains committed to building durable, yield-bearing digital dollar infrastructure.
Vitalik Buterin said low-risk DeFi could become Ethereum’s equivalent of Google’s search business, providing a sustainable economic backbone while aligning with its cultural values. He noted that as protocols mature and risks decline, DeFi is shifting from speculative incentives toward stable uses like payments, savings, and collateralized lending.
Vitalik added that low-risk DeFi not only drives ETH collateral use and fee revenue but also enables global, permissionless access to reliable assets, positioning Ethereum for long-term growth and broader financial inclusion.
Jupiter Lend introduced permissionless liquidation bots, allowing anyone to build and run bots through its SDK. The feature strengthens market health with faster liquidations, improves LTVs for borrowers, and provides profit opportunities for bot operators, adding a new layer of community-driven stability to the protocol.
Metamask added USDC deposit functionality for Hyperliquid’s perpetuals trading. Users can now fund their perps accounts directly from MetaMask, with full deposit flow including amount input, previews, real-time gas fee estimates, and transaction status tracking. The integration also leverages Bridge’s token selector for cross-network consistency and enforces minimum deposit rules (5 USDC mainnet, 10 USDC testnet).
Issues ⚠️
UXLINK reported a series of security incidents involving unauthorized minting of its tokens. The team confirmed that while stolen assets were swiftly frozen with help from major exchanges, a malicious actor continued to mint unauthorized $160M worth of UXLINK (1 Billion) tokens on Arbitrum in violation of the project’s whitepaper. No user wallets were directly compromised, but the team strongly advised against trading UXLINK on DEXs to avoid losses.
Emergency steps include requesting centralized exchanges to suspend trading and preparing a token swap to protect the token economy. A new contract with fixed supply has been submitted for audit, removing the mint-and-burn function to prevent further abuse.
UXLINK is coordinating with partners like PeckShield, exchanges, and Korea’s DAXA to resolve the issue and prepare a comprehensive incident report. The project emphasized that only updates from official channels should be trusted as it works toward migration and recovery.
Kinto issued an urgent notice that its network will shut down on Sept 30, advising all users to withdraw their assets from wallets before the deadline.
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