Gate Decentralized Finance Daily (, September 12: WLFI buyback and burn plan becomes the focus; DeFi TVL returns to $160 billion.

On September 12, the DeFi market showed signs of recovery, with the total TVL returning above $160 billion, and DEX volume maintaining at $16.1 billion. Meteora continues to lead the Solana ecosystem with expectations for TGE and Airdrop, with daily trading volume breaking through $1 billion; WLFI announced a buyback and burn proposal to strengthen long-term value narrative. Meanwhile, protocols like Ethena and Pendle have performed outstandingly in terms of revenue and TVL rise, indicating that funds are concentrating on yield-generating protocols.

Decentralized Finance Market Overview

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Total DeFi TVL across the network: back 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 USD, with the top three being: Uniswap (3.348 billion USD), PancakeSwap (2.4 billion USD), Hyperliquid (1.143 billion USD).

Popular Protocols and On-Chain Performance

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

(Source: DeFiLlama)

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

Aave: TVL approximately 41.194 billion USD, rise of 4.75% in the past week, and approximately 3.3 million USD in fees over the last 24 hours;

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

EigenLayer: TVL approximately 19.524 billion USD, rise of 2.45% over the past week, 24-hour fees approximately 620,000 USD;

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

Pendle: TVL of approximately $12.321 billion, a rise of 10.41% over the past week, with a significant increase, and about $100,000 in fees over the last 24 hours.

Project News Summary

1. Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated on social media that the Aave protocol has seen a continuous rise in revenue in recent years: $5.22 million in 2022, $22.54 million in 2023, and reaching $90.42 million in 2024. As of 2025, it has already achieved revenue of $86.27 million, soon to surpass last year's total.

2. Guy Young, the founder of Ethena Labs, posted on social media that through direct communication with community members and validation nodes, Ethena Labs has carefully considered several key issues, 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 has become almost clear, Ethena Labs will respectfully withdraw the proposal so that validating nodes can freely support other options.

3. World Liberty Financial has released 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 burns. It is reported that "Protocol Owned Liquidity" refers only to the fees generated from liquidity controlled by WLFI, while fees from community and third-party liquidity providers (LPs) remain unaffected.

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

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

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 new generation Layer2 blockchain Jovay. "This is a fundamental upgrade for smart contracts," she said, noting that smart contracts will transition from "automation" based on preset rules to "autonomy" with environmental awareness and dynamic decision-making capabilities, aiding the intelligent leap of the global value network.

5. The SSV team released a detailed post-analysis of two recent penalty events. The monitoring system first flagged a penalty event on Wednesday at 11:51 UTC. About 90 minutes later, a second, larger penalty event affected 39 validators. Investigations revealed that both events stemmed from external factors related to the SSV protocol and were specifically linked to validator key management.

In the two incidents, the larger one is related to the long-term staking service provider Ankr, which acknowledged that due to an operational maintenance configuration error, the validator keys were simultaneously active in two different infrastructures, leading to this penalty. The company immediately shut down the affected operators and collaborated with SSV Labs to confirm the root cause. The smaller incident involves validators that were previously migrated from the custody service provider Allnodes, which is still under investigation, but investigators suspect that the auxiliary validator setup also 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, there were no signs of double signing or faults on the SSV side.

Overview of Major Ecological Leaders in Decentralized Finance Projects

Solana DEX 24-hour volume has ranked first 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 sector token market data

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

(Source: Gate DeFi market trend)

As of September 12, the cryptocurrency market has generally rebounded, with the DeFi sector experiencing a broad rise. Specifically:

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

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

CRV is currently priced 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 rises back to 160 billion USD, market rebound signals strengthen

The total DeFi TVL across the network reports 160.283 billion USD, rising 2.7% in 24 hours, indicating signs of capital inflow. The DEX 24-hour volume is approximately 16.113 billion USD, still dominated by Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and Hyperliquid.

Meteora volume leads Solana ecosystem

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

WLFI repurchase and burn plan strengthens long-term narrative

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

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

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 saw a weekly rise of over 10%, reaching 12.321 billion USD, showing that the capital activity in the yield sector continues to heat up.

Analyst Insights

Analysts believe that the recovery of the DeFi market on September 12 was mainly driven by the overall rebound in the cryptocurrency market. Additionally, the influx of funds anticipated from the Meteora TGE and the narrative effect of the WLFI buyback and burn plan also played a role in driving this rise.

The activity level of the Solana ecosystem is the most prominent in the current market, with Meteora becoming an important hub for capital flow; meanwhile, in terms of income protocols, Ethena's revenue capability 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, value capture logic is led by WLFI, while the yield-driven growth track is dominated by Ethena and Pendle.

Overview

Overall, on September 12, the DeFi market saw a rise in liquidity, with the TVL returning above 160 billion USD, and the Solana ecosystem remained the leader in activity. The expected TGE of Meteora and the buyback and burn 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 driven by incentives and sentiment, but from a long-term perspective, security and governance remain the core considerations for the development of DeFi.