Cryptocurrency markets experienced one other week of declines as investor activity progressively faded ahead of the vacation season.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell over 5% over the past week, falling to a weekly low of $84,398 on Thursday before recovering to trade above $87,769 on Friday, data from TradingView shows.
According to Solmate CEO Marco Santori, crypto market volatility continues to threaten the sustainability of digital asset treasury (DAT) corporations as their longevity now relies on avoiding the “multiple-to-net asset value (mNAV) roller coaster,” which leaves these corporations exposed to the fluctuations in the worth of tokens held on their balance sheets.
In the broader cryptocurrency space, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has closed its four-year investigation into Aave, marking a major regulatory victory for the industry.
Following the event, Stani Kulechov, the founding father of Aave, presented the “master plan” for the decentralized lending platform for 2026, which goals to attain $1 billion in value through real asset deposits through the launch of Aave v4, Horizon and the Aave app.
BTC/USD, 3-month chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
DAT's longevity relies on avoiding 'mNAV roller coaster': Solmate CEO
The rise of digital asset treasuries will go down in history because the meta-narrative of 2025, however the longevity of the movement shall be determined by capital management and sound business strategies.
According to Marco Santori, CEO of Solmate, all DATs must address the worth of the underlying token they hold on their balance sheets. This shouldn't be an issue for revenue-generating corporations, but pure-play DATs shall be in for a bumpy ride.
“Many of those treasury corporations survive on the ratio of net asset value. If they trade at a high mNAV, meaning their market cap is larger than the worth of the coins they’ve on the balance sheet, then they will sell shares in a way that increases value,” Santori said on Cointelegraph's Chain Reaction X show.
“Every dollar of stock they sell, they take it and use it to purchase the underlying coin, and that increases their net asset value. As long as they will maintain the premium, they will just keep going. And that's the pure treasury model. I actually think that has a future.”
The problem, nonetheless, is that mNAV drops when interest in a DAT's underlying token wanes. Santori explained that falling token prices result in lower mNAVs.
“That means lots of treasury corporations are sort of idle because they will't grow efficiently and effectively. I didn't wish to be exposed to that. I didn't want that for our investors. I would like to present them access to SOL and the expansion of the Solana network, but I didn't want them to ride an mNAV roller coaster,” Santori said.
Read on
Aave founder outlines “master plan” for 2026 after SEC investigation concludes
Aave founder Stani Kulechov has unveiled his decentralized protocol’s 2026 “master plan,” shortly after it was announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had ended its four-year investigation into the platform.
In a post on
Looking ahead to 2026, the CEO outlined a master plan that places a heavy emphasis on scaling the DeFi platform and achieving specific usage metrics, equivalent to $1 billion in real-world asset deposits (RWA).
“As it stands, our strategy for next 12 months relies on three primary pillars: Aave v4, Horizon and Aave App,” he said.
Source: Stan Kulechov
Aave v4 is a serious upgrade that is anticipated to significantly improve the platform's loan and lending pools, user interface, and liquidation parameters, amongst other things.
In his post, Kulechov said that v4 shall be the “backbone of all finance,” citing the tailored credit markets that v4’s hub-and-spoke model will provide.
In this model, the hub refers to a single unified cross-chain liquidity pool that acts as a central location for all assets within the protocol, while the spokes consult with highly customizable markets that leverage hub liquidity.
“This will enable Aave to oversee trillions of dollars in assets, making it the primary selection for all institutions, fintechs and enterprises trying to access Aave’s comprehensive, reliable liquidity,” he said, adding:
“In 2026, Aave shall be home to latest markets, latest assets and latest integrations never before seen in DeFi. We will proceed to collaborate with fintechs and work closely with the DAO and our partners on the rollout to progressively scale TVL all year long.”
Looking at Horizon's next pillar, Aave's real-world decentralized asset market, the CEO explained the intention to onboard “many top financial institutions” to change into a central player within the RWA space.
Read on
The hyperliquid governance vote goals to permanently sideline the $1 billion support fund
The Hyper Foundation proposed a validation vote to officially recognize HYPE tokens stored within the Hyperliquid Protocol's Assistance Fund system address as permanently inaccessible and exclude them from the asset's circulation and overall supply.
According to the inspiration, the Assistance Fund is a protocol-level mechanism embedded within the execution of the Layer 1 network. It mechanically converts trading fees into HYPE tokens and forwards them to a particular system address. At the time of writing, the wallet comprises roughly $1 billion in tokens.
The system address was designed without control mechanisms, so the funds are irretrievable and not using a hard fork. “By voting yes, validators conform to treat the Assistance Fund HYPE as burned,” the Hyper Foundation wrote.
Native Markets, the issuer of the hyperliquid native stablecoin USDH, reminded users that fifty% of the stablecoin's reserve yield shall be directed to the support fund and converted into HYPE tokens. “Should this validation vote achieve success, these contributions shall be officially recognized as burned,” the corporate wrote.
Source: Hyper Foundation
Read on
ETHGas Raises $12 Million as Buterin Reignites Gas Futures Debate
Ethereum blockspace trading platform ETHGas announced that it has raised $12 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital.
The funding announcement comes after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently discussed the thought of an on-chain “gas futures” market, arguing that such a product could give users a clearer signal about expected fees and permit them to hedge future costs.
ETHGas argues that Ethereum “needs a redesign of the best way blockspace is allocated on the network” and claims that its newly launched Blockspace trading platform is a step in that direction. The company said the market launched with $800 million in commitments from validators, builders and other participants.
ETHGas's Ethereum blockspace trading platform. Source: ETHGas
Read on
Tokenized stocks could also be on-chain, however the SEC still wants the keys
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Trading and Markets Division outlined on Wednesday how broker-dealers can hold tokenized stocks and bonds inside existing customer protection rules, signaling that blockchain-based crypto-asset securities shall be placed inside traditional securities protections quite than treated as a brand new category.
The department said it has no objection to broker-dealers being deemed to be in possession of crypto asset securities under existing customer protection rules so long as they meet various operational, security and governance conditions. This only applies to crypto securities, including tokenized stocks or bonds.
While the statement will not be a rule, it provides clarity on how U.S. regulators expect tokenized securities to suit into traditional market protections.
The guidance suggests that tokenized securities will not be treated as a brand new asset class with unique rules. Instead, they’re integrated into existing broker-dealer frameworks, even in the event that they are situated inside blockchain networks.
Source: US SEC
Read on
Overview of the DeFi market
Most of the highest 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week within the red, based on data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.
Memecoin launchpad token Pump.fun (PUMP) fell 32%, marking the largest drop of the week in the highest 100, followed by decentralized exchange token Aster (ASTER), which fell over 27% last week.
Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama
Thank you for reading our roundup of essentially the most influential DeFi developments this week. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and knowledge on this dynamically evolving field.
