Cryptocurrency markets experienced one other week of declines as investor activity steadily 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) firms as their longevity now will depend on avoiding the “multiple-to-net asset value (mNAV) roller coaster,” which leaves these firms 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 big 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 will depend 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 will likely 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 firms, but pure-play DATs will likely be in for a bumpy ride.
“Many of those treasury firms 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’ll 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’ll maintain the premium, they’ll just keep going. And that's the pure treasury model. I actually think that has a future.”
The problem, nevertheless, 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 firms are form of idle because they’ll't grow efficiently and effectively. I didn't need to be exposed to that. I didn't want that for our investors. I would like to offer 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.
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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, resembling $1 billion in real-world asset deposits (RWA).
“As it stands, our strategy for next yr relies on three fundamental 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 will likely 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 discuss 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 will likely 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 steadily 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 turn out to be a central player within the RWA space.
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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 robotically converts trading fees into HYPE tokens and forwards them to a selected 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 with no hard fork. “By voting yes, validators comply with 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 will likely be directed to the support fund and converted into HYPE tokens. “Should this validation vote achieve success, these contributions will likely be officially recognized as burned,” the corporate wrote.
Source: Hyper Foundation
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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 way in which 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
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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 will likely be placed inside traditional securities protections somewhat 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 aren’t 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 positioned inside blockchain networks.
Source: US SEC
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Overview of the DeFi market
Most of the highest 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week within the red, in accordance with 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 data on this dynamically evolving field.
