⚡️ INSIGHT: Standard Chartered says Aave could 50x to $3,500 by 2030.
The bank expects Aave to benefit as DeFi assets grow 37x and tokenized finance moves onchain.
Only a few DeFi projects do buybacks that exceed their token emissions.
In the past 90 days:
1. @HyperliquidX
• Bought back $135M worth of HYPE
• $64M HYPE was unlocked for its team
2. @chainlink
• Bought back $15M worth of LINK
• No LINK tokens were unlocked
3. @Uniswap
• Bought back $11.9M worth of UNI
• No UNI tokens were unlocked
4. @Lighter_xyz
• Bought back $6.4M worth of LIT
• No LIT tokens were unlocked (its unlocks start 1 year after TGE)
5. @JupiterExchange
• Bought back $5.7M worth of JUP
• No JUP tokens were unlocked (Jupiter passed a proposal to pause its token emissions)
6. @SkyMoney
• Bought back $3.3M worth of SKY
• No SKY tokens were unlocked (all its supply is already in circulation)
7. @Raydium
• Bought back $3M worth of RAY
• No RAY tokens were unlocked
Hyperliquid clearly dominates in terms of buybacks.
But what's great to see is that more and more projects have started to allocate a good chunk of their revenue to token buybacks.
DeFi is significantly more sustainable now than it was a few years ago.
The RWA tokenization landscape in 2026 has evolved a lot from what it looked like a year ago.
More players, more products, less vaporware.
Tokenized equities have changed the game. Yield-bearing stablecoins rely more on RWAs. DeFi taps into RWA yield at scale.
Aave is quietly turning lending into a multi-revenue credit infrastructure business.
Q2 2026 revenue is currently at $26.79M, with 7 days left in the quarter. It is still below the Q4 2025 peak of $47.82M, but already higher than Q2 2025 revenue of $20.41M.
The real signal is inside Protocol Earnings. Aave generated $22.08M this quarter so far, up from $16.85M in Q2 2025.
That growth did not come from a big jump in Borrow Fees. Borrow Fees were almost flat YoY, moving from $15.76M in Q2 2025 to $15.59M in Q2 2026.
The growth came from the rest of the stack.
→ Liquidation Fees and SVR grew from $845K in Q2 2025 to $5.65M in Q2 2026 so far.
→ SVR Liquidation Fees alone went from $71.78K to $2.78M.
→ @CoWSwap Swap Fees did not exist before Q2 2026 and already generated $637K in its first quarter.
This means Borrow Fees fell from around 94% of Protocol Earnings in Q2 2025 to around 71% in Q2 2026. Not because lending demand disappeared. Borrow Fees are still the largest revenue stream.
But Aave is becoming less dependent on pure borrow demand. That is the real signal here.
@aave is starting to monetize more of the financial activity around its credit markets, including volatility, liquidations and swap flow.
The endgame is not just a larger lending market. It is a credit infrastructure layer with multiple ways to capture value.
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Hyperliquid is winning big against CEXs in the RWA perps category.
Trade[XYZ], the most popular perps DEX powered by Hyperliquid, captured 50% market share in the RWA perps sector.
That's 4x more RWA market share than Binance has.
Top important DeFi news to pay attention to this week 🧠👇
1. $MEGA - @megaeth's TGE happens on April 30. Polymarket odds favor over $800m is over 90%
2. $AAVX - @aave DAO starts to vote on pausing AAVE buybacks following the rsETH attack tomorrow.
3. Bitcoin 2026 - the largest BTC-focused event of the year happens starting today in Las Vegas.
4. TOKEN2049 Dubai takes place on April 29-30
5. @pharos_network mainnet launch and airdrop claim on April 28.
6. @solsticefi Flares Season 1 SLX registration closed, distribution will start this week.
7. Solana SIMD-266 upgrade (aims for lower fees + higher capacity) is expected to be launched this month.
8. @centrifuge Q1 quarterly updates are scheduled on April 29. @SkyEcosystem will also release its Q1 report.
9. @Starknet proposed $strkBTC for staking eligibility, with a follow-up vote this week to validate its design and bridge signers. strkBTC is a Bitcoin wrapper that lets users use BTC in Starknet’s DeFi (trading, staking, liquidity, collateral)
10. @RaylsLabs launches USDr liquidity seeding (lock $USDC, mint $USDr) earn $RLS before public mainnet launch on April 30.
Did we miss any hot news? Let us know in comments.
Update on rsETH incident:
@LlamaRisk has published a report outlining the rsETH incident, the immediate actions taken, its impact on Aave, and potential paths forward.
All service providers have been working to assess the two potential bad debt scenarios on the Aave protocol.
Aave DAO service providers are also leading an effort with ecosystem participants to address any bad debt. This effort already has several indicative commitments from various parties and we are grateful for the strong support we have received so far.
We will share further updates as we have them.
In the meantime, the full report can be read here: https://t.co/jy3BHZCa7b
Update on rsETH incident:
WETH reserves on the Ethereum Core V3 market have been unfrozen and users can supply WETH to Ethereum Core V3 again. WETH LTV remains at 0.
WETH reserves on Ethereum Prime, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea remain frozen.
Aave service providers will continue to work on next steps and provide updates accordingly.
DeFi TVL just dropped 7 Billion in the last 24h.
This is a reaction to dwindling trust in DeFi vaults.
Also the hacks are happening every other day.
When confidence in yield systems weakens, liquidity is the first thing to move.
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𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 15 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐕𝐋 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 24𝐡👇.
1. @aave: -12.16% → -$2.11B
2. @Morpho: -6.36% → -$414.2M
3. @ethena: -4.82% → -$299.2M
4. @SkyEcosystem: -5.52% → -$296.0M
5. @kamino: -6.04% → -$102.6M
6. @pendle_fi: -5.52% → -$87.3M
7. @LidoFinance: -0.38% → $82.5M
8. @eigencloud: -0.56% → -$54.5M
9. @binance Staked ETH: -0.45% → -$38.2M
10. @ether_fi: -0.50% → -$27.8M
11. @FigureMarkets : -1.42% → -$23.9M
12. @SteakhouseFi: -0.85% → -$14.4M
13. @compoundfinance: -0.94% → -$14.4M
14. @kernel_dao: -0.70% → -$10.8M
15. @falconfinance: -0.03% → -$0.49M
This decline is noticeable across lending, restaking, and structured yield protocols.
That is just an indication that users are trying to stay safe.
It doesn't mean they are leaving crypto entirely.
-------------------
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐱
To stabilise TVL and rebuild confidence, DeFi infra needs to move fast on the following:
> Stronger audit and real-time monitoring systems
> Simpler vault design which promotes transparency
> Proof-of-reserve style visibility for DeFi positions
> Risk isolation between strategies
> Better incentive alignment
The number of DeFi protocols affected by the rsETH exploit is insane.
• ETH lenders on Aave can't withdraw
• Lido's EarnETH vault has rsETH exposure
• Hyperithm's mHyperETH vault has $3.5M exposure to rsETH
• Borrowers on Morpho, Fluid, Aave, Loopscale, and Kamino are getting crushed by the surge in borrowing rates
• Yuzu Money and Avant have massive sUSDe loop positions on Aave paying 90%+ borrowing APYs
• Superform's SuperWETH vault has a small exposure to rsETH
• Dozens of protocols paused their LayerZero infrastructure bridge
And almost all major money markets on Ethereum supported rsETH as collateral.
It remains to be seen how much bad debt each one will incur.
But things are not looking good.
Too bored with blue-chip stablecoin yields?
Here are 12 protocols to earn yield on stablecoins, RWAs, and DeFi strategies, plus potential airdrops (over $50M in TVL).
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Crypto Watchlist for the week ahead
$HYPE - Hyperliquid's HIP-4 prediction markets upgrade is rumored to go live in the next 1-2 weeks
$PENDLE - Pendle teased the expansion of its PT fixed yield product to Solana
$KNTQ - Kinetiq will launch kHYPE v2, a major upgrade to its HYPE liquid staking token, on April 6
$POL - Polygon's Guiliano Hardfork upgrade, which will make the network faster, is expected to launch on April 8
$AAVE - Aave's ARFC proposal to launch Aave Savings Rate, a 4.25% APR fixed yield product, just passed
Macro events - Trump's ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz ends tomorrow + US FOMC meeting is scheduled for April 8
$ACX - Across's proposal to exchange ACX tokens for company equity ends on April 7
If you enjoyed reading this, a like and a repost would be appreciated🫡
Crypto Watchlist for the week ahead:
$AAVE - AIP proposal to launch AAVE V4 should go live in the next few days
$ETH - Ethereum's largest European Conference starts on March 30
$JUP - Jupiter will soon launch Jupiter Offerbook - a new lending protocol for fixed-term loans
$SUSHI - Sushiswap will launch perps on April 2
$FTT - FTX will distribute $2.2 billion to its creditors on March 31
$BASED - Based, a Hyperliquid-powered DEX, will launch its token on March 30
Macro events - Trump reportedly considers launching ground operations in Iran + FED Chair Powell will deliver a speech tomorrow
Variational - Variational is set to make a big announcement soon
$SNX - Synthetix will launch multi-collateral trading in April
If you enjoyed reading this, a like and a repost would be appreciated🫡
Great article on DeFi yields.
$8B of onchain yield was generated in 2025.
- $1.76B from borrow interest (Aave, Morpho, Spark, Maple, Fluid)
- $4.2B from AMM trading fees (Uniswap, Meteora, Raydium)
- $300M from perps funding fees (Ethena, HLP, JLP)
- $600-900M from RWAs (BlackRock BUIDL, Janus Henderson, Superstate)
The rest from staking issuance and MEV.
Interesting that a lot of yield is hard to capture: AMM LPs still lose money to toxic flow.
Insurance industry is still small ... generated just $5.5M, mostly by Nexus mutual.
Funding rates are volatile (it was 0.6% in 2022 but 13% in 2024).
Almost HALF of all borrowing demand is just looping other yield sources.
Overall, 58% of stablecoin TVL earns under 3%... which is below treasuries.
Sky's 3.75% SSR looks sexy, but 70% of its income is offchain origination.