This is an excerpt from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read the full article, register.
Happy Monday, and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We’re back with an update on the latest crypto trends as we head into the New Year.
Gold benchmarks took the lead this week as BTC fell almost 1%, leaving the risk-adjusted. Solana ecosystem tokens fared the best, with JTO and DRIFT posting double-digit gains while shares linked to L2s and Ethereum bled. Aave still dominates DeFi lending with 86% of the protocol’s revenue, but its power has dropped from 91% in January as new entrants Fluid are leaving. Meanwhile, Lighter continues to beat Hyperliquid on weekly volume, though the upcoming airdrop may be adding to those numbers.
Signs
Benchmarks rose slightly last week: Gold led gains (+3.57%) while the S&P 500 (+1.15%) and Nasdaq 100 (+0.84%) also posted modest gains. BTC reacted, falling by 0.90% despite many positions.
Crypto sector indices showed mixed results for the week. On the other hand, Solana Ecosystem (+4.4%) led the gains, followed by Launchpads (+3.23%), DePIN (+2.23%), Perps (+2.17%), and Modular (+1.7%). DEX (+1.42%) and AI (+1.07%) also posted modest gains. At the bottom, L2s (-8.27%) and Lending (-6.82%) saw a significant decrease, with Ethereum Ecosystem (-6.57%) and Crypto Miners (-5.97%) also under pressure.
JTO led the Solana Eco index with a +10.30% move, closely followed by DRIFT (+8.10%) as water levels and perps news also gained attention. JUP (+4.14%), ORCA (+3.81%), and RAY (+3.40%) also posted solid gains, reflecting strength across the DEX sector. In the end, MPLX (-2.68%) struggled to find its feet, and PUMP was underperforming at -5.11%, continuing to bleed as memecoin-launchpad fatigue set in.
Weekly charts
Aave has been dominating the DeFi lending space in 2025, capturing 86% of the protocol’s revenue and generating $120.9 million YTD. That said, Aave’s performance has declined slightly over the year, dropping from 91% in the January market to 86% in December. The new followers of HyperLend (launched in March) and Jupiter Lend (launched in July) now account for 3.4% of the market, while Fluid doubled its share from 2.4% to 4.9%, making it the fastest competitor among established protocols.
Outstanding loans also say the same. Aave has $21.3 billion in loans, representing 74.7% of the market, a share that has remained low since January. The real move has been among the opposition: Morpho grew from 10.6% to 12.8% of outstanding loans, while Spark fell from 11.5% to just 4.7%. Liquidity nearly doubled its share from 3.6% to 5.0%, and new entrants Jupiter Lend (2.1%) and HyperLend (0.7%) made up a small but growing position.
The decline in online revenue continued, with weekly total revenue down 21% to $26.4 million, the lowest in a month. Hyperliquid saw the biggest decline among the major chains, falling 40% from $11.8 million to $7.1 million, while Ethereum fell 38% to $2.2 million. Solana fared better, falling 2% to $4.7 million. Tron remained the biggest money maker after Hyperliquid at $6.1 million despite the 11% decrease. The only notable gainers were the smaller players: Arbitrum (+37%), Polygon (+50%), and BSC (+2%), although this move represents a small investment.
In August 2025, Hyperliquid reached $396 billion in revenue and $121 million in revenue, while the 30-day volume peaked at $395 billion with the protocol commanding 80%+ of the market for DeFi perps.
The lightweight has done $30.9 billion in perp volume in the past seven days and $203.7 billion in the last month, with $1.48 billion in interest. Aster saw $26 billion in seven days and $160.6 billion in 30 days, with $7.4 billion in OI. Hyperliquid has fallen behind on a weekly basis at $21.5 billion, although it still holds double their combined OI at $2.4 billion. With the upcoming lightweight Airdrop, we’ll see how the display looks like if the volumes drop too low after the program is over.
Get news in your inbox. Check out the Blockworks blog posts:
