The Ethena Flywheel Spins Faster

With USDe supply surpassing $7B, Ethena’s July 2025 momentum underscores its ambition to redefine digital dollars at the intersection of DeFi and traditional finance. On July 21, StablecoinX Inc. announced a $360M raise, including $60M in ENA from the Ethena Foundation, to acquire ENA and pursue a Nasdaq listing under the ticker “USDE.” $260M will be used to buy ~8% of ENA’s supply over six weeks. The next day, Strata launched its Season 0, letting users mint pUSDe by depositing USDe or eUSDe and earn points via partners like Pendle and Morpho. It reached $19M TVL in three days, signaling strong demand for structured yield and growing USDe utility. On July 24, Anchorage Digital partnered with Ethena to issue USDtb onshore as the first GENIUS-compliant stablecoin, offering institutions access to a secure and programmable stablecoin. Together, these milestones reinforce Ethena’s flywheel: 1) Integrations like Strata and Anchorage drive USDe/USDtb adoption; 2) More circulating USDe generates revenue via ETH staking, delta hedging, and stablecoins rewards; 3) Once the fee switch is on, this revenue becomes real yield for ENA holders; 4) StablecoinX gives equity markets exposure to stablecoin growth via a treasury vehicle focused on buybacks and long-term ENA accumulation. This flywheel is supported by Converge, a high-speed EVM chain built with Securitize and Arbitrum, where USDe, USDtb, and iUSDe are issued natively, RWAs are composable with DeFi, and sENA is staked for governance and gas. It unites TradFi, DeFi, and crypto rails into a single system for mass adoption of “Internet Money.”

Base App Launch Triggers SocialFi Breakout

On July 16, Coinbase rebranded its Wallet as the Base App, a crypto-native “everything app” combining wallets, social feeds, trading, payments, and mini-apps, all powered by its L2 chain, Base. Built with integrations with Farcaster and Zora, the app lets users post, chat, and mint content coins, turning social engagement into tradable onchain assets. The launch triggered a surge in Zora Coins activity: daily tokens created jumped from a 4K average to over 15K, peaking at 38K on July 24; unique creators rose from 1.5K to 12K; daily trades surged from 30K to over 150K; and daily trading volume grew from ~$1M to over $6M. Creator rewards spiked from ~$1K to over $30K daily, with 8K+ Zora Smart Wallets active per day during this surge. With gasless Magic Spend, embedded mini-apps, and native content monetization, the Base App signals a shift from static wallets to dynamic, social crypto platforms, and could become the blueprint for mainstream SocialFi adoption.

Uniswap v4 Hits $100B in Trading Volume

Uniswap v4 has crossed major adoption milestones, recently surpassing $100B in cumulative trading volume and $1B in TVL. It now accounts for 30% of all Uniswap volume, while v3 still leads with ~60%, thanks to its entrenched liquidity and broad adoption. The rise of Unichain has been pivotal, regularly surpassing Ethereum in daily v4 transaction volume and capturing almost 50% of v4 activity. Recent metrics highlight strong user traction: v4 averages $634M in daily trading volume, with over $41.6M in total swap fees accrued to date. July also saw a record number of hook deployments, peaking at over 100 per day, enabling features like dynamic fees and automated strategies. Although v3 remains Uniswap’s most used and battle-tested deployment, a testament to its robustness, v4 signals a new era of programmable, modular DEX infrastructure where flexibility, composability, and capital efficiency take center stage.

Yala Tops $200M TVL, Launches $YALA

Yala is quickly becoming a core player in BTCFi, unlocking Bitcoin’s capital through a native stablecoin and multichain infrastructure. Since launching on May 16, Yala has surpassed $200M in TVL, with $122M in $YU minted. Backed by overcollateralized BTC and LSTs, $YU stable powers vaults, AMMs, the Stability Pool, and peg mechanisms. Over $73.8M $YU is staked in the Stability Pool, with $68M+ in cumulative DEX volume. Solana accounts for 74% of $YU DEX volume, mostly on Raydium, while Uniswap leads on Ethereum. On July 22, Yala launched its Season 1 Airdrop, distributing 34M $YALA (3.4% of supply) to nearly 10,000 users. Within days, 30M $YALA ($8.8M) was claimed, with an average reward of $601 and a median of just $13, reflecting both wide and deep community engagement. As BTCFi expands, Yala is building a cross-chain liquidity layer where BTC backs the next generation of onchain money.

Noble’s USDN Crosses $1B in Transaction Volume

USDN, Noble’s yield-bearing stablecoin backed by short-term U.S. Treasury Bills, has surpassed $1B in total transaction volume, just four months after launching in March 2025. With $115.8M in circulation, nearly 30,000 wallets, and $1.34M in yield paid, USDN is rapidly gaining traction among both users and developers. Adoption is growing steadily: USDN sees 10,916 monthly actives, and 2,797 new users in the past 30 days. Cumulative swap volume with USDC has reached $371M, with an average swap size of $5,613. Vault usage is strong: $78M is locked in the Points Vault, where users trade yield for loyalty multipliers, and $34M in the Boosted Yield Vault, where average deposits exceed $30K and users earn a 4.15% APY plus redistributed rewards. This momentum, combined with Noble’s new Community Ambassador program spanning six regions across Asia, Africa, Europe, and LatAm, highlights the protocol’s mission to bring stablecoin infrastructure to real-world use cases globally.

Nothing in this newsletter constitutes financial advice.

Always do your own research.

Dune Digest is all about cutting through the noise and surfacing the most relevant on-chain trends. If you have insights, dashboards, or data-driven stories that belong in the Digest, drop your suggestions here.

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Dune Team

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