Token Terminal

1) Executive summary
Ethereum $ETH is a public, permissionless blockchain that provides global settlement and computation for an open economy of financial applications. It runs a single shared ledger that anyone can build on and that no single party can switch off, and it uses its native asset, ETH, both to pay for transactions and, through staking, to secure the network.
The activity it hosts has historically been constrained by the cost and throughput of legacy financial infrastructure: settlement that takes days, layers of intermediaries, and counterparty risk at each hop. Tokenization and stablecoins have emerged as the onchain answer to those frictions, and as regulatory frameworks for both matured through 2025 and into 2026, the conditions for institutional onchain activity moved from theoretical to practical.
Ethereum's role in that shift is the base settlement layer. Stablecoins, tokenized funds, tokenized commodities, and a growing set of tokenized stocks are issued and settled on it, while a network of layer-2s extends throughput and settles back to the layer-1. Value accrues to ETH as the asset that secures and pays for this settlement, and the staking market reflects the share of supply committed to that role.
On market positioning, Ethereum remains the leading venue for tokenized assets by market cap, holding the majority share of stablecoins, tokenized funds, commodities, and stocks measured across chains. Ethereum is stewarded by the Ethereum Foundation alongside a broad, independent community of client teams and researchers, with institution-facing groups such as Etherealize working to make the network legible to traditional finance.
Q1 2026 split cleanly into two stories. Usage reached record levels: monthly active users, transaction count, and throughput all set record highs. At the same time, dollar-denominated value and fee metrics compressed, with the fully diluted market cap, total value locked, trading volume, and both fee measures all lower quarter over quarter. The period's shaping events sat behind both halves: the Fusaka upgrade cycle's second Blob Parameters Only (BPO #2) fork raised data capacity in January, ERC-8004 went live on mainnet in February as a standard for AI-agent identity and reputation, the Ethereum Foundation set its 2026 Protocol Cluster priorities (Scale, Improve UX, Harden the L1), and institutional engagement was visible through events such as the Institutional Ethereum Forum in March.
🔑 Key metrics (Q1 2026)
Ecosystem total value locked: $316.2 B (-11.0% QoQ, +22.8% YoY)Ecosystem active loans: $21.8 B (-16.6% QoQ, +39.0% YoY)Ecosystem trading volume: $134.5 B (-24.0% QoQ, -31.2% YoY)Ecosystem fees: $2.0 B (-16.9% QoQ, -7.8% YoY)Tokenized asset market cap: $203.4 B (-0.7% QoQ, +42.9% YoY)Stablecoins: $178.9 B (-2.3% QoQ, +37.6% YoY)Tokenized funds: $19.4 B (+4.9% QoQ, +73.1% YoY)Tokenized commodities: $4.7 B (+60.0% QoQ, +325.9% YoY)Tokenized stocks: $365.1 M (+16.5% QoQ)Monthly active users: 13.2 M (+53.5% QoQ, +85.9% YoY)Transaction count: 200.4 M (+38.0% QoQ, +81.5% YoY)Transactions per second: 25.78 (+41.2% QoQ, +81.7% YoY)Fees: $39.9 M (-47.9% QoQ, -81.9% YoY)Fully diluted market cap: $290.0 B (-30.3% QoQ, -9.9% YoY)Staking ratio: 0.31x (+0.03x QoQ, +0.03x YoY)Token holders: 292.8 M (+8.1% QoQ, +24.9% YoY)
This report covers Ethereum's layer-1 (mainnet). Layer-2 networks are treated as separate chains and are not included in Ethereum's figures.
2) Ecosystem
Total value locked measures the value of onchain deposits across a project's applications and acts as a leading indicator of revenue-generating activity such as borrowing, trading, and staking; here it captures capital deposited across Ethereum's ecosystem, which depositors can typically withdraw at any time.
On that basis, ecosystem total value locked averaged $316.2 B in Q1 '26, down 11.0% QoQ but up 22.8% YoY. The quarterly decline tracks the broad pullback in asset prices, while the annual gain shows the ecosystem is still materially larger than a year ago.
Ethereum is by far the largest of the top five chains, at $316.2 B, more than Tron ($84.5 B), Solana ($28.8 B), BNB Chain ($10.3 B), and Plasma ($5.7 B) combined, and 71.0% of their total. The biggest pools of that capital sit in liquid staking, led by Lido, and lending, led by Aave, with restaking (EigenLayer and ether.fi) and the synthetic-dollar issuers (Ethena and Sky) also among the largest. Capital concentration remains Ethereum's clearest structural lead.
Active loans measures the portion of deposits that is lent out to borrowers and therefore paying interest, which tends to track lending revenue; on Ethereum it reflects outstanding borrows across the ecosystem's lending applications.
Ecosystem active loans averaged $21.8 B in Q1 '26, down 16.6% QoQ and up 39.0% YoY. Lending balances contracted alongside total value locked, consistent with reduced risk appetite, but remain well above year-ago levels.
Lending on Ethereum is concentrated in a handful of money markets, and one dominates: Aave held about $13.5 B in active loans at quarter-end, the majority of the ecosystem total, followed by Morpho (around $1.9 B), Sky's Spark (around $1.0 B), and Maple (around $840 M). The quarter's contraction was led by Aave, whose loan book shrank roughly 24% over the period as borrowing demand cooled with prices. Across the top five chains, Ethereum's $21.8 B far exceeded Solana ($2.5 B), Plasma ($2.1 B), BNB Chain ($760.8 M), and Avalanche ($392.4 M), giving it 79.2% of the top five, its highest share of any metric in this section.
Trading volume measures the total value of trades executed on decentralized spot exchanges, and because traders pay fees it tends to correlate with the fees those venues generate; here it aggregates DEX trading across Ethereum's ecosystem.
Ecosystem trading volume totaled $134.5 B in Q1 '26, down 24.0% QoQ and 31.2% YoY. Trading fell more sharply than capital locked, consistent with reduced risk appetite through the quarter's drawdown.
DEX activity on Ethereum is concentrated in a few deep venues: Uniswap handled about $85.5 B in Q1, roughly two-thirds of ecosystem volume, with Curve (around $22.1 B) and CoW Swap (around $12.4 B) next. Trading volume is also the one metric in this section where Ethereum does not lead across chains: BNB Chain handled $162.5 B against Ethereum's $134.5 B, with Solana close behind at $104.9 B, then Avalanche ($14.5 B) and Polygon ($10.7 B). Ethereum's 31.5% of the top five chains' volume sat second to BNB Chain's 38.0%.
Fees measure the total value users pay to use a project's applications, such as interest paid by borrowers and trading fees paid by traders, and show how much economic value is generated; this figure sums fees across Ethereum's ecosystem applications.
Ecosystem fees totaled $2.0 B in Q1 '26, down 16.9% QoQ and 7.8% YoY, softening in line with lower trading and lending activity.
Ethereum generated $2.0 B of fees, well ahead of Tron ($599.3 M), Solana ($532.5 M), BNB Chain ($231.9 M), and Polygon ($38.8 M), for 58.4% of the top five chains, the largest single source of application fees despite the decline. Across this section, Ethereum leads on locked capital, credit, and fees, and trails only in trading volume.
3) Tokenized assets
Circulating asset market cap measures the total value tokenized onchain for an asset, calculated as circulating supply times end-of-day price; for stablecoins it is the outstanding supply, for tokenized funds the onchain assets under management, and for tokenized stocks the value of shares issued onchain, measured here for assets issued on Ethereum.
Tokenized asset market cap on Ethereum averaged $203.4 B in Q1 '26, essentially flat QoQ (-0.7%) and up 42.9% YoY. Stablecoins led at 87.9% of the total, with funds, commodities, and stocks making up the remainder.
Stablecoins averaged $178.9 B on Ethereum in Q1 '26, down 2.3% QoQ but up 37.6% YoY, the only sub-sector to dip over the quarter. Two issuers dominate: Tether's USDT ($94.1 B) and Circle's USDC ($54.5 B) at quarter-end together account for the bulk of the network's stablecoin market cap, with Sky's USDS ($12.4 B), Ethena's USDe ($5.9 B), and PayPal's PYUSD ($2.9 B) the next largest and newer regulated entrants such as Ripple's RLUSD ($1.1 B) also live. Across the top five chains, Ethereum's $178.9 B led, ahead of Tron ($84.5 B), Solana ($14.5 B), Arbitrum One ($6.8 B), and Base ($4.7 B), for 61.8% of the top five.
Tokenized funds averaged $19.4 B on Ethereum in Q1 '26, up 4.9% QoQ and 73.1% YoY. The sector splits in two: yield-bearing onchain dollars lead by size, with Sky's sUSDS (around $6.4 B) and Ethena's sUSDe (around $3.5 B) the largest, while the regulated funds that anchor the institutional story have scaled up, led by BlackRock's BUIDL (issued via Securitize, around $1.0 B), WisdomTree's government money market fund (around $815 M), and Superstate's USTB (around $620 M), with Ondo's OUSG (around $320 M) close behind. Across the top five chains, Ethereum's $19.4 B led, ahead of zkSync Era ($2.5 B), BNB Chain ($2.3 B), Solana ($1.3 B), and Stellar ($1.1 B), for 73.0% of the top five, the second-highest concentration of any asset class here.
Tokenized commodities averaged $4.7 B on Ethereum in Q1 '26, up 60.0% QoQ and 325.9% YoY, the fastest-growing tokenized class. It is almost entirely gold: Tether Gold (XAUT, around $2.6 B) and Paxos's PAX Gold (PAXG, around $2.4 B) together make up nearly the whole sector. Across the top five chains, Ethereum's $4.7 B dwarfed XRP Ledger ($736.6 M), Arbitrum One ($95.9 M), BNB Chain ($38.4 M), and Solana ($29.8 M), for 84.0% of the top five, its strongest lead in this section.
Tokenized stocks remain the smallest class, averaging $365.1 M on Ethereum in Q1 '26, up from a negligible base a year earlier and 16.5% higher QoQ. The category is led almost entirely by Ondo Finance, whose onchain equities and ETFs, spanning broad index funds like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 as well as dozens of individual stocks, make up most of Ethereum's tokenized-stock market cap. Across the top five chains, Ethereum's $365.1 M led, ahead of Solana ($249.0 M), BNB Chain ($150.5 M), Arbitrum One ($29.0 M), and Stellar ($4.2 M), but at 45.8% of the top five it is its narrowest position, the one tokenized category where it does not hold a clear majority.
Taken together, the quarter shows Ethereum's tokenization lead in funds and commodities even as stablecoin balances paused.
4) Usage
Monthly active users measures the number of unique addresses that make a revenue-generating transaction with the network over a monthly window; on Ethereum it counts distinct addresses transacting on the layer-1.
Monthly active users averaged 13.2 M in Q1 '26, up 53.5% QoQ and 85.9% YoY, an all-time high. User growth accelerated sharply after several quarters of more gradual gains.
Transaction count measures the number of confirmed transactions added to the blockchain and reflects how actively users engage with it; transactions per second is the average rate of those confirmed transactions, capturing throughput and real-time usage. Both are measured here on Ethereum's layer-1.
Transaction count totaled 200.4 M in Q1 '26, up 38.0% QoQ and 81.5% YoY, while throughput rose to 25.78 transactions per second, up 41.2% QoQ. Both set all-time highs, confirming the jump in users translated into materially more onchain activity.
Fees here measure the transaction fees users pay to transact on Ethereum's layer-1, the base-layer cost of using the network, as distinct from the ecosystem-wide application fees in Section 2.
On that basis, fees totaled $39.9 M in Q1 '26, down 47.9% QoQ and 81.9% YoY. The contrast with usage is the quarter's defining data point: transaction count rose 38.0% while total fees fell 47.9%, meaning the average cost per transaction dropped sharply as added data capacity made blockspace cheaper.
The section reads as a scaling story: more users and more transactions at a lower total cost. Rising activity and falling fees are consistent in a period where throughput expanded faster than demand.
5) ETH
Fully diluted market cap measures ETH's valuation assuming full dilution, calculated as token price times total supply per the current token economics, including circulating, locked, unvested, and to-be-issued tokens.
Fully diluted market cap averaged $290.0 B in Q1 '26, down 30.3% QoQ and 9.9% YoY. The quarterly drop was the steepest among the report's valuation metrics and a driver behind the dollar-denominated declines elsewhere.
Staking ratio measures the value of ETH staked to help secure the proof-of-stake network relative to ETH's total market value; a reading of 0.31x means roughly 31% of that value is committed to staking.
The staking ratio averaged 0.31x in Q1 '26, up from 0.28x in both the prior quarter and a year earlier. The share of ETH committed to securing the network rose even as the asset's market cap fell, indicating staking participation held firm through the price drawdown.
Token holders measures the number of distinct addresses holding the network's native token; on Ethereum it counts addresses that hold ETH.
Token holders averaged 292.8 M in Q1 '26, up 8.1% QoQ and 24.9% YoY, extending a steady climb across all five quarters. The holder base widened even as the fully diluted market cap fell, a sign that ownership of ETH continued to broaden through the price drawdown.
6) Etherealize team commentary
"The headline tension this quarter was Ethereum mainnet hitting record usage levels while transaction fees fell. Ethereum is deliberately scaling the network at the expense of near-term fee capture, betting that cheaper blockspace unlocks far more demand (and eventually network revenue) in the long run.
Token Terminal's Ethereum Q1 2026 Report shows that bet is working. On a year-over-year basis, monthly active users rose 85.9%, transaction count is up 81.5%, and throughput climbed 81.7%. This is Jevon's paradox at work, and we expect the increase in total network demand to more than make up for lower fees, similar to how the semiconductor industry generates several orders of magnitude more revenue today than it did in 1975, when Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors on a microchip doubled roughly every two years. Furthermore, the scaling payoff is still ahead of us with the Glamsterdam upgrade targeting a more than 3x increase in the gas limit in Q3 and Ethereum's roadmap guiding to 10,000 TPS and a "fast L1" with finality in seconds by 2029.
We agree with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink who wrote in December that "tokenisation today is roughly where the internet was in 1996—when Amazon had sold just $16m-worth of books." The consensus at the time was that Amazon was a money-losing online bookseller propped up by an internet bubble. However, Jeff Bezos saw that the internet was going to transform retail and optimized for network effects and economies of scale, rather than near term profits. Ethereum is making a similar tradeoff to cement its position as the settlement layer for global finance.
The other lesson worth drawing from the Internet is that open, permissionless networks tend to beat closed ones. In 1995, Bill Gates published The Road Ahead predicting digital commerce would run on proprietary corporate networks he called the "Information Superhighway" rather than the open internet. Microsoft was building MSN. AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy ran walled gardens with millions of paying subscribers. France's Minitel had more users than the entire web until late 1996. They all lost. No serious company would build on top of a network controlled by a competitor, and perhaps more importantly, no corporation could keep pace with permissionless innovation indefinitely. We have seen this play out again and again: Linux out-built proprietary Unix, the open web displaced corporate walled gardens; Wikipedia displaced Britannica. Each time, the proprietary alternative had the early lead — a more focused product, more marketing, business development teams — and each time that lead eroded after the open system crossed a threshold of accumulated contribution, tooling, and credible neutrality.
We are now seeing this theme play out in financial infrastructure, and this report's data is evidence that Ethereum has crossed the threshold with dominant market share in every metric that matters. The institutions building tokenized finance are choosing Ethereum not out of ideology but because the liquidity, composability, and institutional precedent are already there. As this report highlights, Ethereum holds 79.2% of active DeFi loans across the top five chains, 61.8% of stablecoins, 73.0% of tokenized funds, and 84.0% of tokenized commodities. Every new tokenized asset deepens the liquidity that pulls in the next one, and a neutral substrate is the only equilibrium that holds because large players will never agree to settle on a competitor's infrastructure. Furthermore, institutions are realizing that privacy, permissioning, KYC, and transfer restrictions can all be implemented on Ethereum through privacy-preserving environments and permissioned token standards without surrendering access to public liquidity; the reverse (bolting public liquidity and an open application ecosystem onto a closed chain) is not possible.
The institutional momentum, if anything, has accelerated since quarter-end. In May alone, BlackRock filed for two more tokenized funds, JPMorgan launched JLTXX as its second tokenized money-market fund on Ethereum, and Fidelity International launched FILQ, a Moody's AAA-rated dollar liquidity fund, as an ERC-20. In the world of stablecoins, the Japan Blockchain Foundation's yen stablecoin EJPY will launch on Ethereum, and a twelve-bank European consortium (including BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, and BBVA) is preparing a regulated euro stablecoin.
The internet looked impossible in 1990 and inevitable by 2005. If Fink is right about where tokenization sits on that curve, the next few years could be some of the most exciting in Ethereum's history. And as we argued in our Productive Money report, network fees give ETH an intrinsic value floor, while the bull case is ETH absorbing the ~$30+ trillion monetary premium held by gold and Bitcoin given its superior monetary attributes. ETH doesn't need exorbitant fees to win."
7) Definitions
Metrics:
Ecosystem total value locked: the dollar value of assets deposited across the applications in a chain's ecosystem, reported as a period average.Ecosystem active loans: the dollar value of outstanding borrows in lending applications across the ecosystem, reported as a period average.Ecosystem trading volume: the dollar value of trades executed on decentralized exchanges across the ecosystem, reported as a period total.Ecosystem fees: total fees paid by users to applications across the ecosystem, reported as a period total.Circulating asset market cap: the dollar value of a tokenized asset class in circulation, calculated as circulating supply times end-of-day price, reported as a period average.Monthly active users: distinct addresses that make a revenue-generating transaction with Ethereum, reported as a period average of the monthly figure.Transaction count: the number of confirmed transactions settled on Ethereum's layer-1, reported as a period total.Transactions per second: the average rate of confirmed transactions on Ethereum's layer-1 over the period.Fees: total transaction fees paid on Ethereum's layer-1, reported as a period total.Fully diluted market cap: ETH price multiplied by total supply per the current token economics, reported as a period average.Staking ratio: the value of ETH staked to secure the network relative to ETH's total market value, reported as a period average.Token holders: distinct addresses holding ETH, reported as a period average.
8) About this report
This report is published quarterly and produced leveraging Token Terminal's end-to-end onchain data infrastructure. All metrics are sourced directly from blockchain data. Charts and datasets referenced in this report can be viewed on the corresponding Ethereum Q1 2026 Report dashboard on Token Terminal.

1) Executive summary
Aave $AAVE is the largest lending project in decentralized finance: a set of onchain money markets where users supply assets to earn yield and borrowers take overcollateralized loans, with exposure governed by asset-specific collateral, borrowing, and liquidation parameters. It is the venue where a large share of onchain credit is priced and settled.
Onchain credit needs markets that price risk transparently, settle without intermediaries, and remain solvent under stress. Aave provides that infrastructure at a scale no other lending project matches, and its v4 architecture, which positions it to add fixed-rate lending alongside its existing tokenized real-world assets and native stablecoin, lands as institutional and regulated capital begins to move onchain in earnest.
Value accrues through the spread between what suppliers earn and what borrowers pay. Borrowers pay interest, a share of which is retained by the Aave DAO as revenue, alongside liquidation fees, flash-loan fees, and oracle-related recapture routed through Chainlink SVR. The product surface spans Aave v3, the multichain core; Aave v4, launched on Ethereum in late March 2026 with a hub-and-spoke architecture that connects shared liquidity hubs to modular borrowing spokes; Aave Horizon, the permissioned market for tokenized real-world assets; GHO, Aave's native decentralized stablecoin; and AAVE, the governance token that secures the system through the Safety Module.
Aave is the single largest lending project, and its deposit base, loan book, and fee generation remain the sector's largest even after a month of contraction. The project is built by Aave Labs, the team behind every major version of the project, whose stated 2026 priorities are to scale v4, grow the Horizon real-world-asset market, and bring DeFi to retail users through a mobile-first Aave App.
May was a month of stabilization after stress. A late-April cross-chain bridge exploit affecting rsETH collateral propagated into Aave's WETH markets, and the coordinated DeFi United recovery effort restored rsETH backing and normalized WETH borrowing limits over the course of the month. The data reflects the aftermath: total value locked and active loans fell sharply as collateral was withdrawn and leverage was unwound, while fees and revenue dropped back from an April lifted by the elevated borrow rates around the incident. Against that, Aave v4, Aave Horizon, and GHO each continued to grow. Two threads run through the report: a security-first normalization across the core v3 markets, and continued expansion in the newer surfaces that sit beyond crypto-native lending.
🔑 Key metrics (May 2026)
Total value locked: $25.2 B (-31.2% MoM, -33.8% YoY)Aave v4 TVL: $68.2 M (+168.3% MoM)Aave Horizon TVL: $673.5 M (+30.7% MoM)Active loans: $10.7 B (-30.5% MoM, -27.3% YoY)Fees: $33.1 M (-41.4% MoM, -22.3% YoY)Revenue: $4.9 M (-37.0% MoM, -23.9% YoY)Monthly active users: 100.8 K (-13.6% MoM, +21.9% YoY)Market share: 46.7% (-11.2 pp MoM, -15.0 pp YoY)AAVE market cap: $1.4 B (-6.3% MoM, -60.2% YoY)GHO market cap: $539.7 M (+1.4% MoM, +99.8% YoY)
Metrics exclude Aave deployments and products not yet tracked by Token Terminal, including Mantle and MegaETH.
👥 Aave Labs team commentary
"The rsETH recovery reached a good spot in May. Aave's markets are operating as normal and rsETH’s backing is fully restored. The recovery, coordinated under the DeFi United effort, extended beyond Aave and benefitted several other affected protocols and communities across DeFi.
May also brought steady progress across the Aave ecosystem. The MegaETH market reached $1 billion in deposits, the Aave DAO doubled its bug bounties for Aave V4 and Aave V3 Core, Savings GHO received a technical upgrade, the first incentive programs for frxUSD and USDG began on Aave V4, and Aave Labs published a Technical Asset Listing Framework for Aave V3, V4, and Aave Horizon.
Aave V4 will soon expand its multi-chain presence. Two proposals went live in May to deploy on Avalanche and on Arc, Circle's new Layer 1 blockchain. V4 deposits continued to grow and crossed $100 million in May while the protocol still operates under its security-first growth strategy.
Lastly, Aave Labs’ UK subsidiaries Push Labs Ltd. and Push Virtual Assets Ltd. (together “Push”) have received approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to register as a cryptoasset exchange provider in the UK. These permissions allow Push by Aave Labs to operate regulated cryptoasset activities and payments infrastructure in the UK. Aave Labs is building for the next million users, and regulated products with zero-fee stablecoin on/off-ramping are necessary to do it."
2) Total value locked
Total value locked measures the total USD value of collateral deposited into Aave and outstanding loans. May '26 TVL averaged $25.2 B, down 31.2% month-over-month and 33.8% year-over-year, the lowest monthly average in the trailing year.
TVL had been easing since January, and the late-April rsETH incident steepened the decline. April's $36.6 B average still spanned higher pre-incident balances, so May, the first full month after the exploit and the DeFi United recovery, posted the largest monthly drop of the trailing year as collateral was withdrawn. The peak near $70 B in September 2025 frames how far balances have retraced.
Ethereum remained the center of gravity, accounting for 81.4% of May '26 TVL. Plasma was the second-largest chain at 7.3%, a share that did not exist a year earlier, while Arbitrum, Base, and Avalanche each contributed low single digits. Capital remains concentrated on Ethereum even as newer chains add incremental share.
By asset, WETH was the single largest collateral at 19.2%, ahead of weETH (11.3%), WBTC (10.9%), and USDC (10.0%), with USDT, wstETH, cbBTC, and rsETH filling out the next tier. ETH-correlated assets, including liquid staking and restaking tokens, dominate the collateral base, which is what transmitted the rsETH stress into the wider WETH market in April.
Aave v4 TVL averaged $68.2 M, up 168.3% month-over-month in its second full month since the late-March launch. The hub-and-spoke deployment continued to onboard liquidity through the recovery, an early signal that capital is willing to migrate to the new architecture.
Aave Horizon TVL averaged $673.5 M, up 30.7% month-over-month, rebuilding toward the highs it set in late 2025 and early 2026 and extending the institutional real-world-asset market's growth since its August 2025 launch. Aave v4 and Horizon were the month's clearest growth, both expanding while the core v3 markets contracted.
3) Active loans
Active loans measures the total USD value of outstanding borrows across all Aave lending markets, the core usage metric from which fees and revenue are generated. May '26 active loans averaged $10.7 B, down 30.5% month-over-month and 27.3% year-over-year.
Borrowing contracted in step with collateral. Active loans had been easing since January, and the late-April incident accelerated the deleveraging as positions were unwound and WETH borrowing limits were temporarily reduced during the recovery. The loan book peaked near $29 B in September 2025 before retracing to $10.7 B.
Ethereum accounted for 80.7% of May '26 active loans, with Plasma at 8.8%. Borrowing is even more concentrated on Ethereum than collateral, reflecting the depth of its money markets.
By borrowed asset, WETH was the most-borrowed at 39.5%, followed by the major stablecoins USDC (21.7%) and USDT (19.0%). The prominence of borrowed WETH is consistent with looping and staking strategies that recycle ETH-correlated collateral.
Within Aave Horizon, RLUSD accounted for 79.3% of May '26 active loans, ahead of GHO and USDC. Institutional borrowers in the real-world-asset market draw predominantly on RLUSD, underscoring how the Horizon book is composed differently from the crypto-native core.
Aave accounted for 46.7% of May '26 active loans across the onchain lending market, down 11.2 pp month-over-month and 15.0 pp year-over-year. Aave remained the single largest lending project, with a $10.7 B loan book against $12.3 B for all other tracked lenders combined, but its share slipped below half: the April unwind hit Aave's book harder than its peers, and competing markets have gained ground over the year.
4) Fees
Fees measures the total USD value of fees paid by users across all of Aave's lending markets, aggregated across all income types, and represents the total yield the project generates. May '26 fees totaled $33.1 M, down 41.4% month-over-month and 22.3% year-over-year.
Fees fell more steeply than loan balances, down 41.4% against a 30.5% drop in active loans. April's $56.5 M reflected a larger average loan book and the elevated borrow rates around the late-April incident, when drained liquidity pushed utilization higher; May reflects both the smaller book and normalized rates.
Ethereum generated 79.7% of May '26 fees, in line with its share of the loan book. Plasma was the second-largest fee source at 9.3%, mirroring its rising share of balances.
By income type, interest accounted for 98.7% of May fees, with liquidation, treasury, SVR, and flash-loan income making up the small remainder. Fee generation is almost entirely recurring interest, the signature of a book built on overcollateralized borrowing.
By borrowed asset, WETH (29.3%), USDC (28.1%), and USDT (21.4%) together produced roughly four-fifths of fees, splitting fee generation between ETH-correlated borrowing and stablecoin demand.
Asset APY captures the yield accrued by holding Aave's aTokens, the receipt tokens minted to suppliers. Stablecoin supply yields were still elevated entering May, with aEthUSDT at 5.89% and aEthUSDC at 4.78% on May 1 after the late-April incident drained liquidity and pushed utilization higher, then normalized toward the 2.5% to 3.7% range by May 31 as liquidity returned. The Horizon RWA aTokens moved within a tighter band.
5) Revenue
Revenue measures the total USD value of fees retained by the Aave DAO, aggregated across all income types, the portion of yield that accrues to the project rather than to suppliers. May '26 revenue totaled $4.9 M, down 37.0% month-over-month and 23.9% year-over-year.
Ethereum contributed 83.9% of May '26 revenue, an even higher share than its fee contribution, reflecting the mix of markets and income types that flow to the treasury on mainnet.
Interest accounted for 97.2% of May revenue, with treasury, SVR, and liquidation income comprising the small remainder. As with fees, retained income is overwhelmingly recurring interest.
By borrowed asset, WETH (30.6%) and USDC (21.1%) led, with GHO contributing 14.5% of revenue, a larger share of revenue than of fees, reflecting how interest on Aave's native stablecoin accrues to the DAO.
6) Monthly active users
Monthly active users measures the number of unique wallet addresses that have interacted with Aave over a rolling 30-day period, a gauge of how many distinct users the project reaches. May '26 MAU averaged 100.8 K, down 13.6% month-over-month but up 21.9% year-over-year.
Users proved more durable than capital. While balances fell by roughly a third month-over-month, the active-user base contracted only modestly and remained well above its year-ago level, a divergence between where value sits and how many addresses transact.
Base accounted for 25.8% of May '26 MAU, the largest single chain by users, ahead of Ethereum at 23.0%, with BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Polygon each in double digits. The contrast with the TVL and loan books, where Ethereum holds more than 80% of value, captures a recurring pattern: activity is broadly distributed across lower-cost chains while capital concentrates on Ethereum.
7) AAVE
AAVE market cap measures the fully diluted valuation of the AAVE token, the project's native governance asset. May '26 AAVE market cap averaged $1.4 B, down 6.3% month-over-month and 60.2% year-over-year.
The token's valuation compressed over the year, declining from an average above $4.8 B in August 2025 as broader market conditions and the April incident weighed on price. The month-over-month move was modest by comparison, suggesting the token had largely repriced ahead of May.
8) GHO
GHO market cap measures the fully diluted valuation of GHO, Aave's native decentralized stablecoin minted by borrowers against Aave collateral. May '26 GHO market cap averaged $539.7 M, up 1.4% month-over-month and 99.8% year-over-year.
GHO transfer volume totaled $2.9 B in May '26, down 16.7% month-over-month but up 35.4% year-over-year. Onchain usage of GHO has expanded markedly over the year, with the month-over-month dip consistent with the lower overall activity that followed April's spike.
9) Outlook
May's data sets up a clean test of resilience versus growth. The core v3 markets enter June from a normalized base after the rsETH incident and the DeFi United recovery, with TVL, active loans, fees, and revenue all reset to post-incident levels and rates back in their normal range. Whether those balances rebuild from here is the cleaner read on underlying demand.
The newer surfaces moved in the opposite direction and bear watching. Aave v4 TVL more than doubled month-over-month off a small base, Aave Horizon rebuilt to roughly $673.5 M, and GHO nearly doubled year-over-year while holding steady through the stress. If the v3 normalization holds, these three surfaces are where incremental growth is most likely to show up first.
Two structural threads carry into June. First, the contrast between where capital sits and where users are: Ethereum holds more than 80% of value while Base leads on users, a distribution that shapes how fees and growth accrue across chains. Second, Aave's lending market share has slipped below half to 46.7% as competing markets grow, so the trajectory of the loan book is the metric to watch as the recovery completes. These are observations the data supports, not directional calls.
10) Definitions
Products:
Aave v3: the current major version, launched in March 2022, enabling multichain deployment and features such as e-mode for improved capital efficiency.Aave v4: launched on Ethereum in late March 2026. Introduces a hub-and-spoke architecture where shared liquidity pools (hubs) connect to modular borrowing strategies (spokes).Aave Horizon: a permissioned lending market for tokenized real-world assets, launched in August 2025. Stablecoin supply is permissionless; collateral onboarding is managed by tokenization issuers.Aave App: Aave's upcoming mobile app for retail users to access fixed income savings powered by Aave markets.GHO: Aave's native decentralized stablecoin, launched in 2023. Borrowers mint GHO using their Aave collateral.AAVE: the project's native governance token. AAVE holders govern the Aave DAO, and the token can be staked in the Safety Module, which backstops the project against shortfall events.
Metrics:
Total value locked: measures the total USD value of collateral deposited into Aave and outstanding loans.Active loans: measures the total USD value of outstanding borrows across all Aave lending markets.Fees: measures the total USD value of fees paid by users across all of Aave's lending markets, aggregated across all income types (see below).Revenue: measures the total USD value of fees retained by the Aave DAO, aggregated across all income types (see below).Asset APY: measures the annualized yield accrued by holding a yield-bearing token, calculated from a standardized onchain yield index over a 7-day trailing window; for Aave, it is applied to aTokens and reflects the supply yield earned across Aave's markets.Monthly active users: measures the number of unique wallet addresses that have interacted with Aave over a rolling 30-day period.Market share: measures Aave's share of active loans relative to other lending projects.AAVE market cap: measures the fully diluted valuation of the AAVE token.GHO market cap: measures the fully diluted valuation of GHO, Aave's native decentralized stablecoin.GHO transfer volume: measures the total USD value of GHO transferred onchain over a given period.
Income types:
Interest: fees paid by borrowers on outstanding loans. A share of interest flows to the DAO treasury as revenue.Liquidation: fees collected when undercollateralized positions are liquidated.SVR: revenue recaptured from oracle-related MEV during liquidations via Chainlink SVR.Flash loan: fees charged on uncollateralized loans that are borrowed and repaid within a single transaction.Treasury: fees from Aave DAO treasury management activities.GHO stability module: fees charged on swaps between GHO and other stablecoins through the GHO Stability Module.
11) About this report
This report is published monthly and produced leveraging Token Terminal's end-to-end onchain data infrastructure. All metrics are sourced directly from blockchain data. Charts and datasets referenced in this report can be viewed on the corresponding Aave May 2026 Report dashboard on Token Terminal.

1) Zusammenfassung
Avalanche
ist ein Layer-1-Blockchain-Ökosystem, das sich um schnelle Abwicklungen, EVM-kompatible Smart Contracts und anpassbare Avalanche L1s gruppiert. Das Primärnetzwerk des Netzwerks umfasst die C-Chain, wo die meisten EVM-Aktivitäten stattfinden, und die breitere Architektur ermöglicht es Anwendungen und Institutionen, dedizierte Blockchains mit konfigurierbaren Validierern, Ausführungsumgebungen, Gas-Token und Compliance-Kontrollen zu starten.
Avalanche wird mit Ava Labs in Verbindung gebracht, einem Blockchain-Technologieunternehmen, das 2018 von Emin Gun Sirer, Kevin Sekniqi und Maofan Yin gegründet wurde. Emin Gun Sirer fungiert als CEO und Ava Labs hat Büros in New York City und Miami. Avalanche und sein Ökosystem wurden durch eine Mischung aus Risikofinanzierung, AVAX-Tokenverkäufen und von der Stiftung geführter Ökosystemfinanzierung unterstützt, was dem Projekt institutionelle Unterstützung verschafft, während der öffentliche Bericht sich auf die Entwicklung, Akzeptanz und Betriebskennzahlen des Netzwerks konzentriert.

1) Executive Summary
Steakhouse Financial ist ein Onchain-Risikokurator für Lending-Vaults. Gegründet 2023 von Mark Phillips, Sébastien Derivaux und Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic, operiert Steakhouse als ein schlankes, global verteiltes Team mit Hintergründen in DeFi und traditioneller Finanzen. Steakhouse hilft Einlegern, über verwaltete Vault-Produkte auf Lending-Yield zuzugreifen, während die zugrunde liegende Lending-Infrastruktur von Protokollen wie Morpho und Kamino bereitgestellt wird.
Steakhouse verwahrt keine Nutzerfonds und betreibt kein eigenständiges Lending-Protokoll. In der Praxis bedeutet dies, Sicherheiten zu bewerten, Risikoparameter festzulegen, Allokationen zu verwalten und die Liquidität über Vault-Produkte mit unterschiedlichen Risikoprofilen zu überwachen. Morpho ist die Hauptinfrastrukturebene im aktuellen Datensatz, während Kamino Steakhouse Zugang zu den Solana-Lending-Märkten verschafft. Ein sichtbares Beispiel ist das USDC-Lending-Produkt von Coinbase auf Base, wo Coinbase-Nutzer auf Morpho-Vaults zugreifen, die von Steakhouse innerhalb der Coinbase-App kuratiert werden.

1) Zusammenfassung für Entscheidungsträger
Pendle $PENDLE ist ein Ertrags-Handelsprojekt, das es den Nutzern ermöglicht, on-chain Erträge über Principal Tokens (PTs) und Yield Tokens (YTs) zu tokenisieren und zu handeln. Dadurch können Nutzer auf feste Ertragsraten über PTs zugreifen, sich mit Hebel auf zukünftige Erträge über YTs exponieren, Liquidität bereitstellen und Erträge über verschiedene Assets, Chains und Laufzeiten handeln.
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2021 hat sich Pendle von seinem Kernprodukt der Ertrags-Tokenisierung zu einem breiteren Angebot entwickelt, das ein orderbuchbasiertes Limit-Order-System und Boros umfasst. Die Kern-Pendle-App ist auf Ertragsmärkte wie Stablecoins, synthetische Dollar, BTC, ETH, RWAs und spezifische Ökosystem-Assets ausgerichtet, während Boros das Modell auf marginbasierte Handelsstrategien über Krypto- und Nicht-Krypto-Assets ausweitet.

1) Executive Zusammenfassung
Ether.fi $ETHFI ist ein Liquid Staking und DeFi-Projekt, das es Nutzern ermöglicht, Assets zu staken, automatisierte Renditestrategien zu nutzen und gegen ihre Krypto-Bestände auszugeben. Das Projekt wurde 2022 von CEO Mike Silagadze gegründet. Nutzer können ETH, BTC oder ETHFI staken, um liquide Derivat-Token zu erhalten, die Staking-Renditen erwirtschaften, in Liquid Vaults einzuzahlen, die über DeFi-Protokolle verteilt sind, um die Rendite zu optimieren, oder Ether.fi Cash nutzen, um gegen ihre Krypto-Sicherheiten für Einkäufe in der realen Welt über eine Visa-Kreditkarte zu leihen. Das Ether.fi-Team beschreibt diese Produktpalette zunehmend durch den Rahmen eines "DeFi Banks": einem nicht verwahrenden Finanzkonto, das Rendite, Liquidität und Zahlungen in einer einzigen Schnittstelle kombiniert.

1) Exekutive Zusammenfassung
Aave $AAVE ist das dominante Lending-Projekt im DeFi-Bereich, das dezentrale Märkte betreibt, wo Nutzer Vermögenswerte bereitstellen, um Rendite zu erzielen, und Kreditnehmer auf überbesicherte Kredite zugreifen. Das Projekt verwaltet Risikoparameter durch Governance und spezialisierte Risikodienstleister und kombiniert erlaubnislosen Marktzugang mit vermögensspezifischer Besicherung, Kreditvergabe- und Liquidationskontrollen.
Seit dem Launch im Jahr 2020 hat Aave sich über die V2- und V3-Kreditmärkte erweitert, während Aave V4 im März 2026 auf Ethereum mit einer modularen Hub-and-Spoke-Architektur für spezialisierte Borrowing-Strategien gestartet ist. Das Projekt hat sich auch über seine Kernkreditmärkte hinausentwickelt, durch GHO, Aaves live überbesicherte Stablecoin; Aave App, ein kommendes Retail-ähnliches Festzins-Sparprodukt, das von Aave-Märkten betrieben wird; und Aave Horizon, ein institutioneller Markt, der im August 2025 gestartet wurde, um Stablecoins gegen tokenisierte reale Vermögenswerte zu leihen.

1) Executive Summary
TRON $TRX ist eine Layer-1-Blockchain, die für schnelle, kostengünstige Transaktionen entwickelt wurde. Das Netzwerk nutzt einen Delegated Proof-of-Stake-Konsensmechanismus, bei dem 27 gewählte Super Representatives Transaktionen validieren und die Netzwerkparameter durch Community-Vorschläge steuern. Nutzer können TRX, den nativen Token von TRON, staken, um Transaktionskosten zu decken, anstatt pro Transaktion Gasgebühren zu zahlen, was das Netzwerk besonders für hochfrequente, kleine Transfers geeignet macht. TRON hat eines der größten Stablecoin-Ökosysteme im Crypto-Bereich und hat sich als wichtige Abwicklungsschicht für USDT-Transfers etabliert, insbesondere für Zahlungen im Einzelhandel.

1) Executive Summary
Morpho $MORPHO ist ein offenes Kreditnetzwerk für Onchain-Kredite und -Darlehen. Die Architektur des Projekts trennt das Lending in zwei Schichten: Morpho Markets, wo isolierte Lending-Märkte mit unabhängig konfigurierten Risikoparametern geschaffen werden; und Morpho Vaults, wo Drittanbieter-Risikokuratoren verwaltete Strategien auf diesen Märkten aufbauen. Dieses Design ermöglicht es Unternehmen, Fintechs und Institutionen, Lending in ihre eigenen Produkte einzubetten, während sie die Kontrolle über die Risikokonfiguration behalten.

1) Zusammenfassung
Silo Finance ist ein dezentrales Kreditprojekt, das auf einem einzigen architektonischen Prinzip basiert: Risikotrennung. Jeder Kreditmarkt ("Silo") koppelt ein Sicherheitenvermögen mit einem Kreditvermögen und stellt sicher, dass ein Exploit oder eine Manipulation in einem einzelnen Markt nicht auf den Rest des Projekts übergreifen kann. Während die meisten Kreditprojekte Vermögenswerte zusammenlegen und das Risiko durch Governance und Whitelisting verwalten, isoliert Silo das Risiko auf Marktebene durch Design. Das Projekt operiert über Sonic, Avalanche, Arbitrum One, Ethereum, Base und OP Mainnet.

1) Executive Zusammenfassung
Raydium
wurde 2021 gestartet und ist die größte dezentrale Börse auf Solana, die automatisierte Market Maker (AMM) Liquiditätspools betreibt, die berechtigungslose Token-Swaps, Liquiditätsbereitstellung und Token-Starts ermöglichen. Token Terminal verfolgt Raydium über fünf Produkte: OpenBook (Legacy AMM), CLMM (konzentrierte Liquidität), CPMM (konstantes Produkt), Stable Swap und LaunchLab (Token-Launchpad). Die Architektur von Raydium ermöglicht es, sowohl passive Liquiditätsanbieter durch seine Legacy-Pools als auch aktive Trader, die eine kapital-effiziente Ausführung durch konzentrierte Liquidität suchen, zu bedienen, während LaunchLab die Reichweite des Projekts in die Asset-Emission erweitert.

1) Zusammenfassung
Aave $AAVE ist das dominierende Kreditprojekt von DeFi, das dezentrale Märkte betreibt, in denen Benutzer Vermögenswerte bereitstellen, um Erträge zu erzielen, und Kreditnehmer überbesicherte Darlehen erhalten. Das Projekt verwaltet Risikoparameter direkt durch Governance und bietet einen bewährten Ansatz für dezentrales Verleihen mit über fünf Jahren operativer Geschichte.
Seit der Einführung im Jahr 2020 hat Aave auf eine größere Kapitaleffizienz, Risikosegmentierung und Multichain-Expansion über drei Hauptversionen hinweg hingearbeitet. V4, ein modulares Redesign, das eine Hub-and-Spoke-Architektur einführt, wurde Ende März 2026 auf Ethereum mit konservativen Angebots- und Kreditobergrenzen eingeführt, was dem Projekt ermöglicht, sich kontrolliert im Einklang mit dem bestehenden V3-Einsatz zu skalieren.

1) Executive Summary
Sky $SKY ist ein dezentraler Stablecoin-Emittent, der zwei an den USD gebundene Stablecoins, USDS und DAI, anbietet, die beide durch Krypto-Kollateral gedeckt sind. Benutzer können USDS in den Sky Savings Rate (SSR) einzahlen, um Erträge zu erzielen, und erhalten sUSDS-Token, die ihre Position und den angesammelten Wert verfolgen. DAI-Inhaber können separat über den Dai Savings Rate (DSR) auf Erträge zugreifen. Sky entstand als MakerDAO, das 2017 gegründet wurde und dezentrale Stablecoins mit DAI einführte. Im September 2024 wurde das Projekt im Rahmen seines Endgame-Roadmaps in Sky umbenannt und führte USDS als eine verbesserte Version von DAI und SKY als neuen Governance-Token ein. Beide Legacy-Token bleiben zusammen mit ihren verbesserten Gegenstücken im Umlauf.

1) Exekutive Zusammenfassung
Aerodrome $AERO ist eine dezentrale Börse (DEX), die im Base-Netzwerk betrieben wird und als zentraler Handels- und Liquiditätsmarktplatz dient. Basierend auf dem ve(3,3)-Modell kombiniert Aerodrome einen automatisierten Market Maker (AMM) mit einem Abstimmungs-Lock-Governance-System: Liquiditätsanbieter erhalten AERO-Emissionen als Anreize, während veAERO-Inhaber (die AERO-Token sperren) über die Emissionszuweisungen abstimmen und 100% der Handelsgebühren aus ihren gewählten Pools erhalten. Dies schafft einen Kreislauf, in dem tiefere Liquidität mehr Volumen anzieht, was mehr Gebühren generiert, was mehr Abstimmungen anzieht. Aerodrome arbeitet ausschließlich auf Base, dem von Coinbase incubierten Layer-2-Netzwerk.

1) Executive Summary
GMX $GMX ist eine dezentrale unbefristete Börse, die auf Arbitrum gestartet wurde. GMX erweiterte später nach Avalanche und brachte V2 auf den Markt, das isolierte GM-Pools für eine kapitaleffizientere Liquiditätsbereitstellung einführte. V2 integrierte auch Chainlink-Datenströme für hochpräzise Oracle-Preise. GMX Liquiditätsvaults (GLV) ermöglichen eine automatisierte Neuausbalancierung über GM-Pools, während die Risikorakel von Chaos Labs Echtzeitanpassungen der Risikoparameter bieten. GMX arbeitet nach einem Peer-to-Pool-Modell, bei dem Liquiditätsanbieter Vermögenswerte in Märkte einzahlen und Belohnungen aus Handelsaktivitäten verdienen. Das Projekt führt native Bereitstellungen auf Arbitrum, Avalanche und Solana durch und hat 2025 seine Multichain-Funktionalität gestartet, die den Zugang zu plattformübergreifendem Handel von Base, BNB Chain und Ethereum Mainnet erweitert.

1) Zusammenfassung
LayerZero $ZRO ermöglicht sichere, erlaubnisfreie Nachrichtenübermittlung zwischen Blockchains. Es bietet unveränderliche Endpunktverträge, die über 160+ Netzwerke bereitgestellt werden, sodass Anwendungen Daten senden und Werte über Ketten hinweg übertragen können, ohne sich auf einen einzigen vertrauenswürdigen Vermittler zu verlassen. Entwickler konfigurieren ihre eigene Sicherheit, indem sie aus unabhängigen dezentralen Verifizierungsnetzwerken (DVNs) und Ausführenden auswählen, die jeweils Cross-Chain-Nachrichten verifizieren und liefern. Die Infrastruktur von LayerZero bildet die Grundlage für Produkte wie den Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) Standard, der native Token-Übertragungen ohne verpackte Vermögenswerte ermöglicht, und Stargate, eine Cross-Chain-Brücke, die im August 2025 von der LayerZero Foundation übernommen wurde. Zum Zeitpunkt dieses Berichts beträgt der durch den OFT-Standard gesicherte Wert 87 Milliarden Dollar und der historische Werttransfer übersteigt 175 Milliarden Dollar.

1) Executive Summary
Aave $AAVE ist DeFi's dominierendes Kreditprojekt, das dezentrale Märkte betreibt, in denen Benutzer Vermögenswerte bereitstellen, um Erträge zu erzielen, und Kreditnehmer überbesicherte Kredite erhalten. Das Projekt verwaltet Risikoparameter direkt durch Governance und bietet einen praxiserprobten Ansatz für dezentrale Kredite mit über fünf Jahren Betriebsgeschichte. Seit der Einführung im Jahr 2020 hat Aave auf eine größere Kapitaleffizienz, Risikosegmentierung und Multichain-Expansion über drei Hauptversionen hinweg hingearbeitet, wobei V4 für Ende 2026 erwartet wird.

1) Zusammenfassung
TRON $TRX ist eine Layer 1 Blockchain, die für schnelle, kostengünstige Transaktionen entwickelt wurde. Das Netzwerk verwendet einen Delegierten Proof-of-Stake-Konsensmechanismus, bei dem 27 gewählte Supervertreter Transaktionen validieren und die Netzwerkparameter durch Gemeinschaftsvorschläge steuern. Benutzer können TRX (TRONs nativen Token) staken, um Transaktionskosten zu decken, anstatt pro Transaktion Gasgebühren zu zahlen, was das Netzwerk besonders für hochfrequente, geringwertige Überweisungen geeignet macht. TRON beherbergt eines der größten Stablecoin-Ökosysteme im Kryptobereich und hat sich als eine wichtige Abwicklungsschicht für USDT-Überweisungen etabliert, insbesondere für Einzelhandelszahlungen.

1) Exekutive Zusammenfassung
Aethir $ATH ist ein dezentrales Infrastrukturprojekt, das ein GPU-as-a-Service-Netzwerk betreibt, das GPU-Anbieter (Cloud Hosts) mit Unternehmensklienten verbindet, die Hochleistungsrechner für KI-Training, Inferenz, Gaming und andere GPU-intensive Arbeitslasten benötigen. Die Kernoperationen des Netzwerks laufen auf Arbitrum, wo Cloud Hosts ATH-Token staken, um GPU-Container zu betreiben und Gebühren aus Unternehmensberechnungsverträgen zu verdienen, wobei ATH auch auf Ethereum verfügbar ist. Die Infrastruktur von Aethir umfasst über 440.000 GPU-Container in 94 Ländern, einschließlich NVIDIA H100, H200 und B200 Hardware. Im Gegensatz zu traditionellen Cloud-Anbietern ist das Modell von Aethir gemeinschaftlich besessen: Unabhängige Cloud Hosts stellen die Hardware bereit und betreiben sie, während das Projekt die Vermittlung, Qualitätssicherung (über Checker Nodes) und Abrechnung koordiniert.

1) Executive Summary
dYdX $DYDX ist eine dezentrale Derivatebörse, die auf ihrer eigenen, speziell entwickelten Layer-1-Blockchain (dYdX Chain, V4) betrieben wird, die mit der Cosmos SDK-Architektur gebaut wurde. Das Projekt bietet den Handel mit perpetual Futures mit genehmigungsfreien Marktlistungen, tiefen Liquidität über sein MegaVault-System und fortgeschrittenen Bestelltypen, die darauf ausgelegt sind, mit der Infrastruktur zentralisierter Börsen zu konkurrieren. dYdX hält auch eine Legacy-V3-Bereitstellung auf Ethereum aufrecht, obwohl die Mehrheit der Aktivitäten auf V4 migriert ist.
Q4 2025 zeigte ein gemischtes Bild über die wichtigsten Kennzahlen von dYdX. Das nominale Handelsvolumen wuchs im zweiten aufeinanderfolgenden Quartal, wobei Q4 das stärkste Quartal von 2025 markierte. Diese Erholung der Handelsaktivität führte jedoch nicht zu einer proportionalen Gebührenerzeugung, da die Gebühren sowohl vierteljährlich als auch jährlich weiter zurückgingen. Das TVL und die monatlich aktiven Nutzer fielen ebenfalls sowohl vierteljährlich als auch jährlich, obwohl die MAU im Laufe des Jahres relativ stabil blieb.