defi

DeFiance Capital founder Arthur posted on platform X, stating that cryptocurrency has now become the preferred short hedge tool for traditional finance in any risk-off events over the weekend, and he feels regret about this.

According to market news, Solana Treasury Company DeFi Development, listed on Nasdaq, announced a strategic investment in the stablecoin protocol Apyx, with the specific investment amount not disclosed, aiming to establish an early layout in the emerging Dividend Supported Stablecoin (DBS) category.The Apyx model can convert dividend flows into on-chain yields, providing scarce yield opportunities for the over $300 billion stablecoin market, while aligning with the trend of digital asset treasury companies accumulating digital assets through preferred shares.

According to The Block, the DeFi native prime broker Project 0 is about to launch Project 0 Pay, which provides users with a way to use the liquidity of their crypto portfolios to pay off credit card debt without selling assets or interrupting yield generation.This new feature essentially tracks users' spending to provide end-of-month statements and calculates borrowing transactions against their portfolios. If approved, the transaction will cover the expenses for that period without liquidating their held assets.

The underlying public chain BOT Chain, designed for large-scale Web3 applications, announces the official launch of its mainnet. Through a three-layer decoupled architecture, this chain standardizes functionalities such as DeFi, NFT, and AI Agent, allowing developers to avoid writing smart contracts from scratch, significantly improving development efficiency.In terms of technological innovation, BOT Chain has introduced the AIDID native identity protocol, granting AI agents on-chain accounts and credit; it also pioneers a dual mining mechanism combining PoS staking and DePIN hardware contributions, allowing validation nodes to receive dual rewards, deeply binding network security with real computing power.The public chain has completed a $15 million strategic financing round led by institutions such as the NIX Foundation, Alpha Capital, and Gemhead Capital, and has passed a security audit by CertiK. BOT Chain's chief architect Alexander Ververis stated, "Our goal is not to create a 'faster and cheaper' chain, but to enable millions of developers to innovate easily, allow AI agents to become on-chain residents, and let value return to real growth on the network."

According to the official Twitter announcement, the SUN/USDT and BTT/USDT spot trading pairs will officially open for trading on the BitTap platform on February 28, 2026, at 14:00 (GMT+8). The deposit and withdrawal channels will open in advance on February 27 at 14:00 (GMT+8), providing users with a seamless trading experience.As the governance token of the TRON ecosystem DeFi platform SUN.io, and BTT as the native token of the BitTorrent ecosystem, the addition of these two popular assets will provide users with richer trading options and liquidity opportunities.

According to SoSoValue data, the cryptocurrency market sector has generally risen, with the DeFi sector performing strongly, up 4.30% in 24 hours. Among them, Hyperliquid (HYPE) rose 5.68%, Uniswap (UNI) rose 5.43%, and Sky (SKY) rose 6.24%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 2.70%, breaking through $66,000; Ethereum (ETH) rose 3.97%, breaking through $1,900.It is worth noting that MAG7.ssi rose 2.36%, DEFI.ssi rose 4.39%, and MEME.ssi rose 1.84%.In other sectors, the AI sector rose 4.04%, with Pieverse (PIEVERSE) rising 24.65; the Layer2 sector rose 3.94%, with Polygon (POL) rising 8.18%; the PayFi sector rose 2.57%, with Ultima (ULTIMA) rising 7.53%; the Meme sector rose 2.06%, with PIPPIN (PIPPIN) rising 10.28%; the Layer1 sector rose 1.97%, with Solana (SOL) rising 5.57%; the CeFi sector rose 0.92%, with Mantle (MNT) rising 3.90%.The cryptocurrency sector indices reflecting historical market trends show that the ssiRWA, ssiLayer2, and ssiDeFi indices rose 7.98%, 5.67%, and 5.65%, respectively.

Ethereum founder Vitalik expressed on social media that DeFi is an important component of Ethereum's core values. Financial empowerment is a key dimension for achieving autonomy and freedom in today's world. While finance is far from the only use of Ethereum, it is crucial. Current DeFi has opened up the world's best savings, risk management, and wealth creation opportunities in a permissionless manner. The Ethereum Foundation needs to continue building on this foundation.The greatness of the early DeFi era of Ethereum lies in its courage to dream, innovate, and create entirely new paradigms. Future DeFi will reclaim this spirit; it should not only focus on "creating a better stablecoin," but also delve deeper into underlying issues and propose better solutions. The Ethereum Foundation's support for "on-chain finance" and even "DeFi" is not indiscriminate.There is a clear vision for DeFi: a permissionless, open-source, privacy-first, and security-centric global financial system—maximizing user control over their own assets, minimizing centralized bottlenecks and trusted third parties, and democratizing risk management and wealth accumulation. The foundation hopes that the protocol can pass the "exit test": even if the founding team suddenly disappears, the system can continue to operate, and achieving this vision requires a lot of work.

According to market news, Mastercard is hiring a Director of Cryptocurrency Liquidity to further delve into the DeFi space.The role's positioning includes:Card-based cryptocurrency entry + issuance linked to stablecoinsScalable and stable digital currencies, tokenized assets, and DeFi payment processesUpgrading network rules and adding risk control measures for Web3 transactions

According to SoSoValue data, most sectors in the cryptocurrency market have risen, with the SocialFi sector increasing by 2.68% in 24 hours. Within this sector, Toncoin (TON) rose by 3.05% and Chiliz (CHZ) rose by 3.57%. However, Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 0.66%, dropping to around $64,000; Ethereum (ETH) decreased by 0.92%, falling below $1,900.Other standout sectors include: the AI sector, which rose by 1.88% in 24 hours, with Siren (SIREN) increasing by 4.68% and Sentient (SENT) soaring by 14.20%; the CeFi sector, which increased by 1.22%, with Binance Coin (BNB) rising by 1.78%; the Layer2 sector, which rose by 1.05%, with zkSync (ZK) increasing by 9.22%; the Meme sector, which rose by 0.57%, with PIPPIN (PIPPIN) increasing by 17.07%; and the Layer1 sector, which rose by 0.47%, with Internet Computer (ICP) increasing by 2.11%.In other sectors, only the PayFi and DeFi sectors saw slight declines, with 24-hour decreases of 0.50% and 0.81%, respectively. Within the PayFi sector, Trust Wallet (TWT) remained relatively strong, rising by 2.83%; within the DeFi sector, Hyperliquid (HYPE) fell by 6.52%.The cryptocurrency sector indices reflecting historical market performance show that the ssiRWA, ssiSocialFi, and ssiAI indices rose by 3.23%, 2.98%, and 2.08%, respectively.

The Ethereum Foundation announced the establishment of a dedicated DeFi support team, setting up a DeFi unit under the App Relations department to promote the development of decentralized finance protocols and strengthen its "DeFipunk" philosophy.The new team appointed former DELV CEO and MakerDAO governance architect Charles St. Louis as DeFi Protocol Specialist, and Gearbox Protocol co-founder Ivan (ivangbi) as DeFi Coordinator, with Jason Chaskin leading the overall App Relations work.The Ethereum Foundation stated that its ideal DeFi should possess characteristics such as permissionless, censorship-resistant, privacy-first, self-custodial, and open-source, emphasizing support for projects that truly align with these principles. Charles St. Louis stated, "DeFipunk" represents a core philosophy that DeFi should not just be an improved version of traditional finance, but rather a financial system that can only exist on Ethereum.

According to The Block, earlier this month, BlackRock, Citadel Securities, and Apollo Global Management disclosed their plans to purchase DeFi governance tokens. BlackRock tokenized its treasury bond fund BUIDL on-chain through UniswapX and bought UNI tokens; Citadel Securities supported the launch of the "Zero" blockchain under LayerZero and acquired ZRO tokens; Apollo or its affiliates reached an agreement with Morpho to acquire up to 90 million MORPHO tokens over 48 months, accounting for approximately 9% of the total supply.Several investors told The Block that the motivation for these institutions to buy governance tokens is not to allocate them as part of their investment portfolio, but rather to secure access to infrastructure.In terms of future predictions, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan have been mentioned by several investors as the next potential entrants, with a focus on blue-chip projects related to stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, and trading infrastructure.

The voting on Jupiter's proposal to "reduce the net release of future tokens to zero" officially ended today at 19:00, with the community passing the proposal with a 75% support rate.Previously, Jupiter initiated a new proposal to reduce the net release of JUP to zero in the foreseeable future. The proposal mainly targets the three major sources of JUP releases at present ------ Jupuary airdrop, team share unlock, and Mercurial quota unlock. The specifics are as follows:First, the Jupuary airdrop will be indefinitely postponed, and all 700 million JUP will be returned to the community multi-signature cold wallet for future use. The usage amount and staking snapshot at the current time will be retained. When the market environment, token status, and market sentiment are more suitable, this matter will be re-discussed with the DAO.Second, the release of tokens to team members will be indefinitely suspended. As an alternative, team members will receive JUP in the form of Jupiter's balance sheet debt. If any member wishes to sell their allocated tokens, they will be directly purchased by Jupiter's balance sheet. This move will further strengthen JUP reserves while demonstrating the team's commitment to the future of the JUP token.Third, the selling pressure from Mercurial stakeholders will be fully hedged, which will accelerate the unlocking process, and an equivalent amount of tokens will be purchased through Jupiter's own balance sheet to absorb any impact from potential token sales.

According to Onchainschool monitoring, multiple wallets are selling AAVE tokens, with six different wallets having sold AAVE worth $1.3 million yesterday.Analysis indicates that these wallets do not seem to be directly related to each other; some wallets had previously purchased AAVE tokens, some wallets withdrew from DeFi platforms, and others received tokens from team wallet addresses.

According to CoinDesk, the White House expressed support for certain stablecoin reward programs during talks with the banking and crypto industries, urging the banking sector to reach an agreement on the market structure bill.According to sources, if the banking sector agrees, limited stablecoin rewards will be included in the next draft of the U.S. Senate's Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.At Thursday's meeting, the White House team, led by Trump crypto advisor Patrick Witt, made it clear that reward programs for certain activities would remain in the bill, but rewards for stablecoin holdings similar to deposit accounts would be excluded.Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger stated that the meeting took a constructive step in addressing reward-related issues and maintaining the legislative process for market structure. Currently, the bill still needs to address demands from Democrats to strengthen regulation in the DeFi space, prohibit senior government officials from directly participating in the crypto industry, and fill vacancies among CFTC and SEC commissioners.