The DeFi market is currently experiencing a long-awaited "Veteran Revival."

As of now, the total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi market has surged to $1.97 trillion, nearing the all-time high of $2.06 trillion. More importantly, the leader of this rebound is not a newly emerged project but a group of "veterans" who once shone brightly during DeFi Summer.

From the early days of speculative demand to the current "old tree rejuvenation," behind the collective growth of the DeFi market lies institutional funds entering at an accelerated pace (RWA, compliant lending, 401k crypto investments), a resurgence in retail investors' demand for on-chain yields during the bull market, and new usage scenarios brought about by technological iterations. The return of veterans is not only a reflection of market confidence but also the prelude to a new round of DeFi competition.

In this article, BlockBeats has compiled the key reasons for the recent surge in the token prices and TVL of DeFi "veteran players" such as Aave, Uniswap, Euler, Pendle, Fluid, and Spark.

AERO: Violent Rebound with Coinbase's Blessing

Aerodrome Finance (AERO) is a decentralized exchange (DEX) born in 2023 and deployed on Basechain, operating with an automated market maker (AMM) model, combining vote-lock governance and a robust liquidity incentive mechanism. It adopts a highly community-friendly design, with an anonymous team that has not received venture capital funding and has no private sale lockups, maximizing the alignment of interests with users. Within just 72 hours of its launch, it achieved a financial TVL exceeding $2 billion, and later in 2024, its total trading volume surpassed $10 billion, with the Slipstream feature contributing 85% of it. By June 2025, AERO's cumulative trading volume had exceeded $1 trillion, firmly establishing its position as the core of the Base DeFi ecosystem.

Recently, AERO has shown a strong uptrend: on August 9, spurred by the news of Coinbase's native DEX feature going live, AERO surged for several days, briefly touching $1.23, with a 47% increase over seven days. Its current market cap is around $9.78 billion, making it a popular project token of late.

In addition to Coinbase enabling DEX trading with Base native assets in its App, Aerodrome became one of the first to support this feature. AERO's price surge may also be attributed to the launch of the "Pool Launcher" tool, which allows projects to create their own liquidity pools and earn related transaction fees, attracting more Base native projects to join the ecosystem.

Currently, Aerodrome's TVL is about $5.8 billion, almost entirely from the Base chain. The 24-hour DEX trading volume is close to $9.5 billion, with a total trading volume of $205 billion over the past 30 days. In terms of revenue and investment, Aerodrome's annualized fee revenue is estimated at around $1.93 billion, with revenue of about $15.85 million in the past 30 days. The cumulative reward incentive expenditure has reached $7.06 billion, indicating a strong liquidity incentive orientation.

Currently, Aerodrome has established a leading trading and incentive mechanism on the Base chain, becoming a DeFi liquidity hub. The Coinbase integration has opened a window to a broader user base, serving as a catalyst for capital and liquidity concentration explosion.

Although the upward trend is evident, the high incentive expenditure and overheated technical indicators suggest a need to be cautious of a short-term adjustment. In the medium to long term, attention can be focused on whether its ecosystem expansion is sustainable, whether collaborative projects are implemented, whether Coinbase continues to expand its support scope, determining whether it can return to its all-time high ($2.32) or continue to break through.

Fluid's Ambition to Flip Uniswap

Fluid is a DeFi protocol that integrates DEX (decentralized exchange), lending, and Vault systems, achieving high capital efficiency and liquidity reuse through its innovative Liquidity Layer. Launched at Instadapp and reshaped in 2023, Fluid enables assets to freely switch use within the liquidity layer without the need for multiple lock-ins, significantly reducing fragmentation costs and increasing returns. Its Smart Debt and Smart Collateral model provide greater capital efficiency for liquidity providers and borrowers.

In the recent DeFi market, Fluid has become one of the key players: on August 4, Fluid's daily on-chain transaction volume briefly surpassed Uniswap, reaching around $15 billion, driving a 14.4% price surge in $FLUID on that day. As of now, Fluid has risen to $7.38, with a 36.1% increase in the last 7 days and a 51% increase in the last 30 days.

The Upward Momentum of Fluid may have the following four factors:

1. Liquidity Layer Architecture Breaking Fragmentation

Fluid is launching on chains like Arbitrum and Solana, introducing a lighter Lite version while supporting the DEX v2 upgrade, which helps further improve yield and user coverage. Additionally, Fluid's Liquidity Layer achieves liquidity sharing, where locking assets once can meet various needs, serving as a core driver for quickly attracting funds and trades.

2. Rapid Surge in Trading Market ShareIn a short period, Fluid has surpassed Uniswap, capturing over half of the stablecoin trading market share, thereby strengthening its ecosystem through both fundamentals and sentiment.

3. Rebounding Trader ConfidenceDEX daily trading volume hits a new high, and token prices see short-term increases, indicating increased market recognition of the Fluid model and affirmation of liquidity provisioning efficiency.

4. Long-term Positive Expectations for Buyback MechanismThe team has stated that a buyback will be initiated once the annualized revenue reaches $10 million, providing medium- to long-term support for token value and attracting investors to enter at lower price levels.

The platform's total trading volume has exceeded $7.9–$8 billion, with a monthly TVL growth rate of around 27%, totaling approximately $838 million, showing a robust capital growth trend. Since 2025, Fluid's deposits have grown by nearly 40%, surpassing $1.4 billion, expanding to multiple chains (such as Arbitrum and Solana) and planning the DEX Lite. As of August 3, Fluid has a stablecoin swap market share of 55.5% on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and Polygon, far exceeding Uniswap (25.7%) and Curve (13.4%).

Overall, Fluid has emerged as a "rising force" in DeFi: through its unique Liquidity Layer, strong trading data, and multi-chain expansion strategy, it has quickly returned to the center stage, setting a new benchmark for stablecoin trading in DeFi. While its short-term performance has been impressive, several risk points should still be monitored: whether FLUID will experience a short-term correction remains to be seen; the actual implementation of the ecosystem and user stickiness, as well as whether subsequent projects can truly build on top of Fluid's liquidity layer, are key drivers of sustainability. If the subsequent DEX v2 and Lite versions are smoothly implemented and drive revenue past key milestones, not only can the buyback mechanism be initiated, but user stickiness and market valuation may also be further enhanced, helping Fluid become the new benchmark for stablecoin trading.

Uniswap v4 TVL Surpasses $1 Billion Again

Uniswap is a DeFi veteran, and its v4 version was officially launched in early 2025, supporting 12 chains including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Unichain. The v4 introduces the "Hooks" feature, allowing liquidity pools to have dynamic fees, on-chain limit orders, TWAP, and other custom logics. Moreover, through the Singleton architecture and Flash Accounting technology, gas costs have been reduced by over 99%. While v4 retains the capital efficiency of v3, it enhances flexibility and programmability, becoming a key part of DeFi's innovation infrastructure.

Recently, Uniswap has shown strong performance: the current UNI price is $11.27, with an approximately 31% increase in the last 30 days, bringing the market cap back to the $6.7 billion range.

Factors driving UNI's rise include:

1. Strong TVL Reboundv4 rapidly surpassed $1 billion in TVL, providing strong emotional support for the UNI price and indicating a warming trend in the DeFi ecosystem.

2. Capital attracted by Hooks InnovationProgrammable liquidity strategies have led to the rapid rise of various strategic projects (such as Bunni, EulerSwap), driving user participation and deepening operations.

3. Prominent Role of Unichain ExpansionThe addition of new networks has brought lower costs and efficient experiences, creating a new growth engine for Uniswap and further increasing activity.

4. Technological Iterations and Institutional Upgradesv4 has introduced smart wallet support, cross-chain integration (such as Hyperbridge, LayerZero), and over 640 million swap transaction volume, building a more comprehensive trading infrastructure.

Currently, Uniswap v4 TVL has surpassed the $1 billion milestone again. Regarding cumulative trading volume, Uniswap has exceeded $110 billion, making it a DeFi liquidity hub. Unichain accounts for approximately 75% of daily trading volume, while Ethereum holds about 15–20%. In terms of Hooks deployment, there are over 2,500 Hook liquidity pools live, with both Bunni and EulerSwap having accumulated transaction volumes exceeding $1 billion each.

Despite Fluid shining brightly in the market, Uniswap remains a steadfast powerhouse: its v4 version continues to consolidate its core position in DeFi through technological innovation and ecosystem expansion. Rapid TVL growth and rich Hooks applications are key foundations of its revival. However, technical indicators like RSI are overheated, which may lead to some profit-taking pressure in the short term.

Whether it can continue its upward trend depends on: whether Hook strategy pools can bring new growth; deepening ecosystem partnerships through cross-chain integration; and whether Unichain can maintain its cost advantage and attractiveness, potentially challenging the $13–$14 range.

Euler: "Phoenix Rising" After a Hack

Euler Finance is a modular lending protocol on Ethereum known for risk-layering, flexible asset permissioning, and high capital efficiency. It supports access to any ERC-20 asset, leveraged position management, and features a complex liquidation protection mechanism. Following a devastating hack in 2024, the project quickly regained "trust high ground" and became one of the core players in the DeFi lending sector revival.

Recently, $EUL reached an all-time high, briefly surpassing $15, marking a surge of over 950% from its late 2023 low point. Its market cap also approached nearly $300 million. Despite a slight retracement, the price is currently stable in the $11.8–$13 range.

The factors driving Euler's rise include:

1. Rising from the ashesEuler quickly rebooted after the hack incident, gaining community trust and capital inflow, which laid a strong foundation for its significant rebound.

2. TVL and lending depth dual recoveryAn abnormal increase in TVL, a surge in active loans reflect strong user borrowing demand and protocol momentum recovery.

3. EulerSwap complementing the ecosystemAfter launching its native DEX, Euler established a self-circulating liquidity path, enabling staking, borrowing, and trading to achieve closed-loop interaction.

4. Increased support from mainstream platformsRecent news indicates that Coinbase will support EUL, and the announcement briefly drove the price up by about 5.7% in a day, reflecting increased market recognition and acceptance.

The latest data shows Euler's TVL has reached $1.2 billion, having largely overcome the impact and challenges following the hack incident. Euler has introduced its native DEX—EulerSwap, which has seen a total trading volume surpassing $10 billion since its launch in May. Loan Activity: The active loan amount recently exceeded $1 billion, compared to just around $240,000 at the end of 2024, showing a significant increase.

Euler's recovery is a typical "rise from the ashes" story: from the dilemma after the hack, to a rapid reboot, explosive TVL, product innovation, and gradually regaining market value and attention, demonstrating the resilience of old DeFi projects in terms of trust and governance.

However, it is worth noting: the pullback pressure after a high price; whether EulerSwap can maintain trading depth, whether the lending category will expand, will determine whether it can continue to grow; more continued capital platform support, such as deeper support from Coinbase, more CEX listings, will enhance liquidity and market capitalization. If Euler does indeed maintain TVL growth, loan activity, and DEX development momentum in the future, it is expected to return to a higher valuation range, continuing to write the classic "old tree rejuvenation" chapter.

Pendle: TVL and Price Surge Driven by Boros

Pendle is a DeFi protocol that allows users to "trade future yield," with the core mechanism splitting any yield-bearing asset into "Yield Tokens" and "Principal Tokens," allowing users to freely trade future yield. Pendle V3 introduced the Boros platform, creating advanced yield trading tools, and has become a core infrastructure for Yield-trading.

Pendle has recently shown outstanding performance: the price briefly surged to nearly $6, with a weekly gain of up to 46%, far exceeding the overall market trend.

The reasons behind Pendle's surge are:

1. Launch of the Boros Yield Trading Platform After the launch of Boros, which converts BTC/ETH funding rates into tradable assets (Yield Units), user participation and capital inflows quickly increased.

2. Cross-protocol Integration Mechanism Optimizing Capital Efficiency Through ecosystem collaborations with Ethena, Aave, and Boros, Pendle has become an efficient yield strategy hub, with its PT-USDe strategy driving a significant increase in capital.

3. TVL and Yield Growth Boost Confidence All-time high TVL and significant income growth provide strong support for the token and boost market sentiment.

On core data, Pendle's TVL reached a historical high of $8.8 billion, primarily driven by a fund surge on the Boros platform. In the first two days of launch, over $1.85 million in BTC and ETH was deposited, Pendle's active addresses on Arbitrum doubled, attracting on-chain and institutional attention.

At the same time, protocol integrations drove a liquidity surge. Approximately 60% of TVL came from USDe strategies (such as PT-USDe generating leverage and liquidity on Aave), creating a strong "yield-loop" asset recycling mechanism.

Pendle has become a DeFi hotspot due to its unique yield trading mechanism and protocol integration strategy: the Boros platform injected strong momentum, leading to an explosion in TVL and price. However, caution is needed regarding the short-term technical high-level retracement risk and the centralization risk brought by USDe's dominance. If Pendle can continue to expand Boros-supported assets (such as staking rewards, bond yields) and drive overall protocol governance and ecosystem deep integration, it has great potential to sustainably challenge the $7-$8 range, moving towards a true "old project, new chapter."

Lending King Re-crowned, Aave Gradually Institutionalizing

Aave is the premier lending protocol in the DeFi world, known for its non-custodial, modular design, and cross-chain support. Its innovative features such as the GHO stablecoin, Umbrella security mechanism, and Aave Arc/Horizon further solidify its core position in DeFi's liquidity layer.

Recently, AAVE has shown strong performance: reaching a high of $330 in mid-July, with a roughly 24% increase in 7 days. While there is short-term retracement pressure at the market's high, the overall trend remains strong.

The reasons behind Aave's rise include:

1. Capital Inflows and TVL Leadership Aave still holds a dominant position in the lending market, with new users and funds continuously flowing in, providing a solid foundation for market confidence.

2. Stablecoin GHO Performance Enhancement Value Proposition GHO's cross-chain extension, sGHO, anti-GHO mechanism, and other mechanisms provide holders with multi-layer incentive rewards, enhancing ecosystem stickiness.

3. Institutional Path Continuously Landing Horizon, Arc, KYC compliance mechanism, making Aave an important entry point for institutional-grade DeFi lending.

Looking at other core data, Aave's TVL currently stands at $380.4 billion, a 52% increase from the beginning of the year, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total DeFi TVL and leading the lending market. Its native stablecoin GHO has an issuance of $312 million, with GHO's cross-chain extension on Arbitrum and Base driving income growth, and AAVE achieving a return rate of 22.97% in the recent rebalance period.

In terms of specific institutional partnerships, Aave has launched the Horizon project to drive the RWA and institutional adoption path, collaborated with Plasma to introduce a blockchain fund for institutions, and the Aave DAO has approved a white-label solution for the Kraken Ink chain.

As a veteran in the DeFi lending field, Aave remains "old but strong": TVL and deposit size continue to break records, GHO's functionality continues to expand, institutional pathways progress steadily, all injecting strong momentum into its rejuvenation. However, AAVE's price is under pressure from a high position, with technical indicators such as RSI nearing overbought levels, indicating a potential short-term adjustment. Whether it can continue to lead the DeFi lending sector in the future depends on the progress of Aave V4's release, the effect of the RWA channel landing, and regulatory trends.

Spark: The Sword of MakerDAO

The Spark Protocol (referred to as Spark), evolved from MakerDAO, has now been integrated into the Sky ecosystem. It is an advanced on-chain capital allocator dedicated to efficiently deploying stablecoin capital in the billions into DeFi, CeFi, and RWA (real-world assets). Its core products include SparkLend (lending), Spark Savings (yield generation), Spark Liquidity Layer (cross-chain liquidity allocation), and more.

Since the official airdrop and listing of the SPK token on June 17, 2025, the market performance has been remarkably impressive: The initial TGE issuance price was around $0.065. In the short term, the SPK price experienced significant volatility—dropping to a low of less than half of the issuance price (around $0.03), but then rebounding strongly to reach a historical high of $0.18 on July 23. This surge represented an increase of over 400%. The current price is stable in the $0.12–$0.13 range, with a market cap close to $190 million and a 24-hour trading volume soaring to nearly $450 million.

The key reasons behind the significant increase in the SPK token's price may include the following four factors:

1. TVL Surge Boosting SentimentSince April, Spark's TVL has surged by 250%. This influx of capital directly boosted market confidence, rapidly lifting the SPK price and setting an all-time high.

2. Airdrop and Listing Heating Up TradingSpark's launch was accompanied by a large-scale airdrop and listing on mainstream exchanges (such as Binance), along with favorable mechanisms set in place, driving up initial market attention and price volatility.

3. Top-tier Funding and Technical EndorsementBacked by a $65 billion stablecoin reserve on the Sky (formerly MakerDAO) platform, and with a transparent mechanism as the core of capital deployment, Spark is endowed with a strong foundation of stability.

4. Product Structure IntegritySpark features a product matrix covering yield generation, lending, and cross-chain liquidity, comprehensively catering to user needs through SparkLend, Savings, and SLL.

As of the time of writing, Spark's total TVL has reached $74 billion. Previously, in July, the TVL reached a peak of $81 billion, ranking it as the sixth-largest DeFi platform, with SparkLend managing around $47 billion and SLL managing around $34 billion. Spark is rapidly reshaping the stablecoin and capital efficiency standards in DeFi. The surge in TVL, combined with the airdrop sentiment and the endorsement by Sky, has allowed SPK to achieve a legendary comeback of "old project, new life" in a short period.

However, at the same time, high volatility and early selling pressure persist, with the price currently retracing by 30–40%. Caution is advised for a short-term market adjustment. The future strength will depend on whether the Spark ecosystem can continue to expand (such as through CeFi channels, RWA integration), governance activity, and the loyalty of SPK holders.

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