LWID : On-Chain Perps DEX Launch, Aave Governance Tension Escalates, Hyperlend Airdrop Claim, and more...
DeFi📈
Perpl, a perp DEX on Monad backed by Dragonfly, is launching mainnet tomorrow by combining fully on-chain execution directly on Monad instead of most perps DEX that use their own trading chain to execute orders, a true central-limit order book, and low gas costs.
Arbitrum DAO proposes a constitutional amendment to implement a delegated voting power (DVP)-based quorum model with finalized parameters following community interest and off-chain voting.
Lido expands institutional access to Ethereum staking rewards through V3 and stVaults infrastructure. Secure, liquid, battle-tested staking now targets institutional depositors across Ethereum, Solana, and other chains.
Fluid proposed transferring all protocol IP and assets to a new Fluid Foundation, making the protocol fully DAO-owned with token holders controlling budgets and governance, while the Foundation operates as a legal entity funded by a $250K monthly DAO grant.
Hyperliquid Labs unstaked 173k HYPE tokens to be distributed to team members on Mar 6, lower than the community expected amount of above 200k HYPE.
Steakhouse launched Supervisor V2, adding guardian and depositor veto power to Morpho vaults so risky changes can be blocked before execution, improving depositor protection and making vaults more transparent and institution-friendly across Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum.
Echelon launches Infinifi’s iUSD lending on Echelon Chain with $25,000 in incentives split between suppliers and borrowers.
Summer launches DAO Risk-Managed Vaults across Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Sonic, and Hyperliquid L1, optimizing for higher risk/reward strategies while curating yields from top protocols.
Ether.fi partnered with FalconX, M11 Credit, Cap, and Symbiotic to use 7,500 wstETH as collateral for institutional stablecoin loans, enabling weETH holders to earn ~4.5% real yield from restaking-backed credit markets.
SagaEVM, a layer-1 blockchain for launching custom chains, restarted block production, after a January exploit drained $7 million via a bridge vulnerability
YieldFi’s positions that were directly impacted were questioned by depositors who demanded updates on lost funds that amounted to 5.9M USDC, 676k yUSD, and some yETH.
ether.fi launched Earn on its iOS app, allowing users to generate yield directly within the mobile interface.
Reflect Money launches Reflect Whitelabel, a permissionless framework enabling protocols to issue customizable yield-bearing stablecoins using Reflect’s infrastructure.
World Liberty Financial proposes $1M market-making incentive for USD1 stablecoin, aiming to bootstrap liquidity by compensating market makers.
Vitalik outlined Ethereum’s quantum-resistance roadmap, proposing upgrades to replace vulnerable signatures, data availability proofs, and ZK systems with hash-based signatures, STARKs, and recursive proof aggregation to secure the network against future quantum threats.
Morpho partners with Deblock to enable yield on Societe Generale-FORGE EURCV through Steakhouse Fi curated vault. Users can earn yield while accessing MiCA-compliant EURO stablecoin for payments on Deblock’s all-in-one financial platform.
Stablecoins/RWA🪙
USD.AI launched the $CHIP ICO on CoinList, with the sale open until Feb 27 for users who secured allocations through the Allo Game campaign.
Pendle launches Neutrl NUSD and sNUSD pools (maturity June 4, 2026) with >12% fixed APY options.
Pendle enables fixed-yield trading on Ripple’s RLSD and PayPal’s PYUSD institutional stablecoins with a maturity date of May 28, 2026.
Unitas launches sUSDu on Pendle with an April 23 maturity date, enabling users to lock fixed yield, access leveraged exposure via yield tokens, and provide liquidity.
Curvance launches YZM | AUSD market on Monad, integrating Yuzu Money’s yield vault with Accountable’s verifiable yield infrastructure.
Infinit Labs automates Pendle PT loops with yields: PT-reUSD at 23% APY, PT-snUSD at 21% APY, and PT-cUSD at 10% APY. 10,000 $IN incentive pool rewards early participants in these automated strategies.
Drift Protocol launches PAXG-PERP (gold perpetuals) on Solana.
Neutrl launches srNUSD and PT-srNUSD borrowing markets on Morpho in partnership with Strata Markets.
Perps DEX
Decibel Perps, incubated by Aptos Labs, launches its on-chain exchange on Aptos with $57M in pre-deposits, introducing AMP rewards for trading, liquidity, and referrals, alongside a DLP vault offering yield and unified margin while Season 1 points begins.
Grvt perps DEX partnered with Aave and launched its mobile app, enabling users to earn Aave yield on trading collateral while using the same capital for margin, offering around 11% yield through composable on-chain margin on zkSync.
Privacy🔒
Starknet launches strkBTC, a privacy-enabled Bitcoin wrapper on its Layer 2. The asset enables shielded transactions and confidential DeFi while maintaining composability.
zERC20 launched zBNB, a privacy-enabled wrapped BNB that uses ZK proof-of-burn to detach transaction history by burning and reminting to a new address, enabling private transfers on BNB Chain.
Airdrops🪂
Dolomite distributes oDOLO rewards every Thursday to holders of HONEY, USDC, BERA, WBTC, USD1, srUSD, BYUSD, and ETH across 7 chains.
Hyperlend $HPL token airdrop launched, with trading live on Hyperliquid tomorrow, pairing with Native market’s USDH.
Venus launches Flux on BNB Chain with $1,000,000 in supply incentives, creating the first unified liquidity layer across 8 chains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism.
Huma Finance launches Season 3 Eligibility Checker for $HUMA airdrop. Eligibility is based on on-chain activity, especially USDC deposits into their point-farming modes.
MetaMask Rewards Season 1 LINEA token claims are now live for two weeks through Merkl on MetaMask Mobile. Eligible users can claim allocations based on participation in the rewards program.
Katana launched Season 1 quests in its app, allowing users to complete ecosystem activities to earn XP, badges, and potential future rewards while engaging across its DeFi ecosystem.
Reservoir launched Season 3, shifting DAM incentives toward revenue-generating strategies by directing points and liquid rewards to Pendle markets, IPOR vaults, and a new Morpho USDC vault offering around 10% APY.
DeepBook on Sui introduced a points program rewarding both passive liquidity provision and active trading, with higher incentives for margin trading, as the protocol aims to stress-test liquidity.
Polygon POL stakers are eligible for Katana vKAT airdrop, with additional rewards unlocked for voting with vKAT.
Venus Protocol launches $1 million incentive program on February 26 across 8 chains, including Binance, Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base.
Spark Points Season 3 now rewards 1 point/USDC/day and 1 point/USDT/day for direct holdings via Spark frontend across Ethereum and xDai.
Limitless Season 2 airdrop claim deadline is February 25, 2026, 7:30 PM UTC on Base.
Issues⚠️
Aave governance tensions escalated as Aave Labs and ACI published opposing reports ahead of the $51M funding from the “Aave Will Win” proposal vote, with debates centered on revenue alignment to token holders, accountability for ~$86M in past funding, and risks of contributor exits impacting token performance and competitiveness vs Morpho.
Step Finance, SolanaFloor, and Remora Markets will shut down after January’s hack and failed financing efforts, with a planned STEP token buyback based on a pre-incident snapshot and redemption for fully backed Remora rToken holders.
ZachXBT exposes a critical security breach at Axiom where staff accessed private user wallets and trade histories, raising urgent compliance concerns across the industry.
IoTeX offers 10% bounty for the return of $4.4 million stolen in a cross-bridge hack within 48 hours.
News🗞️
BasedoneX raised $11.5M from Pantera to build an on-chain finance superapp combining perpetuals, prediction markets, spot trading, and real-world spending into a single unified trading and payments interface.
Hanwha Asset Management, South Korea’s oldest ETF issuer, partners with Jito Foundation to launch the first JitoSOL ETP in Asia.
Metaplex, a token launcher protocol, launches an App on Solana, enabling permissionless token launches via time-based launch pools with pro-rata distribution and refund protection, alongside a $250K MPLX rewards campaign.
Morpho launches yield infrastructure on Celo, enabling mobile-first users in emerging markets to access on-chain yield curated by Featherlend.
Terraform’s bankruptcy trustee has filed a lawsuit against Jane Street, alleging the firm used insider information from Terraform contacts during the 2022 TerraUSD collapse to exit positions early and gain a trading advantage.
Regulations🏦
U.S. regulators propose strict stablecoin rules through the OCC’s GENIUS framework, threatening the crypto sector’s current stablecoin model amid Senate banking hearings.
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Disclaimer: Projects or tokens mentioned in this newsletter are often experimental or unaudited. Do your own diligence before using or buying anything mentioned.