A new era for DeFi tokens? Each week in The Snapshot, we share data-driven insights, highlight new listings, and showcase our latest product updates. Read on for the latest edition 👇

Charts of the week cover 3 DeFi blue chips: 1) Uniswap (UNI) 2) Aave (AAVE) 3) Lido (LDO) Let's dive in!

Uniswap processes more trading volume today than in May 2021, while UNI trades at a lower valuation. Monthly trading volume increased from $38.9B to $116.6B, while UNI’s valuation decreased from $21.7B to $6.8B. Uniswap continues to ship major product upgrades and expand across chains. Releases including v3, v4, UniswapX, the Uniswap Wallet, and Unichain broaden the protocol’s product surface and distribution. Uniswap’s UNIfication proposal (if implemented) introduces direct value accrual to UNI holders. By activating a fee switch that funds token buybacks, the mechanism links trading activity to UNI demand in a transparent and rules-based way.

Aave manages more active loans today than in May 2021, while AAVE trades at a lower valuation. Active loans increased from $8.6B to $27.2B, while AAVE’s valuation decreased from $4.6B to $3.9B. Aave continues to expand its lending product suite and coverage across chains. Upgrades including v3 and upcoming v4, deployments to major L1s and L2s, and the scale-out of GHO have improved the protocol’s functionality, coverage, and margins. Aave’s buyback program introduces direct value accrual to AAVE holders. By allocating protocol revenue to ongoing buybacks, the DAO establishes a mechanism that ties lending activity to AAVE demand.

Lido secures more staked assets today than in May 2021, while LDO trades at a lower valuation. Staked assets increased from $1.2B to $35B, while LDO’s valuation decreased from $2.1B to $1B. Lido has continued to invest in its infrastructure. Initiatives such as the CSM, DVT, and dual governance aim to broaden the node operator set and increase decentralization, while reducing potential governance-related risks. Lido’s buyback program introduces direct value accrual to LDO holders. By using a portion of protocol revenue for buybacks, the DAO creates a structural link between staked ETH growth and LDO demand.

Standardized project listings: Acala, a DeFi and liquidity hub appchain on Polkadot that offers a suite of financial primitives, including a stablecoin, liquid staking, and other DeFi services. Hyperbridge, a chain-agnostic interoperability protocol and coprocessor that lets applications securely transfer data and assets between blockchains using verifiable interoperability proofs. Hydration, a DeFi liquidity layer for Polkadot (evolving from HydraDX) that uses a single-pool AMM to concentrate cross-chain liquidity and support advanced treasury and trading use cases. + 12 basic project listings: 14Numbers, Infinex, Oku Trade, Penpie, Cronos zkEVM, Yuzu Money, ZKcandy, Razor, TradePort, Mosaic, UIIC, and Ore Protocol.

@AcalaNetwork @hyperbridge @hydration_net Asset listings: 595 tokenized stocks from Robinhood, Ondo Finance, and Backed Finance are now supported. Examples include BMNR, GOOGLon, and BNVDA.

Expanded coverage: Aave and Pendle on Plasma: Track TVL, active loans, fees, and more for Aave and Pendle on Plasma. Aave has $1.7B in active loans, and Pendle holds $865.9M in TVL. These metrics are visible on the respective Project pages when filtering by chain and can be explored via Studio. XPL token holders: Track the number of XPL token holders on Plasma. Currently, 2.3M unique addresses hold XPL tokens. This metric is visible on Plasma’s Project page and can be explored via Studio. Unichain and HyperEVM fees: Track average transaction fees for Unichain and HyperEVM. Transaction fees average $0.007 on Unichain and $0.0904 on HyperEVM this week. These metrics are visible on the respective Project pages and can be explored via Studio. Circle’s bridged USDC supply: Track Circle’s bridged USDC supply on BNB Chain. The current supply is $1.3B. This metric is visible on Circle’s Project page when filtering by BNB Chain and can be explored via Studio.

Platform improvements: Tokenized assets on Studio: Create charts using Tokenized assets with new asset-specific metrics (asset market cap, mint/burns, holder counts, and more) on Studio. Asset filtering: Filter by chain, issuer, and market sector on the Tokenized assets page. Global search: Search for the Tokenized assets page directly from the search palette. Project screener: Toggle open product lists on the Projects page to see product lines with available metrics like TVL, fees, and more. Projects and products in Market sectors: View projects and their products together on Market sector pages.

This week's key product update was our integration with Flipside. Our standardized onchain datasets are now integrated into Flipside AI, the research platform developed by Flipside.