Whales, or large cryptocurrency buyers, have misplaced tens of millions of {dollars} by betting on the worth appreciation of the Trump family-linked World Liberty Monetary (WLFI) token.
Since its launch on Monday, the WLFI token’s value fell by over 40%, regardless of a large-scale token burn occasion that completely lowered the token’s circulating provide, aiming to tighten provide and enhance the worth of the remaining tokens in the marketplace.
Regardless of the over 40% decline, a number of the pre-sale holders are nonetheless displaying confidence within the presidentially endorsed token.
Out of greater than 85,000 pre-sale individuals, 60% had been nonetheless holding the token, whereas solely 29% had absolutely bought, wrote blockchain knowledge platform Bubblemaps, in a Wednesday X post.
Whales lose tens of millions on Trump-linked WLFI’s 40% dip, regardless of 47 million burn
Massive crypto buyers, or whales, had been struggling tens of millions in losses on the Trump family-linked World Liberty Monetary (WLFI) token, which continued to say no regardless of a proposal to cut back the circulating provide.
Whale wallet 0x432 misplaced greater than $1.6 million after closing a 3x leveraged WLFI lengthy place, based on Onchain Lens.
“The ethical of the story: by no means be in FOMO,” quick for concern of lacking out, wrote the platform in a Thursday X post, referencing the whale’s hasty funding transfer.
The investor had opened a second lengthy place on the WLFI token simply 15 hours after closing a earlier one with a $915,000 revenue, solely to lose the $1.6 million.
Confidence in Trump-linked token weakens
Different whales had been additionally exiting WLFI positions at a loss, signaling waning confidence within the Trump-affiliated token’s value outlook.
The whale promoting got here a day after the WLFI platform burned 47 million tokens on Wednesday, completely eradicating them in a bid to tighten provide and enhance the worth of the remaining tokens.
The token burn was not sufficient to cease its post-launch decline, because the WLFI value fell one other 18% within the 24 hours main as much as 8:31 am UTC Thursday, marking a complete decline of 41% because it was launched on Monday, based on CoinMarketCap knowledge.
Avalanche exercise pushed by DEXs, buying and selling bots, whale memecoin hypothesis
Sensible contract blockchain Avalanche recorded a constant surge in blockchain exercise, as analysts pointed to rising decentralized buying and selling actions and returning crypto whale hypothesis on the subsequent rising memecoin.
Avalanche’s transaction growth surpassed all different blockchains the previous week, rising 66% to 11.9 million transactions throughout greater than 181,000 energetic addresses, signaling rising investor mindshare specializing in the blockchain.
The milestone occurred after a “landmark effort” by the US Division of Commerce, which adopted Avalanche, together with 9 different public decentralized blockchains, to publish its actual gross home product (GDP), Cointelegraph reported on Aug. 29.
Regardless of Avalanche’s rising institutional and governmental adoption, we “can not at this level attribute this to the US Authorities adopting Avalanche for its GDP knowledge,” stated Nicolai Sondergaard, analysis analyst on the Nansen crypto intelligence platform.
The community’s rising blockchain exercise was primarily pushed by decentralized finance (DeFi) merchants, miner extractable value (MEV) buying and selling bots and whales speculating on the subsequent large memecoin launch, the analyst instructed Cointelegraph, including:
“The transaction surge is pushed by: 60% DeFi protocol exercise (Dealer Joe, Aave, Benqi), 25% Automated buying and selling bots and MEV, and 10% Whale buying and selling and memecoin hypothesis […].”
The analysis analyst stated that the extra 5% of exercise was attributed to blockchain gaming and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
DeFi lending rises 72% on institutional curiosity, RWA collateral adoption
Decentralized lending protocols are surging in whole worth and set to capitalize on the rising institutional adoption of stablecoins and tokenized property, based on Binance Analysis.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocols are automated methods that facilitate lending and borrowing for buyers through sensible contracts, eliminating the necessity for monetary intermediaries like banks.
DeFi lending protocols have risen greater than 72% year-to-date (YTD), from $53 billion at the start of 2025 to over $127 billion in cumulative whole worth locked (TVL) on Wednesday, based on Binance Analysis.
This explosive progress is attributed to DeFi lending protocols benefiting from accelerated institutional adoption of stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
“As stablecoin and tokenized asset adoption accelerates, DeFi lending protocols are more and more positioned to facilitate institutional participation,” wrote Binance Analysis in a Wednesday report shared completely with Cointelegraph.
A good portion of this progress was attributed to Maple Finance and Euler, which noticed 586% and 1,466% rises, respectively.
“As tokenized property proceed integrating into the mainstream monetary system, we anticipate a brand new technology of onchain monetary merchandise to emerge, enabling extra environment friendly, clear, and accessible capital markets,” a Binance Analysis spokesperson instructed Cointelegraph, including:
“DeFi lending protocols, specifically, supply a programmable and interoperable framework that makes them well-suited to facilitate higher institutional participation.”
This rising dynamic is ready to boost DeFi liquidity and the broader crypto ecosystem by “bridging conventional finance and decentralized infrastructure,” added the spokesperson.
Mantle 2.0 to speed up DeFi-CeFi convergence: Delphi Digital
Mantle 2.0, which goals to change into the institutional “liquidity chain” for tokenized real-world property, is championing a brand new enterprise mannequin which will speed up the mutually useful convergence between the trade’s centralized and decentralized individuals.
Mantle Community was initially launched as an Ethereum layer-2 (L2) scaling resolution in 2021 beneath BitDAO, as the primary L2 community launched by a decentralized autonomous group (DAO).
In July 2023, BitDAO and Mantle Community consolidated into the Mantle model and the Mantle (MNT) token.
The challenge is now coming into a “new section in its lifecycle,” dubbed Mantle 2.0. It’s marked by Bybit executives being put in as key advisers and a brand new roadmap focusing on the convergence of centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), based on crypto analysis agency Delphi Digital’s Wednesday report.
Mantle 2.0 could champion a brand new enterprise mannequin for the cryptocurrency trade, encouraging extra DAO-governed initiatives to merge with main centralized exchanges, combining the benefits of decentralized governance with the deep liquidity and mainstream person base of centralized buying and selling venues.
On Aug. 18, the Bybit trade launched a number of unique campaigns and earn merchandise for the MNT token.
On Aug. 29, Bybit trade and Mantle revealed a mixed roadmap, which awarded MNT holders decrease slippage buys, extra fee choices throughout the Bybit ecosystem and different financial savings and staking merchandise.
“Mantle is now not simply an L2 however the basis of Bybit’s ecosystem. This isn’t a easy partnership however a play for RWA dominance,” wrote Delphi Digital in a Wednesday X post, including:
“This replace shifts the Mantle token right into a Bybit utility asset.”
“This anchors MNT’s worth to Bybit’s huge every day quantity ($3-5B spot, $25B+ derivatives) over easy governance,” wrote the analysis agency, including that we’re seeing the emergence of a “new aggressive panorama that merges TradFi infrastructure with DeFi rails.”
Venus Protocol recovers person’s $13.5 millon stolen in phishing assault
Decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Venus Protocol helped a person get better stolen crypto following a phishing assault tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
On Thursday, Venus Protocol announced that it had helped a person get better $13.5 million in crypto after the phishing incident that occurred on Tuesday. On the time, Venus Protocol paused the platform as a precautionary measure and started investigating.
In line with Venus, the pause halted additional fund motion, whereas audits confirmed Venus’ sensible contracts and entrance finish had been uncompromised.
An emergency governance vote allowed the compelled liquidation of the attacker’s pockets, enabling stolen tokens to be seized and despatched to a restoration deal with.
DeFi market overview
In line with knowledge from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, a lot of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week within the inexperienced.
The meme token MemeCore (M) rose by over 236% because the week’s greatest winner within the prime 100, adopted by memecoin launchpad Pump.fun’s (PUMP) token, up over 41% through the previous week.
Thanks for studying our abstract of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Be a part of us subsequent Friday for extra tales, insights and training relating to this dynamically advancing house.