Is DeFi regulation迎来春天? Leading projects show contrasting performances

Recently, the positive signals released by U.S. regulators have brought a glimmer of hope to the DeFi industry. However, under this seemingly favorable policy backdrop, the DeFi market presents a complex situation: some leading protocols are performing excellently, with strong fundamental data; while others are struggling with growth, and token prices have yet to recover to the levels seen at the beginning of the year. Although DeFi tokens have rebounded rapidly recently, is this merely a short-term market fluctuation, or does it reflect deeper value logic? Let's focus on the latest dynamics and data performance of leading DeFi players to analyze the opportunities and challenges within.

Decentralized Finance regulation may welcome an "innovation exemption" framework

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently released positive signals regarding the regulation of DeFi. In a crypto roundtable, the SEC chairman stated that the fundamental principles of DeFi align with core values such as economic freedom and private property rights in the United States, and supports the self-custody of crypto assets. He emphasized that blockchain technology enables financial transactions without intermediaries, and the SEC should not obstruct such innovations.

The chairman also revealed for the first time that he has instructed the research and formulation of an "innovation exemption" policy framework targeting DeFi platforms, aimed at "quickly allowing entities under SEC jurisdiction and non-jurisdictional entities to bring on-chain products and services to market." He clearly stated that developers of self-custody or privacy-focused software should not bear liability under federal securities laws solely for releasing code.

The head of the SEC's crypto task force also expressed support, emphasizing that code publishers should not be held liable for the use of their code by others, but also warning that centralized entities should not evade regulation by using the "decentralized" label.

These statements are viewed by the market as a significant positive signal, which once triggered a surge in DeFi token prices. If the "innovation exemption" is implemented, it is expected to create a more relaxed and clear regulatory environment for the development of DeFi projects in the United States.

Data Review: TVL Growth Weak, Token Rebound Strong

After the announcement of favorable regulatory news, the long-silent DeFi tokens have seen a broad market rally. In particular, several leading projects experienced significant increases of 20% to 40%. However, is this merely a transient phenomenon driven by news, or is it a result of the natural growth of the DeFi industry? A review of the data from the top 20 DeFi protocols over the past six months reveals:

Overall, the TVL growth of these leading DeFi protocols in the first half of 2025 is not significant, with 7 protocols even experiencing a decline in TVL. Among the protocols that increased, 5 had growth of no more than 5%, essentially stagnating. The fastest-growing is a RWA project that differs from traditional DeFi protocols. Among other protocols, a lending platform showed notable growth, with its TVL surpassing $26 billion, reaching a historic high, and increasing by more than $6 billion in the first half of the year.

Although the ecosystem of a certain public chain has achieved continuous growth in stablecoins this year, the TVL data of its leading DeFi protocol has decreased by 39.82% in the first half of the year, becoming the protocol with the largest decline. In addition, some popular protocols that attracted considerable market attention also experienced varying degrees of decline in the first half of the year.

The token prices also seem to amplify this downward trend, with the average maximum drawdown of the top 20 DeFi protocol tokens reaching 57% in the first half of 2025. Even though the market has recently rebounded and the tokens of various protocols have seen a significant bounce, the vast majority of protocol tokens have still not returned to the price levels of January 1, 2025. Overall, these tokens have averaged a decline of 24% compared to their January 1 price.

However, the token prices of these DeFi projects have generally experienced a significant rebound, with an average rebound increase of about 95.59% from their lows. Several tokens have seen rebound rates exceeding 150%. From the trend, the recent lows of these tokens are concentrated around April 7, which is similar to the overall trend of the crypto market. However, the rebound strength is generally better than that of other types of tokens. Nevertheless, whether from the perspective of price rebound or the overall trend in the past six months, the price movement of the tokens seems to have no direct correlation with the performance of the TVL of these DeFi protocols.

The performance of leading DeFi projects varies

Among these projects, some DeFi projects are worth paying special attention to.

A leading lending platform had a remarkable performance in the first half of the year, repeatedly breaking historical highs. It has also expanded to multiple public chains, currently supporting 18 public chains. In addition, to boost the token price, the platform's community has launched proposals including a $1 million token buyback per week and a revenue redistribution proposal concerning the platform and its native stablecoin. In terms of product interest rates, the platform's lending rates are not high, but it boasts stronger depth, which has also attracted many large investors.

A leading DEX officially launched its new version in 2025, technically introducing more flexible custom logic and significantly reducing Gas fees. In addition, the launch of its new chain further expanded the DEX's competitiveness in the Decentralized Finance ecosystem. Although its TVL decreased in the first half of the year, a closer look reveals that this decline was mainly caused by the drop in Ethereum prices. From the perspective of ETH staking volume, there has been an increase compared to January.

A certain stablecoin protocol underwent a comprehensive brand upgrade starting in 2024. Although its TVL began to decline after the upgrade, another protocol within the ecosystem demonstrated new potential in the RWA direction. The combined TVL of these two protocols is expected to exceed $11 billion, placing it among the top three. Additionally, its token performed quite well in 2025, rising from a low of around $800 to $2100, an increase of over 170%.

A certain re-staking protocol has pioneered the new concept of "re-staking". Since its launch, its TVL has achieved explosive growth, reaching $12.4 billion, making it the third-ranked DeFi protocol. Although the concept of re-staking started to cool down after a brief surge in 2024, the protocol's TVL also experienced a decline for a while. However, since April, its TVL data has clearly entered a new growth cycle, increasing from $7 billion to $12.4 billion in less than two months, a growth rate of 77%. Shedding the external guise of the concept, perhaps the true value of re-staking is being redefined by the market.

A leading project in liquid staking once dominated the market with its token, with TVL reaching nearly $40 billion in 2024. However, since the second half of 2024, with the rapid growth of Ethereum L2, this project, which is overly concentrated on the Ethereum mainnet (with over 99% share), has shown signs of decline, and TVL has been declining steadily. Its token has not seen a significant rebound recently, with a maximum increase of 61% from the low point to June 10, far below the average of the top 20 DeFi tokens. Currently, the project's total TVL still ranks second, only behind a certain lending platform, indicating that the scale effect is still present. The key challenge now is how to quickly transform to adapt to more markets, which may be the primary task to maintain its leading position.

The regulatory shift by the SEC undoubtedly injects a dose of adrenaline into the U.S. DeFi market. The long-standing regulatory uncertainty that has plagued project teams is expected to ease, and some pending innovations may finally take root. The trends revealed by the data are also worthy of reflection: although Ethereum remains the main host for TVL, the development momentum of DeFi is increasingly showing its independence and even starting to feedback on the value of underlying public chains. In the future, the clarification of regulations will attract more traditional financial capital with a lower risk appetite to enter the DeFi space, bringing valuable new blood; at the same time, attempts by some financial giants to launch unique DeFi products not only signify a broader integration prospect but also indicate that competition for the incremental market will become more intense. This new situation triggered by regulatory easing may very well be a new starting point for DeFi to mature and deeply integrate with traditional finance.