Release Date: December 19, 2025
Author: BlockBeats Editorial Team

In the past 24 hours, the crypto market has unfolded across multiple dimensions. The mainstream topics focus on the divergence in the issuance rhythm and buyback strategies of Perp DEX projects, as well as ongoing discussions about the expected TGE timing for Lighter and whether Hyperliquid's buyback will squeeze long-term development. In terms of ecological development, the Solana ecosystem has seen real-world attempts at DePIN, while Ethereum is simultaneously advancing changes in DEX fee structures and upgrades to the AI protocol layer, with stablecoins and high-performance infrastructure accelerating their integration with traditional finance.

I. Mainstream Topics

1. UNI Burn Proposal Enters Final Voting: Governance Alignment or Narrative Repair?

The "Unification" proposal submitted by Uniswap founder Hayden Adams has entered the final governance voting stage, which will open on the evening of December 19 and last until December 25.

The proposal plans to burn 100 million UNI and simultaneously activate the fee switches for v2 and v3 mainnets (as well as Unichain fees), while achieving clearer legal alignment between Uniswap Labs and protocol governance through the DUNA legal structure in Wyoming.

The controversy in the overseas community does not focus on "whether to burn," but rather on the nature of governance itself: some voices question whether this is a carefully designed "governance optics," arguing that Labs is reasserting control over the agenda at a critical juncture, undermining the independence of the DAO; supporters emphasize its potential significance for MEV internalization and fee recirculation, viewing it as a necessary step for Uniswap towards a sustainable token economy.

Other more cautious viewpoints point out that Uniswap Labs has previously captured significant economic value, contrasting with protocols like Aave that are gradually returning income to the DAO, suggesting a rational assessment of this "historical burden" in governance adjustments. Overall, the proposal is seen as an important turning point in Uniswap's economic model, but it also exposes the ongoing blurring of boundaries between Labs and the DAO in leading DeFi projects.

2. LIDO Valuation Debate Intensifies: The Governance Token Paradox of High TVL and Low Market Cap

As the largest liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, Lido currently holds about 25% market share, with a TVL exceeding $26 billion and an annual revenue of approximately $75 million, while its treasury size is around $170 million. However, its governance token LDO has seen its market cap drop below $500 million, raising widespread questions within the community.

The discussion centers on a core question: does the governance token still have a reasonable valuation basis without dividends and the ability to directly capture cash flow?

Some viewpoints bluntly state that LDO's intrinsic value is approaching zero, arguing that there is almost no direct correlation between protocol revenue and token holders; others attribute the continuous price decline to the downward trend in ETH staking APR, intensified competition in the re-staking arena, and declining future market share expectations.

More radical metaphors describe Lido as the "Linux of the crypto world," with high usage but lacking value recirculation. From a bullish perspective, the only variable repeatedly mentioned is the potential buyback mechanism that may start in Q1 2026, as well as structural changes related to ETH ETFs after the v3 upgrade.

Overall, the debate highlights that Lido's TVL to market cap ratio has reached about 52:1, further emphasizing the long-term misalignment between the "infrastructure status" and "value capture ability" of DeFi governance tokens.

3. CZ Amplifies Privacy Transfer Discussion: On-Chain Transparency Becoming a Payment Barrier?

Former Binance CEO CZ retweeted Ignas's post regarding privacy issues in crypto payments, pointing out that current on-chain transfers fully expose transaction history. In the short term, users can only temporarily evade tracking through centralized exchanges, but this is clearly not a long-term solution. This retweet quickly ignited discussions, shifting the topic from "Is privacy important?" to "Are there already viable tools?" and evolving into a concentrated showcase of privacy solutions.

Many projects and supporters took the opportunity to recommend various solutions, including Railgun, Zcash, ZK-based stablecoin solutions, UTXO architecture chains, etc., emphasizing low-cost or native privacy advantages; some users humorously noted that under the current transparent ledger structure, using cryptocurrency to buy a cup of coffee is almost equivalent to publicly disclosing one's entire asset status.

CZ's retweet further amplified the discussion, spreading the topic from the technical circle to a broader audience of traders and payment users. Overall, this discussion once again highlights the increasingly prominent tension between fully transparent on-chain designs and real-world payment scenarios.

4. Validator Node Performance Debate: Data or Narrative?

The debate over the performance of Ethereum execution clients has continued to ferment over the past day. The new client Tempo claims to be the "fastest execution client," but community testing data shows its performance is only about one-tenth that of Nethermind, raising widespread doubts about the authenticity of its claims.

The discussion quickly expanded from a single project to a more general question: should performance statements in nodes and Layer 2 ecosystems primarily rely on marketing narratives, or must they be strictly based on reproducible data?

Some developers emphasize that public benchmark testing and actual operating environments should be the standards for judgment, opposing vague or selective data disclosures; others took the opportunity to discuss the diversity of Ethereum clients, pointing out the trade-offs in performance, stability, and maintenance costs associated with different languages and implementation paths.

Overall, this debate reflects that the patience of validators and the infrastructure community regarding the "performance myth" is waning, and the market is gradually demanding a return to verifiable engineering discussions.

II. Mainstream Ecological Dynamics

1. Solana: Energy Company with Annual Recurring Revenue of $300 Million Enters DePIN

Energy company Fuse Energy announced the completion of a $70 million Series B financing round, led by Lowercarbon and Balderton, with the company's valuation rising to $5 billion. It disclosed an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $300 million. Fuse stated that it will accelerate the marketization of new technologies through the DePIN model while enhancing its operational efficiency.

In related discussions, some viewpoints suggest that this case indicates that large enterprises with mature cash flows are beginning to systematically adopt DePIN, initiating supply-side flywheels through token incentives, reducing payment and geographical frictions, and compressing expansion costs, which could have spillover impacts on the crypto industry in the coming years. However, some community members questioned how DePIN specifically enhances commercial landing efficiency, arguing that its effects still need to be validated through actual execution. Overall, this event is seen as another signal that the Solana ecosystem is attracting real business participants in the DePIN direction, reinforcing the imaginative space at the intersection of energy and crypto infrastructure.

2. Ethereum: Parallel Advancement of DEX Fee Structure Changes and AI Protocol Layer Upgrades

In the DEX field, the latest data shows that Curve's share of fee revenue in Ethereum DEX has significantly increased, nearing or even temporarily surpassing Uniswap. Community discussions point out that Uniswap's fee share has noticeably declined compared to last year, while Curve has rapidly rebounded from its previous low, viewed by some as a representative case of the repair of DeFi fee structures in 2025; others remind that the actual earnings of veCRV holders have not improved in tandem, and the relationship between governance tokens and protocol revenue still exhibits structural misalignment.

Meanwhile, the ERC-8004 (Trustless Agents) protocol has confirmed its launch on the Ethereum mainnet on January 16. This proposal, introduced in August 2025, aims to provide a decentralized trust layer for autonomous AI agents, enabling them to discover, select, and interact without pre-established trust, and is seen as a key protocol for building an open "agent economy." ERC-8004 was co-authored by members from MetaMask, the Ethereum Foundation, Google, and Coinbase, and is being actively promoted by the newly established dAI team of the Ethereum Foundation, attracting over 150 projects to participate in its construction, with a community size exceeding 1,000 people, making it one of the hottest proposals discussed in the Ethereum Magicians forum.

Some community viewpoints believe that this protocol signifies Ethereum's attempt to become the settlement and coordination backbone for AI agents, but its balance between user experience, security, and decentralization still awaits actual feedback after mainnet operation.

3. Perp DEX: Diverging TGE Expectations and Buyback Strategy Controversies Coexist

Lighter TGE Timing Changes: Market Expectations Diverge Further

According to Polymarket data shared by zoomerfied, the market predicts a 35% probability that Lighter will not conduct a TGE within 2025, with December 29, 2025, seen as the most likely launch date. Related charts show that this probability has been rising since a temporary low on December 15, reaching 35% on December 18, while also indicating a certain degree of pullback.

This prediction has sparked divisions within the community, with some questioning the validity and interpretive value of the information itself, while others believe that under the current market environment, a TGE within the year lacks realistic motivation, making a delay until early 2026 more reasonable. Additionally, some voices point out that the end of December coincides with a holiday window, limiting market attention, and even if tokens are issued, it would be difficult to generate effective momentum. Overall, discussions surrounding the timing of Lighter's launch exhibit clear uncertainty, reflecting the market's ongoing oscillation regarding the rhythm and risk preferences of Perp DEX projects.

Hype Ecosystem's New Project Perpetuals: Continuous Expansion of the Perpetual Contract Arena

Perpetuals, a newly launched Perp project within the Hyperliquid (Hype) ecosystem, focuses on decentralized perpetual contract trading and emphasizes design innovations in leverage mechanisms and liquidity incentives. Although details are limited, the community generally views it as an extension of Hype's existing derivatives landscape, forming a potential competitive relationship with projects like Lighter.

There are discussions suggesting that this project may synergize with the points system or cross-chain mechanisms within the Hype ecosystem in the future, thereby promoting user migration and trading activity. Overall, the emergence of Perpetuals is seen as a signal of Hype's continued expansion, further intensifying competition among products and mechanisms within the Perp DEX arena.

Buyback or Growth Investment? Hype's Buyback Strategy Sparks Structural Debate

The ongoing $HYPE buyback strategy surrounding Hyperliquid has led to significant divisions within the community.

Some viewpoints indicate that Hyperliquid has invested approximately $1 billion in token buybacks, but the long-term price impact is limited. They argue that this funding should be directed towards compliance building and creating competitive barriers to address the pressure from traditional financial institutions like Coinbase, Robinhood, and Nasdaq that may enter the perpetual contract market in the future, warning that buybacks could become a source of structural risk after 2026.

Conversely, some voices believe that in the current cycle, buybacks are one of the few means with certain structural support, not only helping to stabilize token expectations but also directly feeding platform cash flow back to the tokens, thereby building a recession barrier. There are also viewpoints suggesting that buybacks do not necessarily exclude growth investments, with the key being the balance of capital allocation. The overall debate reflects the ongoing trade-off faced by DeFi projects between "buyback price stabilization" and "long-term expansion," while also reflecting the strategic dilemmas faced by Perp DEX projects under the increasing pressure of TradFi competition.

4. Others

At the infrastructure level, MegaETH announced that its Frontier mainnet is officially open to developers and project teams.

The network has been online for several weeks, initially focusing on testing with infrastructure teams such as LayerZero, EigenDA, Chainlink, RedStone, Alchemy, and Safe. It is now beginning to support broader stress testing and unlock the first batch of real-time applications. Relevant information indicates that MegaETH employs a relatively transparent testing and observation method, having integrated block explorers and data analysis tools like Blockscout, Dune, and Growthepie, while also introducing community visualization solutions such as MiniBlocksIO and Swishi.

In community discussions, some interpret this as a key phase of "moving from trial operation to real load," while others emphasize that the realization of high-performance chains still depends on whether oracles and data infrastructure can keep pace. Overall, this opening is seen as an important milestone in MegaETH's transition from the testing phase to a production environment, aiming to support crypto applications with higher extreme performance requirements.

In the stablecoin direction, SoFi Bank announced the launch of its fully reserved stablecoin SoFiUSD, becoming the first nationally chartered retail bank to issue a stablecoin on a public permissionless blockchain.

According to official statements, SoFiUSD is positioned as a stablecoin infrastructure for banks, fintech, and corporate platforms, currently used for internal settlements and planned to gradually open to all SoFi users.

Community discussions focus on both the product-market fit and liquidity challenges, while also pointing out its significance at the infrastructure level: by reconstructing fintech settlement processes through the Galileo processing engine, it achieves 24/7 instant settlements, reduces pre-financing and reconciliation costs, and obtains floating returns through investments in U.S. Treasury bonds. This development is seen as a signal of further integration between the traditional banking system and blockchain, highlighting the accelerated landing of regulatory-friendly stablecoins.

Meanwhile, Visa disclosed that the annualized operating scale of its stablecoin settlement pilot has reached $3.5 billion, with related business moving from the concept testing phase to observable market signals.

Visa also announced two initiatives: first, launching a global stablecoin consulting service through Visa Consulting & Analytics to assist financial institutions in assessing market fit and implementation paths; second, supporting U.S. issuers and acquirers to achieve 24/7 settlements through Circle's USDC and the Visa network, with Cross River Bank and Lead Bank being the first to go live, and more institutions planning to join in 2026. Community discussions focus on the impact of this model on programmable fund management and liquidity efficiency, overall seen as an important step for traditional payment giants to accelerate blockchain integration.

Additionally, PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD and USDAI announced a collaboration aimed at enhancing interoperability and overall liquidity between stablecoins.

Relevant information focuses on potential collaboration in areas such as cross-chain transfers, liquidity pools, or payment scenario integration. Community interpretations generally believe that such collaborations help reduce friction costs for stablecoins across different ecosystems and promote their synergistic use in DeFi and payment systems, reflecting that the stablecoin sector is evolving from point competition to a more alliance-oriented phase.

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