National Day Holiday DeFi News Review: Hyperliquid Plans to Enter Options Market, Uniswap Pilots Compliant Liquidity Architecture

Author: Jae, PANews

The cryptocurrency market did not pause during the National Day holiday. While attention was focused on the sharp drop in Bitcoin, the DeFi sector is undergoing a quiet iteration of infrastructure and product upgrades. Behind nine developments is the continuous migration of the DeFi market from "native crypto self-circulation" to "connecting with the real financial system."

On the surface, this is a series of scattered product launches and partnership announcements. In reality, three main lines have emerged: trading infrastructure is evolving from a single category to a full-stack offering, open DeFi is embracing compliance frameworks through programmable technology, and real assets along with traditional financial functions are accelerating their on-chain integration.

ORCA Surges Over 70% in the Last 7 Days Driven by Buyback Proposal and Merger with Lending Protocol Loopscale

On October 8, Solana ecosystem DEX Orca announced a merger with the lending infrastructure protocol Loopscale, branding itself as Formation, with Loopscale co-founder Luke Truitt as CEO. As one of the early liquidity infrastructures in the Solana ecosystem, Orca has achieved a cumulative trading volume of over $550 billion since its launch in 2021. The P2P lending market Loopscale has facilitated over $2 billion in on-chain lending since its launch in 2025 and holds over $150 million in deposits.

The combination of the two aims at building an on-chain capital market infrastructure that integrates "trading + credit + asset management," providing one-stop services for emerging sectors such as energy, defense, robotics, and AI.

On September 29, Orca initiated a fee-sharing proposal, suggesting the creation of a 10% buyback account operated by the team. On October 8, the governance committee canceled the ongoing vote, rescheduling it for October 11 to 16.

Influenced by the buyback proposal and the acquisition of Loopscale, ORCA has seen a cumulative increase of over 70% in the last 7 days. However, whether the synergistic effects can be realized, whether new businesses can translate into sustainable income, and whether the proposal can pass the vote remains to be seen.

Hyperliquid Aims to Enter Native On-Chain Options Market, Building a Unified Order Book for All Categories of Hedging

On-chain derivatives leader Hyperliquid is also completing its core puzzle. On October 7, Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan confirmed at TOKEN2049 that options will be a key focus for the platform's next development phase. Unlike existing decentralized options protocols that generally rely on over-the-counter pricing (RFQ) or liquidity pool vaults (DOV), Hyperliquid will integrate options with spot and perpetual contracts into the same on-chain central limit order book (CLOB).

The significance of a shared order book goes far beyond simply offering "multiple trading varieties." For professional traders and market makers, this means cross-asset hedging and risk management become possible, and liquidity will no longer be fragmented. This is also a crucial step for Hyperliquid's evolution from a "top-tier Perp DEX" to a "full-category derivatives exchange." Currently, Hyperliquid's market share of perpetual contract open interest has risen to 11.9%, setting a new historical high. Of course, the product is still in the planning stage, and details regarding contract design, liquidity depth, and launch timing remain unknown.

Injective Releases New White Paper, Positioning Itself in Institutional Finance and RWA Infrastructure

On October 7, Injective released a new white paper, announcing its evolution from an early Ethereum-based anti-front-running trading protocol to a Layer 1 focused on institutional finance and RWA tokenization.

The white paper highlights four major mechanism innovations:

• Native RWA tokenization suite: Provides permission controls that meet institutional regulatory requirements;
• iAssets synthetic asset mechanism: Allows traders to use stablecoins as collateral, relying on oracle price feeds to track external macro assets and stock indices, eliminating the need for cross-chain wrapping or pre-funding processes in traditional tokenization;
• On-chain central limit order book (CLOB) and native execution module for perpetual derivatives: Supports on-chain batch auctions with block times of around 600 milliseconds and anti-front-running protection;
• Settlement stack for AI Agents: Supports AI Agents to complete end-to-end automated micropayments through model context protocol (MCP) servers, strategy-constrained signatures, and USDC-based x402 machine protocols.

The white paper also stipulates that all protocol revenues generated on the Injective chain will continuously flow into regular INJ community buyback auction programs, allowing the growth of network settlement activities to reflect in the token's deflationary and value capture mechanisms.

For Injective, this means its narrative focus is further extending from "on-chain trading infrastructure" to a broader financial infrastructure. However, upgrading the narrative is easier than implementing the business. Whether the market ultimately recognizes this will depend on the scale of RWA issuance, institutional usage, and on-chain financial activities.

Founders Fund Invests $5 Million in ANVL, Betting on Decentralized Business Credit Guarantees

Traditional VCs are starting to invest real money in on-chain credit infrastructure. On October 6, Founders Fund led a $5 million purchase of governance tokens ANVL from the DeFi collateral protocol Anvil, with participation from Pantera Capital, Theta Blockchain Ventures, Bullish, and Protoscale Capital. The transaction terms and valuation have not been disclosed, and the purchased tokens come from the protocol treasury, not new issuance. Driven by this news, ANVL surged over 80% on the same day, with a market cap of approximately $110 million.

Anvil, based on Ethereum, aims to use digital assets as collateral for financial commitments such as payments and credit. Unlike traditional over-collateralized lending markets like Aave that rely on borrowing interest spreads, Anvil's goal is to serve as an on-chain certificate of commercial credit, using crypto assets as trusted collateral to provide performance guarantees for inter-business commercial commitments, buy now pay later (BNPL), and cross-border settlements without triggering interest-bearing lending behaviors.

To accelerate real business integration, Anvil Research Labs has simultaneously launched an SDK for enterprises to lower the technical barriers for integrating its collateral infrastructure. Consensus, Bitcoin.com, and Flexa have become partners. Founders Fund partner Joey Krug commented that traditional business operations heavily rely on the certainty of payments and performance, and using publicly verifiable digital asset collateral can significantly reduce the costs of credit defaults between institutions.

It is worth noting that the VC is buying governance tokens rather than traditional equity, which means their interest has extended from "investing in protocol entities" to "holding governance rights over on-chain financial infrastructure." Currently, Anvil's TVL is only about $13 million, having declined nearly 90% from its peak. Whether institutional bets can translate into scale growth is a more important observation indicator.

ether.fi Partners with Ethena to Launch ether.fi USD, Capturing Minting Revenue from Deposited Assets

ether.fi, which is divesting its LRT business, is using stablecoins to enhance its underlying capabilities as it transforms into a Neobank. On October 6, it announced the launch of its own stablecoin ether.fi USD using Ethena's white-label infrastructure, with Ethena responsible for reserves, minting, redemption, and compliance. According to ether.fi, the scale of stablecoins deposited within its ecosystem has exceeded $300 million, and the total settlement amount of its issued Cash consumption debit cards has approached $1 billion, with over 100,000 cardholders. The protocol will leverage its existing user funds to further embed the stablecoin into its product system, activating deposited funds to form new revenue sources.

This means that stablecoins are gradually evolving from mere payment or transaction mediums to important vehicles for DeFi protocols to retain users, manage funds, and expand revenue. However, the future scale of ether.fi USD still depends on whether users are willing to exchange stablecoins for this asset and whether liquidity and application scenarios can be established.

OKX and SMBC Nikko Securities Leverage Uniswap v4 Hook to Explore Programmable Compliant Liquidity Pools

Once, DeFi and compliance seemed to be natural opposites. However, the Hook mechanism of Uniswap v4 is paving a middle path: using programmable technology layers to meet compliance requirements, allowing open liquidity infrastructures to also serve regulated assets.

The most significant progress comes from the U.S. market. On October 5, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams revealed that the tokenized securities trading venue (TSV) in collaboration with ICE Markets and OKX will be launched based on the Uniswap v4 Hook architecture deployed on the OKX Layer 2 network X Layer, embedding tokenized stock trading into AMM liquidity pools while implementing compliance functions such as identity verification and trading permission control through the Hook, with an initial plan to cover over 60 U.S. stocks.

In other words, the compliance requirements of traditional securities do not negate the AMM model but rather attempt to use programmable Hooks to enable open DeFi infrastructures to accommodate regulated assets.

A similar logic is being replicated in Japan. On October 2, SMBC Nikko Securities signed a memorandum of understanding with Nethermind, Uniswap Labs, Base, and Nyx Foundation to jointly develop a compliant DeFi gateway for the Japanese market. The project is also based on the Uniswap V4 Hook, constructing liquidity pools that comply with AML/CFT anti-money laundering requirements and investor protection rules, exploring on-chain trading of stablecoins and RWAs, with an expected launch by mid-2027.

This series of practices indicates that traditional capital and large trading platforms are abandoning the past "weak compliance" solutions that only stayed at the front end, instead opting for "code-level compliance" through the underlying logic of programmable Hooks. Uniswap v4 is becoming a foundational solution connecting open DeFi with compliant assets, but its commercial value still depends on regulatory approvals, asset issuers' participation, and real trading volumes.

Aave Labs Proposes Establishing Aave Foundation to Promote DAO Ownership of Protocol Intellectual Property

As business increasingly aligns with real finance, the organizational forms of DeFi are also iterating in sync.

On October 2, Aave Labs submitted the "Aave Foundation Phase One" ARFC governance proposal in the governance forum, suggesting the establishment of an independent non-profit organization "Aave Foundation" in the Cayman Islands to represent Aave DAO in holding the intellectual property rights of the Aave trademark, domain names, and protocol code.

According to the proposal design, Aave Foundation will adopt a "Memberless" legal entity structure, with the first phase responsible only for completing the registration of the entity and appointing independent directors, supervisors, and secretaries. To achieve interest isolation, Aave Labs and DAO service providers are prohibited from serving as directors or supervisors of the foundation. All protocol sovereignty regarding daily technical parameter adjustments, market access, treasury expenditures, etc., will still belong to AAVE DAO, and future transfers of trademark and code assets will also be subject to on-chain governance voting resolutions.

This move not only fills the legal gap for DAOs but also mitigates the potential risk of protocol intellectual property being long-term controlled by centralized development entities.

For a long time, DAOs, as decentralized organizations, have lacked traditional legal entity qualifications, making it impossible to directly hold intellectual property or sign commercial contracts, which has become a significant barrier to connecting with traditional finance. The establishment of the foundation will provide a "legal shell" that aligns with real business rules while preserving decentralized governance. This does not mean that Aave's business model has changed, but it is an important step for DeFi towards maturity and compliance.

Lido Restructures EarnUSD Fee Model: Lowering Fixed Management Fees and Implementing Performance-Based Mechanisms

Even the fee models for yield products are moving towards traditional asset management. On October 2, Lido announced a restructuring of the EarnUSD fee model, adjusting from "1% fixed management fee + 10% performance fee" to "up to 0.5% management fee + up to 20% performance fee," with an initial implementation of "0.2% management fee + 15% performance fee." Lower management fees and higher performance sharing essentially shift the fee model from "guaranteed returns" to "performance-based," increasingly resembling the fee logic of traditional public funds. In the context of declining industry yields, this is both a concession to lower user thresholds and a sign of the protocol's transition to refined operations.

Monerium, Frax, and Capa Launch EURe/frxUSD On-Chain Forex Pool on Polygon

The cross-border payment and forex sector has welcomed new players. On October 1, electronic money institution Monerium, algorithmic and collateral hybrid stablecoin protocol Frax, and liquidity orchestration service provider Capa launched the EURe/frxUSD liquidity pool on Uniswap V3 on Polygon, bringing euro-to-dollar forex trading on-chain. EURe is an electronic currency token compliant with EU MiCA regulations, supported by 1:1 euro reserves, while frxUSD is backed by cash assets and tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds. For European businesses and cross-border users, if liquidity can deepen, on-chain forex is expected to become an alternative to traditional cross-border settlements. Currently, this forex liquidity pool is still in its early stages, and trading depth, slippage, and user scale will require time to cultivate.

Conclusion

Reviewing the nine DeFi protocol dynamics during the National Day holiday reveals that the industry direction is accelerating its transformation.

Currently, DeFi product innovation is primarily focused on three directions: first, trading infrastructure continues to expand, extending from perpetual contracts to options and a more complete derivatives system; second, stablecoins, RWAs, and on-chain forex are further connecting with real financial scenarios; third, protocols are beginning to supplement legal entities, intellectual property, and compliance mechanisms within traditional financial systems.

Of course, most of the current progress is still in the planning, collaboration, or pilot stages. For investors, what is more worth paying attention to are the trading volumes, liquidity, protocol revenues, and regulatory implementations, rather than simply judging project value based on the lineup of partners or narrative changes.

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