Fantom Becomes Third-Largest DeFi Protocol by Value Locked
The value locked on DeFi-centric projects built on Fantom surged 52% in the past week.

Fantom overtook Binance Smart Chain (BSC) over the weekend to become the third-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem by total value locked, data from analytics tool DeFiLlama showed.
DeFi broadly refers to smart contract-based financial services such as trading, lending and borrowing offered by blockchain projects to users.
As of Monday morning in Europe, more than $12.2 billion worth of Fantom’s FTM and other tokens were locked on 129 protocols geared toward Fantom users. That's just over $94 million locked per project on average, and it's a 52% increase in the past week and a greater than 170% increase over the past month, the data showed.
Cross-chain swap Multichain is the biggest protocol by value locked on Fantom, with over $6.97 billion worth of assets in its smart contracts. In second place is the relatively new 0xDAO, which locks over $3.91 billion, while decentralized exchange SpookySwap takes third place with just over $1 billion in locked value.

BSC slipped to the fourth-largest DeFi ecosystem with $11.96 billion in locked value over 294 projects. Terra, which displaced BSC in December to become the second-largest DeFi ecosystem, retains second place with $16.54 billion in locked value. Ethereum retains the DeFi crown with over $116 billion in locked value over 415 projects, more than any other blockchain.

Tokens of Fantom have emerged as the top performers in recent months as investors bet on the tokens of layer 1 projects – protocols with their native blockchains, such as Fantom or Solana – as an alternate to Ethereum.
FTM prices rose from $1.30 in mid-December to approach all-time highs of $3.46 earlier this month, before tumbling with the broader market in the past week.
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KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market

KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest files for two crypto index ETFs tied to CoinDesk 20

One proposed fund will attempt to exactly mimic the CoinDesk 20, but the other would track the index, excluding bitcoin.
What to know:
- ARK Invest has filed with U.S. regulators to launch two cryptocurrency ETFs tracking the CoinDesk 20 index.
- One proposed fund would track the CoinDesk 20, which provides exposure to major tokens, including bitcoin, ether, solana, XRP, and cardano. The other would track the same index, but exclude bitcoin, by pairing long index futures with short bitcoin futures.
- The funds, which would list on NYSE Arca if approved, aim to offer diversified crypto exposure without direct token custody and follow similar, still-unapproved crypto index ETF proposals from WisdomTree and ProShares.











