Just a few short years ago, the crypto hype was strong. VCs were eager to pour money into solutions for scalability, data availability, and any number of buzzwords.

Since then, the advent of powerful AI models and prolonged bear markets have taken the wind out of crypto’s sails and many chains which promised the future are now as good as forgotten.

One keen-eyed X user, crypto marketer Stacy Muur, noted the staggering $500 million invested across six blockchain projects which, together, have produced a total of just $360 in blockchain fees in the past 24 hours.

Read more: AscendEx shutdown: Uncertainty over withdrawals as hot wallets lack funds

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The claim caught Protos’ eye, so we took a look at the six companies to see where it all went wrong.

Berachain

Berachain is a blockchain born as a spinoff of the 2021-era Bong Bears NFT collection. It claims to be the first proof-of-liquidity based chain, and aims to be a “growth engine for onchain businesses.”

The project raised a total of $142 million across two rounds in 2023 and 2024. 

However, according to its most recent EoY statement, the project has struggled amidst issues with sentiment, shrinking crypto-native TAM and “increased skepticism around the value of infrastructure as a whole.”

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Since launching in early 2025, its BERA token is down 98%.

Berachain was among the networks caught up in November’s devastating Balancer hack, leading validators to temporarily halt the network.

Later that same month, it was revealed that one of the backers, Brevan Howard’s Nova Digital, was granted a one year, risk-free refund right on its $25 million investment.

Read more: Balancer exploit drains $129M in DeFi disaster

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Celestia

Celestia was seen as a hot ticket back in 2023 when “data availability” was the buzzword du jour.

Part of the Cosmos ecosystem, it promises bespoke, high throughput, modular chains “for companies with internet-scale traffic.”

It raised first $1.5 million in 2021, a further $50 million in 2022 and finally $100 million in 2024.

Its much-hyped token launch was one of the first rays of light following a deep bear market sparked by the catastrophic crypto collapses of 2022.

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Despite initially surging around 10x in its first months to an all-time high of over $20, TIA eventually bled approximately 98%, sitting today at $0.40.

Scroll raised a total of $83 million over three funding rounds, the latest of which brought the Ethereum L2 to a $1.8 billion valuation in March 2023.

It made just $24 in fees yesterday.

The zkEVM layer two hit a peak TVL of $585 million as users enthusiastically farmed an ultimately disappointing airdrop. In the aftermath, the network lost around 75% of its TVL within a couple of months.

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There’s currently just under $12 million on the chain.

Eclipse

Eclipse billed itself as “Solana on Ethereum,” an SVM layer two network which would pair Solana’s performance with Ethereum’s liquidity.

Developer Eclipse Labs raised a total of $65 million, most of which came in a $50 million Series A, led by Placeholder and Hack VC, in March 2024.

DeFiLlama data shows the chain’s TVL peaking at almost $50 million in late February last year. It’s currently down to just $1.15 million, a drop of approximately 98%.

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The project’s most recent blog post is from a year ago, announcing the launch of its token ES, and an airdrop. Eclipse Labs has since pivoted to development of The Human API, a marketplace for AI agents to hire humans.

Sonic

Launched as Fantom by controversial developer Andre Cronje, founder of DeFi stalwart Yearn Finance, the fast, low-cost network migrated to Sonic in 2024. It raised a total of $61 million across six rounds between 2018 and 2024, according to ICODrops.

As Fantom, it took a hit in the Multichain debacle, with many bridged assets depegged from their native versions.

Fantom’s peak TVL reached a staggering $7.9 billion in 2022 and now sits at just under $5 million. Sonic’s hit $1.2 billion last spring, but has since dropped to $16 million.

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Cronje’s involvement with Sonic terminated last month and he’s spent much of the last 18 months building Flying Tulip.

Read more: Andre Cronje says someone stole his code to build a $1B DeFi project

Manta

ZK-focused Manta raised a total of $60 million across four rounds between 2021 and 2023. 

Its TVL chart is dramatic, highlighting an intense, heavily gamified airdrop campaign, which saw over $650 million poured into the chain.

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Just a few weeks before its peak, TVL sat at under $20 million. Likewise, within four months, it was back below $50 million once again. Today, just $4 million is held on the chain.

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Japan is set to reshape its cryptocurrency market with stricter trading rules, stronger user protections and a framework closer to traditional finance.

The country’s parliament on Wednesday passed revisions that classify crypto assets as financial assets under Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), according to a report by local news agency Nikkei.

The changes move Japan’s crypto regulation away from the Payment Services Act (PSA), which treated digital assets primarily as payment instruments, and introduce insider trading rules and stronger oversight for crypto businesses.

The overhaul marks one of Japan’s biggest shifts in digital asset policy as regulators worldwide continue debating how crypto should fit within existing financial systems.

Crypto exchanges face tougher oversight

Under the revised framework, crypto businesses operating in Japan will face additional compliance obligations designed to improve market integrity and protect users.

The updated rules prohibit issuers, exchanges and other market participants from trading while aware of undisclosed material information, creating insider trading restrictions similar to those applied in traditional finance (TradFi).

Source: Reuters Legal

The revised rules increase penalties for companies operating without registration, reportedly raising the maximum prison sentence from three years to 10 years and increasing fines from around 3 million Japanese yen ($19,000) to around 10 million yen.

Related: Japan stablecoin payments advance with Lawson trial, Netstars launch

Insider trading violations could result in penalties of up to five years in prison, fines of up to 5 million yen, or both, the report notes.

Global regulators align crypto with financial rules

In line with Japan’s move to bring crypto closer to TradFi, the revised law also reportedly changes the terminology for registered businesses from “cryptocurrency exchange” to “cryptocurrency trading company.” The change reflects the broader financial role regulators now assign to the sector.

Japan’s crypto regulation developments reflect a broader global trend of regulators applying existing financial frameworks to crypto rather than treating the sector as entirely separate.

South Africa’s tax authority published draft guidance in early July outlining how existing tax rules apply to crypto assets, while US regulators continue clarifying how existing securities and commodities laws apply to digital assets.

Magazine: Thai scammer’s $122M wallet, Japan embraces crypto credit: Asia Express

BNB Chain has completed its 36th quarterly token burn, permanently removing 1,615,827.795 BNB from circulation.

The tokens were worth about $931.7 million when the burn took place on July 15, according to the official BNB Chain announcement.

Introduction

The internet transformed how the world communicates, shares information, and conducts business. Yet, despite these advances, financial infrastructure remains fragmented, permissioned, and heavily dependent on centralized institutions. Payments can take days to settle, billions remain unbanked, and access to financial services often depends on geography, identity, or institutional approval.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is changing that narrative.

Rather than simply offering an alternative to traditional banking, DeFi is evolving into critical digital infrastructure—a foundational financial layer that anyone can access, build upon, and integrate into the next generation of applications. Just as the internet became essential infrastructure for information, DeFi is becoming essential infrastructure for value.

What Makes Infrastructure “Critical”?

Critical infrastructure refers to systems that society depends on every day. Electricity grids, telecommunications networks, transportation systems, and cloud computing platforms all fall into this category because they enable countless services to function.

DeFi increasingly shares these characteristics:

• Operates continuously without business hours
• Accessible globally through an internet connection
• Open for developers to build on
• Resistant to single points of failure
• Transparent and verifiable
• Programmable by design

Instead of replacing banks outright, DeFi provides the financial operating system that applications, businesses, and even governments can leverage.

Financial Services Become Internet Primitives

One of DeFi’s greatest innovations is transforming financial functions into programmable building blocks.

Developers no longer need to build payment networks, lending systems, exchanges, or settlement infrastructure from scratch.

Instead, they can integrate existing DeFi protocols much like developers use cloud storage or payment APIs today.

These financial primitives include:

• Stablecoin payments
• Decentralized lending
• Automated exchanges
• On-chain collateral management
• Yield-generating vaults
• Cross-chain asset transfers
• Tokenized real-world assets

This composability dramatically accelerates innovation while reducing infrastructure costs.

Always-On Global Finance

Traditional financial infrastructure still operates within numerous constraints:

• Banking hours
• National borders
• Multiple intermediaries
• Settlement delays
• High remittance costs
• Manual reconciliation

DeFi removes many of these limitations.

Transactions settle around the clock.

Capital moves continuously.

Applications operate regardless of weekends or holidays.

This always-on availability is particularly valuable for global businesses, remote workers, digital creators, and international commerce.

Stablecoins: The Infrastructure Layer for Digital Payments

Stablecoins have quietly become one of DeFi’s most important components.

Rather than focusing on speculation, stablecoins enable:

• International payroll
• Merchant payments
• Cross-border settlements
• Treasury management
• E-commerce transactions
• Institutional liquidity

For many users, stablecoins represent their first interaction with blockchain technology—not because they are interested in crypto, but because they need faster, cheaper, and more reliable payments.

As adoption grows, stablecoins increasingly resemble digital public utilities for money movement.

Open Infrastructure Encourages Competition

Traditional financial systems often rely on closed networks where innovation depends on permission from intermediaries.

DeFi changes this dynamic.

Anyone can build:

• Wallets
• Trading platforms
• Lending markets
• Insurance protocols
• Payment applications
• Asset management tools

Developers compete on user experience rather than exclusive access to infrastructure.

This openness creates a healthier ecosystem where innovation moves faster, and users benefit from better services.

Programmable Money Changes Everything

Money is no longer limited to being stored or transferred.

With smart contracts, money becomes programmable.

Examples include:

• Automatic revenue sharing
• Instant royalty payments
• Escrow without intermediaries
• Streaming salaries by the second
• Automated subscriptions
• Conditional business payments
• Machine-to-machine commerce

As artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things expand, programmable financial infrastructure becomes increasingly important.

Machines will eventually need financial systems that operate autonomously.

DeFi is uniquely positioned to support this future.

Infrastructure for Tokenized Real-World Assets

Governments, financial institutions, and enterprises are exploring tokenization at an unprecedented pace.

Assets that can be represented on-chain include:

• Government bonds
• Treasury bills
• Corporate debt
• Real estate
• Commodities
• Private credit
• Carbon credits

DeFi provides the infrastructure where these assets can be:

• Traded
• Borrowed against
• Used as collateral
• Fractionalized
• Settled instantly

Rather than building entirely new financial rails, institutions increasingly connect to existing decentralized infrastructure.

Resilience Through Decentralization

Critical infrastructure must remain operational even under stress.

Traditional systems face risks such as:

• Data center outages
• Banking failures
• Political instability
• Regional disruptions
• Single points of failure

Public blockchain networks distribute operations across thousands of independent nodes worldwide.

Although no system is perfect, decentralization significantly reduces dependence on any single operator.

This resilience is becoming increasingly valuable in an interconnected global economy.

Challenges Before DeFi Can Become Global Infrastructure

Despite remarkable progress, several challenges remain.

Scalability

Infrastructure must support millions—or even billions—of users without sacrificing performance.

User Experience

Wallet management, onboarding, and security remain difficult for many newcomers.

Regulatory Clarity

Governments continue developing frameworks that balance innovation with consumer protection.

Security

Smart contract vulnerabilities, exploits, and protocol risks must continue to decline through better development practices and auditing.

Interoperability

The future financial system will likely span multiple blockchains rather than a single dominant network.

The Infrastructure We Don’t Notice

The most successful infrastructure often becomes invisible.

Few people think about:

• DNS when browsing websites.
• TCP/IP when sending emails.
• Cloud servers when using mobile apps.

Similarly, future users may never realize they’re using DeFi.

They’ll simply:

• Send money instantly.
• Receive salaries globally.
• Trade tokenized assets.
• Earn yield automatically.
• Purchase digital goods.
• Access financial services from any device.

The blockchain becomes invisible while the experience becomes seamless.

Conclusion

DeFi is evolving far beyond decentralized exchanges and yield farming. It is becoming the programmable financial infrastructure that can power digital commerce, tokenized assets, global payments, AI-driven economies, and next-generation internet applications.

The future of finance may not be defined by who owns the infrastructure, but by who can build on top of it. In that future, DeFi serves as the open, resilient, and interoperable foundation—enabling innovation at internet scale.

As digital economies continue to expand, the most important question may no longer be whether DeFi can compete with traditional finance, but whether tomorrow’s financial system can function efficiently without the open infrastructure that DeFi provides.

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Bitcoin BTC$64,649.37 and ether (ETH) consolidated during Asian and European hours after rallying on Tuesday following a weaker-than-forecast U.S. inflation figure.

Bitcoin, while more than 3% higher over 24 hours, fell 0.6% since midnight UTC as tensions between Iran and the U.S. over tanker movements in the Strait of Hormuz ramped up. The largest cryptocurrency earlier touched a three-week high of $65,200.

Ether marked a similar trajectory, remaining 5% higher over 24 hours even after dropping 0.8% since midnight. It touched $1,895, the highest level since June 3, on Tuesday.

U.S. equities also rose in the period, with Nasdaq 100 futures and S&P 500 futures posting respective gains of 0.53% and 0.22%.

The altcoin market also showed pockets of strength; PUMP rose by 8.5% since midnight after a team and investor unlock was mopped up by investors, suggesting robust demand.

Derivatives positioning

• BTC derivatives positioning remains largely unchanged. Open interest ticked up to $17.3 billion, though the move is not meaningful, the three-month annualized basis held at 3.8% and funding rates remained broadly in the 0%-8% annualized range across multiple venues. In essence, the market continues to consolidate
• Options positioning tilted more bullish as the 24-hour call/put ratio moved to 66/34 following yesterday’s softer 58/42 read and the one-week delta skew held steady at ~15%. The ATM term structure remains in contango, with the front end around 32%–33% and the long end at ~42.5% out to mid-2027 – indicating a calm, non-stressed volatility environment with a renewed lean toward upside positioning.
• Coinglass data shows $357 million in 24-hour liquidations, with a 19-81 split between longs and shorts. ETH ($132 million) and BTC ($118 million) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations.
• The Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $63,500 as a core liquidation level to monitor in the event of a price drop.

Token talk

• CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator fell to 46/100 on Wednesday, likely due to the strength shown by the largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ether.
• The indicator was also dragged down by WLFI$0.05680, which lost around 1% since midnight UTC despite buoyancy in the broader market.
• Hyperliquid (HYPE) demonstrated its strength, adding 4% since midnight as it looks to extend May’s rally, which has been characterized by a series of higher highs and higher lows. The next target would be a record high above $78.00.
• HYPE’s rival token, LIT, stalled after a strong month, rising by just 0.5% as it started experiencing profit-taking and supply distribution as it neared its record high of $2.76.
• There was also a strong gain for zcash (ZEC), which surged by more than 10% over the past 24 hours before consolidating around $557.