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April 18, 2025

📉Babylon Loses $1.3 Billion in TVL

gm Defiers!

Babylon’s TVL took a hit, dropping by a third after $1.3 billion worth of Bitcoin was unstaked. Meanwhile, Arbitrum released a new upgrade aimed at speeding up transactions for users.

In other news, Base’s Jesse Pollak spoke with The Defiant about the 'stigma' surrounding token creators.

✍️ In today’s newsletter:

  • Babylon TVL drops by $1.3B
  • Arbitrum reveals a new upgrade
  • Converge turns to Arbitrum, Celestia for low-cost RWAs
  • Base’s Jesse Pollak pushes back on token creator ‘stigma’
  • DappRadar: Web3 rug pulls shrink in count but grow in size
  • TAC raises $150M to bring liquidity to TON
  • Stablecoin transactions outpaced Visa in Q1

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📈 Markets in the last 24 hrs:

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🎬WATCH

Check out The Defiant’s latest interview with Maple Finance’s CEO, Sid Powell. In this interview, Powell dives into the potential of real-world assets (RWAs) within DeFi, the evolving role of stablecoins in this ecosystem, and strategies to unlock new lending markets onchain.

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Trustless, verifiable, fully on-chain: DIA Lumina is the end of black box oracles. Mainnet is here.

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📉Babylon Sheds $1.3 Billion in TVL After Mass Bitcoin Unstaking

Babylon’s total value locked (TVL) plunged by a third on April 17, dropping from around $4 billion to $2.69 billion after $1.3 billion worth of Bitcoin was unstaked. Meanwhile, its newly launched native token, BABY, plummeted 14%.

🚀Top Ethereum L2 Arbitrum Unveils Timeboost Upgrade to Accelerate Transactions

Arbitrum, a Layer 2 (L2) scaling solution for Ethereum with $2.4 billion in TVL, has just launched Timeboost. The new upgrade aims at speeding up transactions across its network.

💥RWA Blockchain Converge Turns to Arbitrum and Celestia for High Speeds, Low Costs

DeFi protocol Ethena and RWA tokenization firm Securitize have selected Arbitrum and Celestia to power their new institutional-focused Layer 1 blockchain, Converge.

🗣️Base Creator Jesse Pollak Denounced “Stigma” Attached to Creators Issuing Tokens

Jesse Pollak, creator of Coinbase-backed L2 Base, addressed the backlash over Base’s recent token experiment on Zora. Pollak said there’s a lingering “stigma” around creators issuing tokens in a new interview with The Defiant.

SPONSORED POST

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Stablecoins are exploding, projected to hit $230 billion in 2025, bridging traditional finance and blockchain. Leaders like Tether and Circle, alongside innovations like Ethena’s yield-generating USDe, are driving adoption. They’re slashing cross-border payment times and costs, and powering DeFi’s growth. But are they a valuable inroad for institutions or a Trojan horse? As on-chain finance continues to grow and innovate, banks and other established financial institutions face a choice: adapt or risk obsolescence. Will stablecoins empower traditional finance to capitalize on the new value being generated by Web3, or serve as the seed for decentralization? Platforms like Stellar that enable compliant issuance may offer a middle path.

READ MORE: Stablecoins: Institutional Game-Changer or Web3’s Trojan Horse?

📊Web3 Rugpulls Plummet in Number but Explode in Scale in 2025: Report

The crypto industry has recorded fewer rugpulls in 2025 compared to last year — but they’ve been far more devastating. A new DappRadar report reveals nearly $6 billion in losses so far this year, with $5.5 billion tied to the collapse of Mantra’s OM token.

💸TAC Attracts $150M to Bring Ethereum-based Liquidity to Telegram’s TON Blockchain

TAC and the Turtle Club have raised $150 million in two weeks to bring Ethereum-based liquidity to Telegram’s TON blockchain, ahead of TAC’s mainnet launch in mid-May.

🪙Stablecoin Transactions Surpassed Visa’s in Q1: Bitwise

In Q1 2025, stablecoin transactions surpassed those of Visa, according to Bitwise's Crypto Market Review for Q1 2025. The report dubbed the period “The Best Worst Quarter in Crypto's History.”

SPONSORED SHOUTOUT

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Join us at EthCC[8] — Europe’s largest Ethereum conference — June 30 to July 3 in Cannes. With headline sponsors Robinhood and PayPal, and talks from Vitalik Buterin and key industry leaders, this year marks a pivotal moment for Ethereum as it navigates its next wave of growth, catalyzed by increasing institutional participation and upcoming protocol advancements. See you there!

🌍 ELSEWHERE

  • Crypto Daybook Americas: Trump’s Fed Outburst Fails to Jolt Bitcoin (CoinDesk)
  • Babylon Labs Sees $1.26 Billion in Bitcoin Unstaked, Dropping TVL by 32% (CoinMarketCap)
  • VanEck to Launch New ETF Tracking Crypto Stocks (ETF.com)

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