DEXs See Record Month
Denis Omelchenko & Olivia Capozzalo
November 03, 2025
Happy Monday, Defiers!
Today’s big story:
- Decentralized exchange activity reached peak frenzy in October as traders moved capital back through automated market makers.
In other news:
- SYRUP stakers vote to end rewards
- BUIDL share on Ethereum drops 60%
- T3 FCU freezes $300M since launch
- Fawzi Hamze X Interview [SPONSORED]
Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.
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We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today
📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $106,575 | -3.16 % |
 | Ethereum | $3,613.39 | -6.43 % |
 | XRP | $2.37 | -5.18 % |
 | BNB | $995.26 | -7.70 % |
 | Solana | $168.41 | -8.42 % |
Today’s Big Story
Uniswap Leads October’s Record DEX Volume Surge
Decentralized exchange activity reached peak frenzy in October as traders moved notable capital through automated market makers, pushing total DEX volumes to a fresh record.
Total DEX spot volume climbed to $613.3 billion in October, up from roughly $500 billion in September, led by Uniswap’s massive month, according to DefiLlama data. Uniswap recorded $170.8 billion, while PancakeSwap posted $101.9 billion, both showing sharp month-over-month jumps that accounted for a large slice of the gain.
Compared to last October, DEX volume is up about 200%.
Part of the surge can likely be attributed to the mid-month record liquidation event, which wiped out over $19 billion in leveraged positions, and sent BTC tumbling from an early-October peak into the $104,000-$107,000 range, creating swings that forced traders to rotate and hunt liquidity on-chain.
At the same time, several token events added an incentive for on-chain activity. Monad opened its MON airdrop claim portal on Oct. 14 for roughly 230,000 eligible wallets, while Meteora debuted its token generation event, unveiling allocations for liquidity participants that incentivized AMM activity.
On the decentralized derivatives front, perpetual futures trading passed $1.3 trillion in on-chain volume in October, led by Hyperliquid, with Aster and Lighter close behind.
While perps mania and airdrop farming marked much of October's activity, on-chain traders are facing increased uncertainty after the Oct. 10 market crash, as yields drop and liquidity thins, especially after OG DeFi protocol Balancer was exploited for ~$100 million this morning.
Denis, staff reporter at The Defiant
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🎬WATCH
Institutions Want Bitcoin Yield — Threshold Is Building the Bridge [SPONSORED]
Institutional Bitcoin treasuries are coming but they won’t touch DeFi unless the liquidity, custody, and risk models meet their standards.
Threshold (TBTC) is building that bridge. In this interview, we break down how TBTC is competing with WBTC, why full decentralization alone isn’t enough, and why Threshold is now designing hybrid custody solutions to connect DeFi with the emerging wave of Bitcoin treasury companies (DATs). We also discuss adoption signals on Aave, real BTC collateral usage, governance structure, and the roadmap toward sustainably scaling Bitcoin finance beyond token incentives.
Top News Since Friday
- Maple’s SYRUP Stakers Vote to End Staking Rewards, Launch DAO Treasury Holders of staked SYRUP voted to sunset staking rewards just under a year after launch.Why it matters: A total of 26 wallets participated in the vote, with 30% of voting power coming from a single address backing the proposal.
- BlackRock's BUIDL Fund Sees Share on Ethereum Drop 60% While the fund's total value hasn't changed, BUIDL’s market cap on Aptos, Polygon, and Avalanche increased more than tenfold, while the portion on Ethereum dropped notably. Why it matters: BUIDL originally launched only on Ethereum, and the vast majority of the fund remained on the network until last month.
- T3 FCU Has Frozen Over $300 Million in Illicit Funds T3, a financial crime-fighting unit (FCU) founded by stablecoin issuer Tether, TRON, and TRM Labs, announced that it has frozen more than $300 million in illegally sourced on-chain assets since its launch in September 2024. Why it matters: While the sum is undeniably large, it represents a fraction of crime-linked crypto in the past year. The Bybit hack in February alone saw over $1.4 billion stolen, most of which was successfully laundered.
Trending on The Defiant
- T3 FCU Has Frozen Over $300 Million in Illicit Funds
- Maple’s SYRUP Stakers Vote to End Staking Rewards, Launch DAO Treasury
- Bitcoin Scrambles to Close October in Green as 2018 Sell-Off Shadows Loom
- BlackRock's BUIDL Fund Sees Share on Ethereum Drop 60%
- FourMeme Surpasses Pumpfun With $43 Million in Monthly Revenue
- NFTs Crater as Farmers Abandon OpenSea
That’s it for today — if you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends! https://thedefiant.io/subscribe
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