Happy Friday, Defiers!

And Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Markets are slumping this week amid quiet holiday trading after a brief pre-Christmas rally. BTC is back under $88,000, ETH is just under $3,000, and large-caps are posting 1%-3% losses on the week, with the exception of DOGE and ADA, both down 8%. Meanwhile BTC and ETH ETFs saw net outflows on Dec. 24.

Christmas day was relatively quiet in crypto, aside from the conclusion of saga-like governance votes from Uniswap and Aave, the exploit of Trust Wallet’s browser extension, and updates from Lighter as supporters await the platform’s TGE.

Here’s what’s happening:

AAVE holders reject token alignment proposal
Trust Wallet promises to refund users after $7M exploit
Uniswap finally activates the fee switch
Lighter publishes operations code

The Defiant’s 2025 in review:

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	$87,532	-0.42 %
Ethereum	$2,930.46	-0.64 %
BNB	$835.91	-0.71 %
XRP	$1.85	-0.79 %
Solana	$122.41	-0.68 %

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🎬WATCH

Unpacking Uniswap’s “fee switch” with Hayden Adams

The UNIfication proposal just passed with an overwhelming majority of voters in favor. On the most recent episode of The Defiant podcast, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams joins us to break down the proposal — a sweeping plan from Uniswap Labs + the Uniswap Foundation that would activate protocol fees, introduce a programmatic UNI burn, and realign how value accrues across the Uniswap ecosystem.

Top News in the Past 24 Hours

Aave Holders Reject Token Alignment Proposal Aave holders voted against the token alignment proposal, which sought to bring clarity to the ecosystem’s dynamics and to shift more control from Aave Labs to the DAO.Why it matters: While the rejection was in line with general expectations, many participants and onlookers saw the proposal as rushed, as it came over the holidays.
Trust Wallet Confirms $7M Stolen in Browser Extension HackCrypto wallet Trust Wallet confirmed early morning on Friday that approximately $7 million in customer funds were lost in an exploit, which the platform promised to refund. Why it matters: This isn’t the first time Trust Wallet’s browser extension has raised security concerns.
Uniswap Passes 'UNIfication' Fee Switch Proposal After years of back and forth, Uniswap’s elusive fee switch is finally being flipped with the Uniswap DAO overwhelmingly passing the “UNIfication” proposal on Christmas day. Why it matters: The fee switch was first proposed in 2022 and will see the protocol allocate fee revenue to burn UNI, potentially benefitting token holders.
Lighter Publishes Operations Code Ahead of TGE Anticipation is building after the perpetual derivatives DEX Lighter published its full codebase and circuits architecture ahead of its much-anticipated token generation event (TGE). Why it matters: Lighter has dominated the decentralized perp trading scene over the last month, as traders earn points ahead of its TGE.