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Tether Investment - Tether invests in Ledn to expand Bitcoin-backed lending amid surging demand.
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SUI circulating market cap grew 23.3% QoQ to $11.63B, outperforming the broader crypto market
DeFi TVL reached $2.11B (+19.9% QoQ; +2.2% in SUI terms) with lending and DEXs as core pillars
Average daily DEX volume hit a new ATH of $456M (+24% QoQ), making Sui one of the more actively traded L1s
New vehicles and integrations—Grayscale Walrus & DeepBook Trusts, SUIG’s $450M SUI treasury, Fireblocks/Sygnum/AMINA custody, and a Robinhood listing broadened access
DeFi TVL up ~29% QoQ to $423.5M; average NFT USD volume up ~562% QoQ—best levels since early 2022
Halo2–Plutus verifier enables ZK proof verification in smart contracts
Midnight (privacy partner chain) expands with Google Cloud/Mandiant support and broad custody integrations
Lending (Liqwid), DEXs (Minswap, WingRiders, Splash), synthetics (Indigo), and growing stablecoin set (USDM, USDA, iUSD, DJED; USDC bridged)
Decentralized marketplace for data services, starting with storage on IPFS rails; paid, verifiable storage and retrieval
Total fees $793k (+14% QoQ) driven ~99.5% by penalties; base/batch fees near zero after deprecations
Utilization rose to 36% as smaller/inefficient miners exited post–v27 “Golden Week.”
2,491 onboarded datasets (+3%), with 925 at >1,000 TiB—ongoing archival/scientific/enterprise adoption
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As digital asset markets mature, one persistent gap in crypto lingers - the seamless conversion of onchain value into everyday spending power. While stablecoins helped bridge the settlement rails between fiat and crypto, the consumer payments layer has lagged behind. There is no shortage of crypto cards, but Avici is taking a different approach by presenting itself as more than a reskinned Visa gift card - a self-custodial neobank with plans to implement a zk-credit score and mortgage opportunities.
Avici currently offers virtual bank accounts, allowing users to set up accounts directly in their name and receive fiat payments from electronic wire transfers. Users can then spend their funds directly with the Avici card, with $0 transaction fees and 0% additional foreign exchange fees (VISA may charge 0.4-1% for cross-border non-US transactions). The card also has a standard $1 + 0.65% ATM withdrawal fee.
Avici raised via MetaDAO in October, promising zero token allocation for the team. MetaDAO is an ICO platform built on the concept of futarchy, where prediction markets determine governance decisions, and all tokens serve as ownership tokens. Their approach offers “unruggable ICOs”, as the ownership token holders can vote to liquidate the treasury in the event of founder negligence. Raising via MetaDAO allowed Avici to “raise money while putting ownership into the hands of [its] early users and believers.”
All of this signaled sincerity, and word spread quickly. Avici raised $34.2 million, kept $3.5 million, and refunded the rest. Since the raise, the AVICI token re-rated from its initial ICO listing price of $0.50 to an all-time high of $5.94 and currently sits at $3.93 at the time of writing.
Avici’s model positions them to tap into the shift toward user-controlled financial products and is a potential beneficiary of the fat-wallet thesis. As consumers grow more comfortable holding and transacting with digital assets, the expectation for self-custody, transparency, and interoperability increases. Avici aligns with these priorities through wallet-level integration, providing users with the flexibility to choose which asset they spend, whether stablecoins, ETH, or other tokens, while maintaining a user experience comparable to traditional card products. With the combination of forward-looking markets and no overhang from insider supply, AVICI’s price action reflects what’s possible when a great product is combined with excellent tokenomics.
