Bitcoin Passes 78K with Ceasefire Extended - Bitcoin surpassed $78,000, an 11-week high, following President Trump's indefinite extension of the Iran ceasefire; BTC was up 2.2% in 24 hours.
DeFi Traders Stack Risks on STRC - DeFi traders are leveraging Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) STRC, which already offers a high 11.5% annualized dividend, to generate yields as high as 39% through multi-protocol stacking.
a16z-Backed Gensyn Launches AI Markets Platform - Gensyn, backed by a16z crypto, has launched Delphi, an information markets platform utilizing AI for settlement processes.
Messari's protocol reports give you a deep dive on the foundation and state of top crypto protocols, including key metrics and notable events. See the complete list of protocol reports here and get a preview of our latest report below.
By: Matt Kreiser · @KreiserMatt · Research Analysts
Grvt is a perp DEX where users can earn up to 11% APY interest on margin deposited to trade. Interest currently comes from protocol trading fees, with rehypothecation of most user deposits to external DeFi protocols coming soon as a second source of interest. Grvt announced Aave will be its first external yield source in February.
Grvt's Yield Layer is the earn infrastructure built on top of Grvt's unified margin system, routing idle collateral into onchain yield integrations such as Aave, so that the same balance backing a trader's open positions is simultaneously generating yield.
Grvt decouples where collateral deposited earns yield (Ethereum L1) from where user activity is tracked (Grvt private L2), ensuring composability with external DeFi without compromising the privacy guarantees of its Validium-based appchain.
Grvt total value locked (TVL) has increased 36.8% year-to-date (YTD) from $58.8 million to $80.4 million, while open interest has increased 53.4% to $451 million, as of March 23, 2026. Daily perp volume has held steady thus far in 2026, ranging from $650 million to $2.6 billion ($1.5 billion on March 26).
GRVT, the protocol’s upcoming token, will provide benefits to stakers, including reduced trading fees, higher GLP vault allocation and APY on margin, lockup rewards, principal insurance, better foreign exchange and on/off ramp fees, and cashback in GRVT on payments with Grvt card. TGE is intended for the end of June 2026.
By: Eric Manoukian · @CryptoRick98 · Research Analysts
TRON’s stablecoin market cap grew 4.9% QoQ to $85.8 billion at Q1-end, with USDT at 98.6% market share. The network processed $2.0 trillion in cumulative USDT transfers during Q1, reinforcing TRON’s role as the primary settlement rail for the world’s largest stablecoin.
In Q1 2026, TRON DAO positioned the network as infrastructure for the emerging agentic economy. The AI Fund expanded tenfold from $100 million to $1 billion, AINFT launched the Bank of AI for autonomous agent finance, and TRON joined the Agentic AI Foundation’s governing board alongside Circle and JPMorgan.
TRX’s circulating market cap rose 10.3% QoQ to $29.7 billion, amidst a string of institutional catalysts. The SEC dismissed all claims against the TRON Foundation in early March, Anchorage Digital announced custody support for TRX, and TRON joined the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program, linking its settlement layer to point-of-sale infrastructure.
Network activity set new quarterly records despite a decline in new address creation. Average daily transactions rose 7.0% QoQ to 10.9 million, and average daily active addresses climbed 13.7% QoQ to 3.2 million. New addresses fell 20% QoQ, meaning growth was driven by returning users.
Fees continued to adjust from the August 2025 fee reduction, but the rate of decline is decelerating. Total fees fell 7.0% QoQ to $610 million, a significantly shallower drop than Q4 2025’s 38% QoQ decline.
By: Matt Kreiser · @KreiserMatt · Research Analysts
The launch of x402 on Stellar in March and the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) in April provide a catalyst for agentic payments that could drive a significant uptick in average daily payment transactions on Stellar beyond the quarterly range of 1.7 million to 3.7 million in the past year (1.9 million in Q1’26).
Stellar’s RWA market cap (excluding stablecoins) increased 91% QoQ from $796 million to $1.52 billion at Q1-end and surpassed $2 billion on April 11. This increase was driven by growth in government treasury assets, including Ondo’s USDY and Spiko’s EUTBL, USTBL, and UKTBL.
On Jan. 22, the X-Ray privacy protocol upgrade went live on Stellar, laying the groundwork for zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography so developers can build privacy-preserving, regulatorily compliant applications on the network.
On April 1, Templar launched lending and borrowing for six freely transferable RWAs on Stellar, including Centrifuge’s deJAA and deJTRSY, and Etherfuse’s CETES and USTRY, marking a significant milestone for DeFi composability of RWAs on Stellar. Alongside sustained elevated yields on Blend, we project continued DeFi TVL growth on Stellar in Q2 2026 beyond the $174.4 million at Q1-end.
Stellar’s stablecoin market cap increased 22% QoQ from $244 million to $297 million, driven by USDC’s 14.9% QoQ increase to $256.3 million and SG-FORGE’s EURCV launch on the network on March 10, 2026.