Gate Research: USDe TVL Drops Over 50% From October | Q3 Crypto VC Funding Hits Three-Year High

Crypto Market Overview

• BTC (+0.57% | Current Price 89,226 USDT): BTC gained support near $86,000 and slightly rebounded with the broader market into the $88,000–$89,000 range, with the short-term structure gradually stabilizing. Regarding moving averages, the MA5 and MA10 are stably running above the MA30, indicating the price is maintaining a moderate recovery pace, but overall, it still lacks clear trend breakout signals. It is necessary to observe whether the price can consistently hold above $88,000 to strengthen the rebound momentum. The MACD red histogram significantly expanded on the 25th but then gradually converged, suggesting that while short-term buying once increased, market willingness to chase the price remains limited. If BTC can stably hold $87,500–$88,000, the upward consolidation structure can continue; if it falls below $87,000, it may retest the support area near $85,000.
• ETH (+0.79% | Current Price 2,977 USDT): ETH stopped its decline near $2,900 and strongly rebounded to the $2,980–$3,000 range on the evening of the 25th, with short-term sentiment showing improvement. Regarding moving averages, the MA5 and MA10 have consistently run above the MA30, showing a healthy structure and stable rebound momentum, but it still needs to be observed whether it can consistently hold the $2,950–$2,980 area to confirm the strength of the bulls. The MACD red histogram expanded noticeably on the 25th but then slowed down, meaning short-term buying has intervened but the force has not amplified further. If ETH can hold $2,950, it will maintain a pattern of sideways consolidation with an upward bias; if it drops below $2,900, attention should be paid to the possibility of the price retesting the area below $2,850.
• Altcoins: Market sentiment remains cautious, with the Fear Index maintaining in the extreme fear zone of 15, reflecting a sustained decline in investor risk appetite. Despite the low sentiment, mainstream altcoins still showed a slight recovery in the last 24 hours, with SOL up 1.26%, and DOGE, ADA, TRX, etc., also recording moderate gains of 0.4%–1%. XRP slightly retreated by nearly 2%, showing relatively weaker performance. Overall, funds are showing selective replenishment amid the fear, but momentum is limited, and the market remains in a cautious consolidation phase.
• Macro: On November 25, the S&P 500 Index rose 0.91% to 6,765.88 points; the Dow Jones Index rose 1.43% to 47,112.45 points; and the NASDAQ Index rose 0.67% to 23,025.59 points. As of 02:15 AM (UTC) on November 26, the price per ounce of spot gold is temporarily reported at $4,147, with a 24-hour increase of 0.40%.

Trending Tokens

MON Monad (+43.61%, Circulating Market Cap: $514M)

According to Gate market data, MON is currently trading at $0.04699, up 43.61% in the past 24 hours. Monad is a next-generation Layer 1 blockchain designed for high-performance decentralized applications, featuring parallel execution, low-latency finality, and strong scalability. Its architecture leverages the MonadVM and a parallelized execution engine to significantly increase throughput, enabling smart contracts to achieve higher execution efficiency while remaining EVM-compatible—addressing congestion and high-fee challenges on mainstream chains.

Recently, the Monad mainnet officially launched alongside rapid ecosystem deployment, drawing strong market attention. Core infrastructure—including bridges, DEXs, synthetic asset platforms, and derivatives protocols—has already gone live, giving Monad a complete usability loop at launch. MON has also been listed on Gate and other major exchanges, accelerating capital inflows. In addition, Monad announced a deep integration with Telegram Wallet, enabling users to store and swap MON directly within Telegram, further improving accessibility and liquidity. The combination of mainnet launch, fast ecosystem expansion, concentrated CEX listings, and integration with major user platforms has significantly boosted demand and market expectations—serving as the primary catalyst for MON’s sharp price increase.

IP Story Network (+21.66%, Circulating Market Cap: $739M)

Gate data shows that IP is trading at $2.976, up 21.66% in the last 24 hours. Story Network is a Layer 1 blockchain built for “programmable IP,” designed to turn long-undervalued cultural assets—such as creative content, learning data, and AI training materials—into composable and tradable on-chain property rights.

Recently, Story announced several key ecosystem developments: the launch of its first prediction markets, a partnership with MUSIC Protocol to expand entertainment-related prediction applications, and a collaboration with education-tech firm EDUM to migrate millions of hours of learning data to Story as licensable IP for AI training. Meanwhile, IP Strategy (IPST, a NASDAQ-listed company) highlighted Story as an “IP financialization infrastructure” during its investor day, further elevating attention. These developments clarify the real-world use cases of Story across AI training, education data, and cultural IP, while signaling its potential to bring a portion of the $80 trillion global IP market onto blockchains as tradable assets. Accelerating ecosystem progress, high-traffic application launches, and validation from traditional capital markets together drove the strong uptick in IP demand and price over the last 24 hours.

ICNT Impossible Cloud Network Token (+20.80%, Circulating Market Cap: $46.06M)

According to Gate market data, ICNT is currently priced at $0.24678, rising 20.80% in the last 24 hours according to Gate data. Impossible Cloud Network is a next-generation decentralized cloud infrastructure protocol designed to eliminate single-point failures and performance bottlenecks common in centralized cloud services. The network is built on a four-layer stack: ScalerNodes providing hardware capacity, a protocol layer for resource abstraction, HyperNodes for performance enforcement, and a delivery layer ensuring service guarantees for end users.

Recently, ICN released major network performance updates: over 5.56 million protocol validations, 127 ScalerNodes across six regions, 91.54 PB of available storage capacity, and more than 915,000 ICNT staked by nodes—highlighting rapid infrastructure growth. The project also published details on its “four-layer cloud stack,” emphasizing advantages in reliability and enterprise-grade services with no single point of failure. As network size, validation metrics, and node participation all continue to expand, the market has reassessed ICNT’s potential value within the decentralized cloud sector—driving its notable 24-hour price increase.

Alpha Insights

Circle Arc Testnet Launches “Gateway,” Enhancing Cross-Chain USDC Liquidity

Arc, Circle’s Layer 1 blockchain, has launched the new Circle Gateway on its testnet, providing developers with a more efficient cross-chain stablecoin infrastructure. Gateway enables unified USDC balance management, instant cross-chain fund routing, and on-demand cross-chain liquidity generation—shifting the user experience from fragmented, multi-chain operations to centralized management. This significantly reduces technical complexity for developers building cross-chain stablecoin applications and improves overall development efficiency.

With one-click access to all supported chains, Arc Gateway further strengthens multi-chain interoperability, delivering a smoother cross-chain experience for DeFi, payments, on-chain settlement, and enterprise-grade financial applications. By unifying USDC liquidity pools, it reduces fragmentation and improves capital efficiency. As Gateway continues to mature, Arc is positioned to become a central hub for cross-chain USDC liquidity, accelerating the expansion of USDC-centric cross-chain application ecosystems.

Q3 Crypto Venture Funding Rebounds to a Three-Year High, but Capital Concentrates in Late-Stage Deals

Crypto venture funding reached $4.59 billion in Q3 2025, the second-highest level since Q3 2022, indicating that structural investment interest persists despite macro uncertainty. Although overall deal count was roughly flat quarter-over-quarter, capital allocation became highly concentrated: just seven large deals accounted for more than half of total funding, showing a clear shift toward top-tier projects while early-stage and mid-sized teams continue to face tightening capital access.

Nearly 60% of Q3 funding went to late-stage companies, marking the second-highest share since Q1 2021 and reflecting investors’ preference for teams with commercial traction and scalable business models. Meanwhile, fundraising conditions remain weak: only 16 new funds raised a combined $3.16 billion, largely supported by two exchange-affiliated mega funds. This indicates declining LP appetite and greater external caution. Overall, while Q3 funding volumes rebounded, the structure of investment was more concentrated and conservative, leaving early-stage innovation projects under continued financing pressure.

USDe TVL Falls to $7.6B, Down More Than 50% from October

The TVL of Ethena’s synthetic stablecoin USDe dropped sharply from $14.8 billion in October to around $7.6 billion, a decline of more than 50%. The contraction was driven by a weaker market, reduced leverage demand, and the normalization of perpetual funding rates, which pushed USDe’s annualized yield down from double-digit levels earlier this year to roughly 5.1% today.

Despite the steep TVL decline, on-chain usage of USDe has increased, with over $50 billion in monthly on-chain transaction volume, indicating strong stickiness across payments, trading, and liquidity use cases.

The rapid TVL drop primarily resulted from mass unwinding of leveraged loop strategies commonly used in DeFi lending platforms—especially on Aave. Previously, arbitrageurs repeatedly recycled sUSDe as collateral to borrow USDC, swap it back to sUSDe, and amplify yields so long as USDe’s APY exceeded the borrowing cost of USDC. However, once USDe yields fell below Aave’s 5.4% borrowing rate, the loop strategy became unprofitable, triggering rapid deleveraging and accelerating TVL outflows.

Overall, the market has shifted from a high-leverage environment to a deleveraging phase, and USDe usage is transitioning from yield-driven toward organic, real-use demand.


References

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/btc/
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/eth/
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/crypto-market-data
• Investing, https://investing.com/indices/usa-indices
• Investing, https://investing.com/currencies/xau-usd
• X, https://x.com/arc/status/1993049220035784878
• X, https://x.com/intangiblecoins/status/1993010266100187496?s=20
• DefiLlama, https://defillama.com/stablecoin/ethena-usde

Gate Research is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform that provides deep content for readers, including technical analysis, market insights, industry research, trend forecasting, and macroeconomic policy analysis.

Disclaimer
Investing in cryptocurrency markets involves high risk. Users are advised to conduct their own research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages arising from such decisions.