DeFi in Q2 Review: The New Gold Rush Is… Stablecoins?

Everyone’s rushing into stablecoins, but the numbers look… the same.

In Q2, it felt like you couldn’t go a day without a major stablecoin announcement. JPMorgan launched its USD Deposit Token on Base. Coinbase debuted its stablecoin payment stack following the Shopify partnership. Anchorage Digital acquired USDM issuer Mountain Protocol. Ubyx raised $10 million for stablecoin clearing infrastructure. Bitcoin-based Plasma filled its $1 billion deposit cap in 30 minutes. All within weeks of each other.

But despite all this activity, stablecoins remain a brutally concentrated, “winner takes most” market. Of the roughly $250 billion in circulating stablecoin supply, Tether claims $158 billion (2.5x Circle’s $62 billion), while USDC dwarfs the third-largest dollar-pegged asset, USDe ($5.3 billion), by 11x.

While yield-bearing stablecoins and tokenized treasury products like USDe, sUSDS, BUIDL, and M0 create new competition vectors, distribution still wins. The ultimate winner won’t be determined by the highest yield from a novel mechanism, but by distribution and utility. The most valuable stablecoin will be the one that is seamlessly integrated, trusted, and accepted everywhere.

I have no doubt that lots of money will continue to flow into stablecoins as “dollars on a blockchain” have established themselves as one of the largest markets to be won in crypto. Though the more interesting question to me is how do you help users make use of their stablecoins once they hold them?

Mini Apps: Mobile-First Crypto Finally Arrives

For years, DeFi’s complexity has been its greatest barrier to adoption. Q2 marked a turning point as the industry rallied around a new access layer: mini apps.

• Coinbase Wallet (building on the Farcaster Frames framework) invested in revamping Coinbase Wallet into a Mini App platform.
• World’s mini-app ecosystem exploded and caught builder attention.
• Opera launched its standalone MiniPay app for iOS and Android.

The strategy is clear: embed DeFi’s power within familiar, user-friendly interfaces.

Mini-apps are finally dragging DeFi into the mobile age. Unlike previous cycles, UX isn’t an afterthought—UX is the product. Platforms with distribution now aspire to become superapp-like structures where developers fight to tap into captive user bases, much like WeChat in China.

By abstracting away gas fees, seed phrases, and hexadecimal addresses, these apps make on-chain finance accessible without forcing users to understand the underlying complexity.

Sophisticated Capital Structures Return (Without the Baggage)

One of Q2’s most interesting developments has been the quiet return of structured products to DeFi.

Protocols like Resolv, Aave’s Umbrella initiative, and infinifi.xyz are building products that look familiar to any TradFi professional. By offering features mirroring tranching and promoting yield optimization, they provide differentiated risk profiles that can accommodate the specific mandates of institutional investors, from pension funds to corporate (and DeFi) treasuries.

It’s a move beyond simple, high-risk yield farming and toward a financial system that can price and allocate risk in a sophisticated way. It’s the infrastructure needed to manage capital at scale.

A Blurring of Financial Worlds

The distinction between “crypto” and “TradFi” is further dissolved.

Superstate’s Opening Bell platform facilitated the first direct issuance of SEC-registered public shares on-chain, and Kraken rolled out commission-free stock trading alongside its crypto offerings.

When traditional assets can move on new rails and users can access both systems from a single interface, it no longer makes sense to think about these as “crypto” or “fintech” products.

Of course the two examples above highlight “stocks” coming to crypto, but the opposite is also true where nearly all major fintech applications have or are adding crypto in some capacity. The market has moved from experimental to essential.

Looking Forward: A Different Kind of Bull Market

Q2 2025 will likely be remembered as the quarter when DeFi stopped trying to reinvent finance and started improving it. The stablecoin infrastructure being built by traditional institutions, the mobile-first experiences emerging through mini-apps, and the sophisticated products being developed by mature protocols all point to the same conclusion: DeFi has found its footing.

The acquisition activity tells the story: strategic deals like Privy’s exit to Stripe and Anchorage’s acquisition of Mountain Protocol continue the trend of crypto infrastructure companies being valued and acquired by larger players.

This isn’t the speculative mania of previous cycles. It’s more accessible, efficient, and global financial services at scale.

The gold rush mentality that characterized crypto’s early years is giving way to railroad building. And historically, the companies that build the railroads tend to outlast those that just dig for gold.

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