The world of cryptocurrency moves at lightning speed. For the past few years, the crypto community has been dominated by a Player vs. Player mentality—driven by speculation, hype, and the quest for quick profits.
But this year, an emerging consensus suggests that the era of PvP might be over for now. The race for memecoins, which was once an arena for the unfettered pursuit of massive gains (often with no underlying value), seems to be hitting a wall. With market conditions changing, a new approach—focused more on capital preservation—is starting to take hold.
The Decline of Memecoins and a Shift Toward Safer Bets
Data is now available showing a dramatic shift in investor behavior. Pump.fun, a platform that once rode high on the memecoin wave, has seen an astonishing 90% drop in 24-hour revenue since its peak on January 25, when it took in $15.38 million. This sharp decline signals the cooling of what, until now, could be considered the last “pedal-to-the-metal” moment in the memecoin golden age. With memecoin mania winding down, what will investors focus on next? Will the coins that celebs just have to endorse still attract as much capital?
The saga of $LIBRA, which added further chaos to the memecoin space, may have marked the end of the memecoin era—symbolically, at least. As attention shifts from the meme coin’s explosive potential to the next hot pump-and-dump, the mindset of players has evolved. Investors who once engaged in speculative PvP battles seem to be searching for stability and preservation instead. The new regime of ‘survival first’—which, in my mind, applies equally to projects, tokens, and the infrastructure in and around them—pushes grand ambitions to the backseat.
Yield and DeFi: The New Playground for Crypto Investors
As the market shifts from speculative volatility to careful investment, it’s clear the mood is moving toward yield farming and other relatively stable, risk-averse strategies. High-yield DeFi protocols are emerging as a kind of safe haven for investors looking to make somewhat steady returns in a market that isn’t going up. While DeFi pioneer Andre Cronje has claimed that enthusiasts of memecoins don’t care about DeFi or blockchains, the post-PvP crowd is very clearly interested in safer, more sustainable strategies these days. This new batch of investors is definitely hunting for yield, and the DeFi ecosystem is more than happy to oblige.
An excellent instance of this shift is Sonic, a DeFi protocol that has experienced stunning growth in a brief stint of time. Since it launched in late December, the total value locked (TVL) in Sonic has skyrocketed from zero to almost $700 million in only two months. One big reason for this impressive growth is Shadow Exchange, Sonic’s decentralized exchange (DEX), which has lured lots of capital through seemingly attractive high-yield mining opportunities. Another reason for Sonic’s growth is its governance token, which has surged from a few bucks to hundreds, and which success, by the way, has become an instance that other nascent DeFi projects point to as a model they might emulate.
The Shadow Exchange is based on a modification of the ve(3,3) model and uses $xSHADOW tokens as “membership cards” that share in the profits. Users can use these tokens to vote on platform decisions (presumably, the ones that would make profit-sharing more advantageous to them) and can earn rewards the longer they keep them locked up in the system. Now, the APR payouts on $xSHADOW in the early days of the Shadow Exchange are very good. So good, in fact, that I, too, am thinking of using the model and proposing Shadow governance when I mention the protocol to my banking friends.
New DeFi Projects Rise Amidst the Market Dip
Despite a downturn in the broader crypto market, emerging chains that focus on DeFi are growing quickly. Berachain, Sei, and Soneium saw their TVL climb significantly. These protocols promise better returns than most services you can find in CeFi. Their capital-acquisition strategies are compelling: they pay high yields, use soulbound governance tokens, and otherwise do what they must to entice you to give them your money.
Is the PvP Era Temporarily Over? Is Capital Preservation the New Priority?
1/ A new consensus is gaining traction: the PvP (player vs. player) era in crypto might be on pause. https://t.co/jRPyxAP8G3’s 24-hour revenue has plummeted over 90% from its January 25 peak of $15.38M.…
— Followin (@followin_io) February 27, 2025
Berachain’s Infrared staking protocol is amongst the standout players. In just 20 days after its mainnet launch, the protocol has drawn in over $1.4 billion in total value locked (TVL). Its APY pools are totaling 120% and drawing in liquidity. Berachain is incentivizing us to participate and lock our assets in the system with the BGT governance token. And Berachain has partnerships that are snugly positioning it in the DeFi space.
Yei Finance from Sei has also turned out to be a real contender in the space. Yei offers stablecoin pools with over 20% APY, and its SolvBTC pools add a nice Bitcoin-flavored yield to the mix. The project has a $2 million seed round behind it, making it a strong contender for those looking for steady, conservative returns. With stable yields, Yei is positioning itself as a safe haven for those who want to avoid risk.
At the same time, Soneium’s Sonex DEX, which went live on the mainnet in mid-January, has racked up over $70 million in total value locked. With AI-driven strategies blended into the mix and high-APY pools to boot, Sonex isn’t just making waves in the DeFi ecosystem—it’s taking the early adopters along for a significant ride, thanks to OG badges and airdrop potential.
Pendle and Morpho: DeFi’s Yield Innovators
Pendle and Morpho are additionally demonstrating that DeFi’s yield-bearing protocols can indeed have staying power. With a TVL of over $5 billion, Pendle focuses on tokenizing future yields with a PT/YT split that enables something close to arbitrage. (Most people believe that to achieve stay power, a project needs to allow users to do something like that.) Morpho, meanwhile, with a TVL of $3 billion, is actually optimizing something that sounds like it shouldn’t be possible: using lending protocols to allow for more efficient capital allocation, effectively doubling the utility of each dollar deployed. Both of these projects are gaining traction and seem to have solidified stablecoin pools as their first use case.
The End of PvP and the Rise of Capital Preservation
The mentality of chasing after gains of the PvP variety is shifting to capital preservation. This mentality change signals a new phase for the industry. We can see this new focus playing out in DeFi “business models” with protocols like Sonic, Berachain, and Pendle. These capital-attracting protocols are delivering real yield to investors on a sustainable basis. That means the focus is on something other than speculative trading, which had previously been the drug of choice for the crypto set. Those chasing after quick gains in DeFi via yield farming or staking appear to have moved on to a more risk-averse investment strategy.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
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