Finance

Aave and Compound are both decentralized liquidity protocols built on blockchain technology, enabling users to borrow assets with over-collateralization or earn interest by supplying liquidity. The key distinction lies in Aave’s broader range of features and risk-layered design, whereas Compound stands out for its straightforward interest rate model and modular governance framework.

PAXG (Pax Gold) is a digital asset backed by physical gold, developed by fintech company Paxos and issued as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. The fundamental concept is to use blockchain technology to tokenize gold, with each PAXG token representing a specific amount of physical gold reserves. This enables investors to hold and trade gold as a digital asset while preserving gold's function as a store of value.

PAXG (Pax Gold) is a tokenized asset backed by physical gold, issued by the fintech company Paxos and traded on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token. The core concept is to tokenize physical gold on-chain, with each PAXG token representing ownership of a certain amount of gold. This structure enables investors to hold and trade gold in the form of a digital asset.

PAXG (Pax Gold) is a tokenized asset backed by physical gold reserves, launched by fintech firm Paxos and issued as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. The core concept is to digitally represent real-world gold assets, allowing investors to hold and trade gold via the blockchain network. Because each PAXG token corresponds to a specific quantity of physical gold, its price is theoretically expected to closely track the global gold market.

Jupiter, Raydium, and Orca are core liquidity infrastructures within the Solana ecosystem. Jupiter focuses on trade aggregation and intelligent routing, Raydium provides liquidity through a hybrid model that combines automated market making with order book integration, while Orca emphasizes concentrated liquidity through its Whirlpools model and a simplified trading experience for users.

Backpack Token is a utility crypto asset issued within the Backpack ecosystem and built on the Solana blockchain. It is designed to provide a unified incentive and governance mechanism across Backpack’s trading platform, non-custodial wallet, and NFT community. Unlike many traditional platform tokens, the Backpack tokenomics model emphasizes a user-first distribution structure and explores a staking mechanism that may connect token participation with the potential equity value of the company.

Gate Research Weekly Report: This week, BTC and ETH continued to trade with weak volatility, and market sentiment stayed in the fear range. Rising tensions in the Middle East drove up oil prices and simultaneously increased demand for stablecoins, with USDC demand surging in the Dubai market. Pump.fun may pursue multi-chain expansion, while popular tokens like ACX, Lobster, and PIXEL posted strong gains. Capital activity in the Solana ecosystem remains robust.

In February, BTC declined by approximately 15.5%, while ETH also corrected in tandem. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell into the Extreme Fear zone, reflecting a significant rise in market risk-off sentiment. Despite the volatile market environment, the fund portfolio maintained relatively stable overall performance, though short-term returns showed some divergence. Among the strategies, Stellar Core Smart-Invest (USDT) delivered the highest one-year return of 9.5%. Meanwhile, Interstellar Hedge (USDT) and Orbital Arbitrage (USDT) recorded cumulative returns of 18.0% and 17.2%, respectively. Notably, Interstellar Hedge (USDT) achieved positive returns in all 20 cycles during the observation period, resulting in a 100% win rate. Gravity Hedge (USDT) also performed strongly, with a 95% overall win rate.

The article opens by analyzing the structural conflict between the risk-free rate and the integration of US Treasury bonds on-chain. It traces the development of stablecoins such as USDT/USDC, DAI, UST, and USDe, highlighting the reasons behind the breakdown of DeFi token economics and DAO governance, and exploring how these mechanisms are being restructured within RWA and Vault frameworks.

Gate Card is a crypto payment card introduced by Gate, designed to function as a crypto credit card that allows users to spend digital assets in real-world scenarios. When a user makes a payment, the system automatically converts crypto assets in the account into fiat currency, enabling transactions through the Visa network across global merchants and ATMs. The core function of Gate Card lies in bridging digital assets and traditional payment systems. Instead of manually converting crypto into fiat before spending, users can directly use their crypto balances for everyday payments, cross-border transactions, and cash withdrawals. This integration reduces friction between Web3 assets and real-world financial infrastructure, making crypto more accessible for daily use.

A crypto card is a payment card that enables users to spend cryptocurrency by converting it into fiat currency at the point of transaction. As digital assets become more integrated into financial systems, crypto cards serve as a practical bridge between blockchain-based value and traditional payment infrastructure. They simplify real-world usage of cryptocurrencies while maintaining compatibility with global payment networks. Understanding their structure and limitations helps explain their role in modern financial ecosystems.

The core difference between Polymarket and Kalshi lies in their design. Polymarket is a blockchain-based decentralized prediction market that allows global users to trade 24/7 using stablecoins. Kalshi, in contrast, is a regulated centralized event contracts exchange that uses fiat settlement and serves compliant US users. Together, they represent two models of prediction markets: on-chain openness and regulated finance.

Plasma (XPL) is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed for global stablecoin settlement. It focuses on zero-fee USDT transfers, high throughput, and native Bitcoin bridging to support high-frequency use cases such as payments and cross-border settlement.

Polymarket is a decentralized prediction market platform whose core function is to turn future events into tradable probability-based assets. Users express their views by buying and selling “yes” or “no” outcome shares, with prices reflecting market consensus expectations. The platform has been applied in areas such as political elections, macroeconomic forecasting, crypto markets, and information trading, and is increasingly seen as a practical example of InfoFi.

The sharp correction in gold prices results from the interplay of a stronger US dollar, changing interest rate expectations, and leveraged liquidations. This article offers an in-depth examination of the factors driving the recent slump in gold, shifts in capital structure, and projections for future market movements.