DeFi Explodes Past $153B: Ethereum & Yield Farming Fuel Crypto’s Wildest Gold Rush Yet

Decentralized finance just smashed through another psychological barrier—proving Wall Street's 'temporary fad' narrative wrong yet again.

Yield farmers are printing money while TradFi banks scramble to keep up with 4% APYs. Ethereum's upgrade cycle turned the network into a DeFi powerhouse, processing more value than some national payment systems.

Behind the numbers? A quiet revolution. Smart contracts now handle collateral worth more than Goldman Sachs' balance sheet—without the bailouts or the suits. The old guard will call it reckless. Early adopters call it retirement.

(Fun fact: That $153B TVL could buy every surviving Lehman Brothers executive 23 private islands each. Just saying.)

ETH Price Surge Drives TVL Growth

Ethereum has jumped 60% over the past month, rallying from $2,423 to $3,887. Currently, the token is trading for $3,786 after a 3% surge in 7 days. This increase came after institutions started putting money into Ethereum. 

For instance, Sharplink Gaming recently added $1.3 billion to its treasury, increasing its total ETH holding to $360,807. BitMine, another company, also made a $2 billion deal recently to buy Ethereum. This move gave momentum to the market, especially since investors are looking to earn more from their crypto holdings

According to DefiLlama, the DeFi sector has now climbed past its December 2024 high. The last time it was this high was in May 2022, just before Terra’s collapse caused a $60 billion crash. Now, activity is surging again across multiple blockchains.

Moreover, ethereum is still leading the way as it holds 59.5% of all the money locked in DeFi. Most of that was on two top-performing platforms: Lido and Aave. Each one has between $32 billion and $34 billion locked in.

Investors Chase Higher Yields Beyond Staking

As of 2025, most investors don’t just hold their crypto; they now prefer using it to earn yield. One way to go about this is by staking, which basically involves locking your ETH to help the network. Investors can earn up to 1.5% and 4% annually through staking, but the staking protocol offers more.

OlimpioCrypto, a crypto influencer, also recently shared a strategy on X, which involves looping USDC and sUSDC between Euler and Spark on Unichain.

🚜🚜 This is getting around 25% stablecoin APY, with one of the lowest risks in DeFi, and almost fully liquid. Strategy:

Asset: USDC and sUSDC
APY: 25-35%
Chain: unichain
Protocol: Euler + Spark
Bridge: use cctp[.]to USDC from almost any chain to any chain, or bungee
Duration:… pic.twitter.com/SFeJ8Jabsm

This method can earn up to 25% a year, using incentives like Spark’s SSR and OP rewards, and Euler’s rEUL and USDC subsidies. An easier version starts by minting sUSDC on Spark and looping with USDC on Euler, though yields are slightly lower and may only last a week.

Another easier way is to mint sUSDC on Spark and loop it with USDC on Euler. Both methods give high returns but may only last a short time.

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