šDeFi is about to go mainstream
weekly valuable insights
Hinkal is a private crypto wallet fully composable with DeFi. Try it out today!
GM friends. Hereās what Iāll cover today:
šThe missing piece for DeFi to go mainstream
š Crypto chart of the week
šļø The latest DeFi news
šThe missing piece for DeFi to go mainstream
On-chain adoption has drastically increased in the past years.
But letās face it: 99% of people still find it way too difficult to use on-chain apps, create a wallet, pay gas fees, switch networks, and so on.
In reality, most dApps today are built for a very small set of advanced DeFi users, as they are way too complicated to use for the average person.
Yet this week, Aave announced a new product that I believe has a shot at bringing normies on-chain.
They introduced the Aave App - a DeFi savings app that actually looks like a mobile app that your mom or your uncle would be able to easily use.
In short, the Aave App will offer:
Up to 6.50% APR on stablecoins
Savings protection - up to $1,000,000 in insurance coverage for every user
Multiple deposit methods - Stablecoins, bank transfer, and debit card
Recurring deposits to automate savings
Euro savings on top of USD savings
6.5% APR is not a lot tbh, but most fintech and TradFi companies offer up to 3.5-4%, so itās still significantly better than other traditional alternatives.
The real game-changer, though, is the insurance protection. In case AAVE is ever exploited (please no), youāll still get your funds back. (up to $1M)
To my knowledge, this is the first DeFi app offering that.
Besides this, from what Iāve seen in the screenshots they provided, the mobile app will abstract away all the blockchain-related features. (gas fees, blockchain networks)
So it will probably offer a user experience similar to a Revolut savings account.
AAVE App might be able to offer the best of both worlds:
A friendly user experience similar to web2 apps, coupled with full transparency as all funds will be auditable on-chain, and with a higher savings yield.
The app is currently available in early access on iOS. But itās also coming to Android.
In other news, another major thing happened this week.
Polymarket became the official exclusive prediction market of the UFC.
Whatās crazy is that Polymarket isnāt even available to US users (yet), however, itās already partnering with some of the biggest organizations and companies in the US.
Partnerships like this will certainly bring more eyeballs to crypto.
Overall, I am pretty excited to see these developments.
DeFi apps and crypto apps in general are starting to make a lot of big steps in the right direction that will eventually help onboard the first billion people on-chain.
Polymarket is probably the first crypto app that began being used at a massive scale by regular people who have nothing to do with crypto.
But in 2026, I expect many other crypto products to go mainstream.
Together with Hinkal
The private wallet DeFi has been missing
Every DeFi user today is operating with a public transaction statement.
Your wallet exposes your entire transaction history and your holdings.
Front-running, alpha leakage, targeted attacks, and personal safety concerns are all caused by the same problem: on-chain visibility.
Hinkal fixed this.
Hinkal is a self-custodial, private DeFi wallet, giving users the ability to hide their holdings and interact with any dApp without revealing their holdings.
Hereās what you need to know:
Hinkal lets you transact from a shielded address and has also been used by Vitalik Buterin
The wallet is fully composable, allowing private interactions with any dApp on supported chains
Multi-chain from day one - You can use it on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, and Optimism
With Hinkal, your on-chain activity becomes invisible to everyone but you. It lets you trade, lend, stake, and farm ā exactly as you normally would ā but privately.
Shield your walletās assets with Hinkal!
Chart of the week
Lighter surpassed $200M in 24h annualized revenue
Crypto Memeš
The latest developments in DeFi
AAVE introduced the Aave App - a consumer-friendly savings app
Hyperliquid released HIP-3 Growth Mode, reducing trading fees by 90% for new markets
Pendle started being used by Galaxy to deploy institutional capital into on-chain fixed yields
BOB, a hybrid L2 combining Bitcoinās security with EVM smart contracts, launched its token called BOB
Phantom introduced Phantom Terminal - a new pro-level trading platform
MegaETH announced its upcoming mainnet beta launch in early December
Polymarket became the official exclusive prediction market of the UFC
Arbitrum team teased the launch of private Arbitrum chains
Paradex enabled its users to sell up to 50% of their S2 airdrop XP points
INFINIT added support for new Agentic DeFi Strategies to Katana. The goal is to minimize the friction of complex strategies with the help of AI agents
Revolut selected Polygon as its primary blockchain for stablecoin payments
Hyperbeat announced that its users have to sign the Hyperbeat Foundation terms to be eligible for its upcoming airdrop
Cookie DAO launched the Cookie Launchpad powered by Legion. The first ICO is for Vooi, a perps DEX aggregator
DappRadar announced it is shutting down
Aegis released Season 2 of the Aegis Points Program. Aegis is a BTC-backed stablecoin protocol
EtherFi enabled borrowing & spending money against HYPE using EtherFi Card
Defi App released its Android mobile app
Thatās all for this week!
Until next time,
The DeFi Investor
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The insurence coverage up to $1M is huge. Most people avoid DeFi because of hack risk, but this could actually change the conversaton. Abstracting away gas fees and networks is smart too because that stuff confuses everyone who isnt already deep in crypto.