JIP-24 to Expand Jito DAO’s Revenue Engine

On August 5, Jito proposed JIP-24, which would redirect 100% of Jito Block Engine fees, currently split evenly with Jito Labs, and all future revenues from the newly launched Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM) to the DAO treasury. BAM introduces a programmable block-building architecture for Solana with “plugins” that add value-accretive sequencing logic, creating new income streams. The change would strengthen alignment between network revenues and JTO holders, following the broader industry trend of maximizing on-chain value capture by governance tokens. As of August 14, the DAO has generated $20.3 million in cumulative revenue and $6.6M in net income, with $6 million over the past 90 days, and an annualized run rate of about $26 million, primarily from Tip Router and JitoSOL fees. With BAM now live and progressively capturing stake, Jito DAO’s revenue base is set to expand beyond MEV tips into programmable blockspace, marking a pivotal moment for the protocol’s economic model.

Aerodrome Bridges CeFi, TradFi, and DeFi with Coinbase and Centrifuge

On August 8, Aerodrome announced a direct integration with Coinbase, making every asset, pool, and launch on Base instantly accessible to over 100 million Coinbase users. In January, Coinbase made its first major DeFi integration with Morpho to offer crypto-backed loans, marking a significant step toward bridging centralized platforms with onchain finance. Also on August 8, Aerodrome became the first trading hub for $deJAAA, the freely transferable real-world asset launched by Centrifuge, marking another first-of-its-kind milestone as institutional-grade RWA products enter the Base ecosystem. Aerodrome remains Base’s central liquidity hub with $1.43 billion TVL, $255 billion in cumulative volume, and $222.7 million in total fees. Together, these moves illustrate the accelerating integration of CeFi, TradFi, and DeFi, combining institutional-grade products, mass retail access, and onchain infrastructure.

LayerZero Proposes $110M Stargate Acquisition

On August 10, the LayerZero Foundation proposed a $110 million acquisition of the Stargate (STG) token, three years after its launch. Stargate drives over 55 million messages—about one-third of LayerZero’s 153 million total—and $63.8 billion in transferred value, more than half of LayerZero $120.3 billion all-time volume. The offer values STG at $0.1675 per token, with all circulating tokens redeemable for ZRO at a fixed ratio and veSTG holders retaining 50% of protocol revenue for six months post-merger before all excess revenue shifts to ZRO buybacks. LayerZero says the merger will unify resources, cut product overlap, speed new launches such as stablecoin and OFT hubs, and improve institutional positioning. Supporters view consolidation under ZRO as vital in a competitive bridging market, while critics argue it undervalues STG’s yield model and ends its long-term revenue share. If approved, the Stargate DAO would be dissolved, operations moved under LayerZero, and governance and tokenomics consolidated under ZRO, folding Stargate deeper into LayerZero’s product suite, expanding beyond bridging, and cementing its position as the protocol’s main volume driver.

Ethena’s $6.4B Aave Footprint

Ethena’s USDe supply has doubled in 30 days to over $10.9B, mostly fueled by the Pendle–Aave looping trade. Pendle locks staked USDe (sUSDe) yield at fixed rates, while Aave leverages it up, creating a reflexive growth loop. As of August 14th, $6.4B of Ethena assets sit on Aave ($3.9B in Pendle Principal Tokens (mostly sUSDe), $1.4B in USDe, and $1.1B in sUSDe), making up a large share of USDe’s total supply. This deep integration cements Ethena as one of DeFi’s fastest-growing and most systemically important stablecoin issuers, approaching a “too big to fail” status in the onchain economy. While these linkages unlock scale and yield opportunities, they also concentrate risk, highlighted by Chaos Labs: a sharp unwind of leveraged PT–USDe positions could stress Aave’s stablecoin markets, especially with $580M of USDe’s own backing deployed into Aave. Ethena’s rise underscores both the promise of onchain fixed-income innovation and the need for safeguards around feedback loops that can magnify both growth and volatility.

Sky Protocol Gets S&P’s First-Ever Stablecoin Credit Rating

On August 8, S&P Global Ratings issued its first-ever credit rating for a stablecoin system, assigning Sky Protocol’s USDS a B- rating with a stable outlook. The evaluation covered USDS and sUSDS liabilities, liquidity buffers in USDC and tokenized money market funds, minimal loan losses, and governance risk, recognizing Sky within the same evaluative framework as bonds and corporates. S&P also set USDS as the benchmark stablecoin in its global framework and outlined steps toward an investment-grade rating: decentralizing key functions, dynamically adjusting reserves, and mitigating depositor concentration, signaling that even traditional finance views decentralization as a core risk mitigator. As of the latest reporting, Sky holds $8.59B in total assets, a $90.5M surplus buffer, and has generated over $327M in annualized revenues, with Steakhouse’s Dune dashboards providing full, up-to-date onchain financial transparency. This milestone not only formalizes stablecoin systems within global credit ratings but also marks another step in the progressive integration of TradFi and the onchain economy.

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Dune Digest is all about cutting through the noise and surfacing the most relevant onchain trends. If you have insights, dashboards, or data-driven stories that belong in the Digest, drop your suggestions here.

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Dune Team

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