Weekly Key Metrics

Network Fees

• Bitcoin: On-chain fees edged up modestly by +1.3% to $2.15 million, signaling sustained but not explosive transactional activity amid the price dip. This resilience points to steady network usage, likely anchored by institutional flows and layer-2 integrations, rather than retail frenzy.

• Ethereum: Fees took a sharper hit, plunging -21.7% to $6.46 million, reflecting reduced congestion on the base layer. Even with the decline, Ethereum’s fees remain triple Bitcoin’s, affirming its activity remains strong.

Exchange Netflows

• BTC: A hefty -$1.09 billion in net outflows underscores accumulation, with holders pulling BTC off exchanges at a rapid clip, classic HODL behavior that tightens supply and sets the stage for upward price pressure once sentiment flips.

• ETH: In contrast, +$230.39 million in net inflows suggests some profit-taking or repositioning on exchanges, potentially taking advantage of ETHs rebound at the beginning of the week. However, this pales against BTC’s outflows and could signal tactical trading rather than outright selling.

DeFi TVL Contraction Amid ETF Outflows and Macro Headwinds

DeFi TVL contracted -12.45% in the week ending November 9, 2025, marking the most severe weekly decline since the 2023 bear market trough. For context, this drop was larger than the volatility seen during the Oct 10 “Black Friday” event, and pales against the -39.24% collapse during the Terra/Luna meltdown in May 2022, but represents a clear acceleration from October’s volatility. DeFi TVL stands at $127B today.

Source: DefiLlama

The TVL decline coincided with institutional capital flight from BTC and ETH. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced -$622M in net weekly outflows, while the -$550 outflow from ETH ETFs marked the third-largest weekly redemption since their 2024 launch.

Source: SoSoValue

BTC’s inability to hold $100,000 support despite earlier bullish momentum adds technical pressure to an already fragile sentiment environment. The correlation between ETF outflows and on-chain DeFi metrics underscores how tightly institutional capital flows now influence decentralized protocol utilization.

Stablecoin Contagion: Stream Finance, Elixir and the Risk Curator Crisis

Stream Finance protocol disclosed a separate $93 million loss tied to an external fund manager’s mistake, freezing $285 million in user deposits. Stream had borrowed Elixir’s deUSD synthetic stablecoin to collateralize its own product, Staked Stream USD (xUSD). When the losses became public, xUSD depegged violently from $1.26 to as low as $0.10–0.24 within hours. The depeg exposed the counterparty risk embedded in synthetic dollar constructions, particularly those lacking traditional reserve backing.

Source: DefiLlama

Elixir responded by sunsetting deUSD after processing redemptions for 80% of holders. The stablecoin, launched in July 2024 as a non-custodial alternative to Ethena’s USDe, plummeted 98% to $0.015. Stream controlled approximately 90% of remaining deUSD supply (valued at $75 million) while owing Elixir $68 million of its $285 million total debt exposure. Elixir disabled mint and redemption operations to prevent Stream from liquidating deUSD holdings before settling obligations, and used Morpho, Euler, and Compound to unwind associated loans.

The contagion spread to risk curators, third-party teams building isolated lending vaults on protocols like Morpho and Euler. Risk curator vaults TVL crashed from a peak of $10 billion to approximately $6.9 billion within days as users rushed to withdraw capital from the affected vaults.

Source: DefiLlama

The crisis revealed how curated vaults accepting algorithmic or synthetic stablecoins as collateral created asymmetric risk: borrowers remained fully liquid while lenders found themselves locked out, unable to recoup deposits. Riskier stablecoins like xUSD and deUSD allowed users to borrow more stable assets (USDT, USDC) against depreciating collateral with minimal liquidation risk.When multiple synthetics lost their pegs simultaneously, the interconnected vault structure amplified losses across the entire lending ecosystem.

This episode marks a critical stress test for 2025’s competitive risk curator landscape. While curators enabled capital-efficient, customized lending strategies beyond Aave’s fixed-pool model, the November events exposed governance gaps and inadequate collateral risk assessment.

November’s twin shocks, institutional ETF outflows and interconnected DeFi exploits, have erased months of TVL growth and exposed vulnerabilities in synthetic stablecoin architectures and risk curator models. The DeFi ecosystem remains in a deleveraging phase where liquidity conditions can shift rapidly. Position sizing and risk management are critical, especially when interacting with newer protocols or curated vaults that may have exposures to weak and opaque collaterals.

If you'd like to know more about how Sentora approaches risk management, read our latest article on that topic here.