Whale wallets are offloading some of their DeFi token holdings as the entire industry unwinds from a recent all-time high. DeFi tokens reached a peak in overall market capitalization, leading to a round of profit-taking.
Whales are capitalizing on DeFi tokens, trying to capture the profits from what looked like a short-term altcoin market. The profit-taking comes from individual pockets, but reflects an industry-wide trend.
DeFi tokens as a whole reached a new peak in 2024, driven by the growth of Aave (AAVE) and other platform tokens. According to data from DeFiLlama, DeFi has expanded its overall value $129 billion early 2025, but still far from the 2021 peak.
DeFi tokens as a whole were valued at $134 billion, including most large-scale protocols, as well as the major credit pools. DeFi expanded over the past year as Ethereum (ETH) achieved stability. In early 2025, DeFi tokens fueled profit-taking just as ETH stabilized around $3,700.
The altcoin seasonal index rose from 47 points to 59 points per day, but still does not indicate a stable altcoin season. But even the short-term rallies were enough to attract whales with short-term trading strategies.
Whales move AAVE, ENA to Binance
One of the recent sales comes from a whale wallet that AAVE collected during the summer months. The wallet deposited 19,001 AAVE for a potential profit of $4.93 million based on much lower fees.
The selling coincided with a local high for AAVE above $353, after which the asset fell to $343. AAVE was one of the most actively traded tokens, comprising the top 10 of all DeFi assets.
The wallet, labeled as symbolic millionairehas focused on a handful of top tokens from the DeFi space and the AI story. The holder’s approach is to buy and sell within weeks or months when the asset has made sufficient profit. Previously, the same wallet collected Render (RNDR) and Maker (MKR), later liquidating all holdings.
Another wallet targeted Ethena (ENA), wiping out 4.96 million ENA and depositing the tokens with Binance. The cost basis for the whale is $0.75 per ENA, and the potential retail price is $1.23. While DeFi tokens didn’t produce outsized gains, they still saw a solid rally in recent months. The most important thing about the wallet activity creates Collateralized Debt Positions (CDP). The wallet’s other assets include ETH, USDE, OWN, CBBTC, and other smaller collateralized lending assets.
Can DeFi make a comeback?
DeFi remains one of the biggest stories of the past year. However, the number of listings has dropped since November, taken over by the AI token hype. DeFi mindshare on social media has fallen to 4.51%, even smaller than the meme token reports. AI, memes and GameFi were among the popular short-term stories, while DeFi tokens were still trading sideways, potentially leading to accumulation.
The lower social media mentions do not reflect the fact that DeFi is an important part of the crypto space. DeFi blue chips, including MKR, AAVE and UNI, also have a different trading profile, with slightly better returns in the first week of 2025.
DEX activity started the new year with peak volumes, accounting for more than 19.5% of centralized exchange volumes, based on the DEX-CEX ratio. The recently reported reimbursement levels point to Raydium, Uniswap and PancakeSwap as major activity hubs.
DeFi could also benefit from the record supply of stablecoins, which tops 200.6 billion. Ethena’s USDE retains 5.9 billion tokens, while DAI still stands at 4.5 billion tokens. USDT is approaching its peak supply of 141.2 billion, despite recent token burns. All of these assets point to expansion of major credit protocols.
ETH trading at $3,696.21 is also critical for DeFi collateral, as well as the most active DEX pairs. Activity on decentralized exchanges includes meme coins, in addition to highly liquid pairs to exchange wrapped ETH. Despite Solana’s expansion, most of DeFi is still based on Ethereum and the leading L2 chains.
