In a remarkable achievement, Curve Finance—a decentralized lending protocol and exchange—recorded an impressive trading volume of nearly $35 billion in the first quarter of 2025, as reported by a spokesperson for the protocol to Cointelegraph. This figure represents over a 13% increase from the first quarter of 2024, driven largely by a surge in transactions, which rose from approximately 1.8 million to around 5.5 million in Q1 2025.
Curiously, these strong trading volumes emerge during a period of overall decline in the cryptocurrency market, where the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has fallen by more than 20% year-to-date as of March 31. Data from CoinGecko confirms the challenging market conditions.
Curve’s total value locked (TVL) over time. Source: DefiLlama
Related: Curve Finance launches ‘Savings crvUSD’ yield-bearing stablecoin
Changing DeFi Landscape
Since its launch in 2020, Curve has actively adapted to the evolving decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape. Notably, in June 2024, the platform implemented crvUSD, its stablecoin, to facilitate fee distribution to tokenholders, replacing the older model that compensated holders with shares from the 3crv liquidity pool.
Additionally, in November, Curve formed a strategic partnership with Elixir, a blockchain network, aimed at onboarding BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, onto the DeFi space.
Looking ahead, Curve aims to consolidate its lending markets into a single user interface by the end of 2025 while providing borrowers with more time to close positions before liquidation occurs, reflecting the platform’s commitment to enhancing user experience.
Michael Egorov, Curve’s founder, anticipates that decentralized exchanges (DEXs) will evolve into tailored platforms for stablecoins linked to various currencies. He remarked, “Exchanges between stablecoins of different denominations like the euro, US dollar, and others are not yet properly solved. The question of how to provide liquidity without incurring losses while maximizing revenue remains open, but I believe it will be resolved soon.”
Despite the transaction surge, the total value locked (TVL) on Curve’s platform currently stands at approximately $1.8 billion as of April 2, a decline from the highs of roughly $2.5 billion at the start of the year. Furthermore, Curve’s native token, Curve DAO (CRV), boasts a market capitalization of around $640 million at present, reflecting a decline of more than 40% year-to-date.
Related: BTC miners adopted ‘treasury strategy,’ diversified business in 2024: Report
