What's Driving Token Prices? November 19, 2025

AAVE (-19%) - On Monday, Aave, the largest DeFi money market project, officially launched a DeFi savings app aimed at retail users. The app offers users up to 9% annual percentage yield (APY) and insurance on deposits up to $1 million. These features are unprecedented in the DeFi space and even surpass traditional bank products (for comparison, FDIC insurance only covers up to $250,000 per account). While the app is available for download, users can currently only sign up for the waitlist and verify their identities. Other features, such as bank connections and debit card onboarding, are not yet operational. Additionally, Aave has not disclosed details about the insurance sources or the app's yield. The app's launch is not unexpected, especially since Aave acquired the stablecoin yield app Stable Finance last month. As it stands, Aave manages approximately $55 billion in total value locked (TVL), but this figure could significantly increase if the new app gains traction among non-crypto users. Finally, Aave launched the testnet for its v4 upgrade today which promises to offer “unified liquidity” across its app deployed on multiple chains.
POL (-17%) - This week, Mastercard announced a partnership with Layer-2 protocol Polygon to facilitate asset transfers between self-custody wallets. This initiative is part of the Mastercard Crypto Credential project, which aims to standardize the way public wallet addresses are linked to verified individuals and their usernames. Several other fintech applications, including Venmo and PayPal, utilize a similar approach. Mastercard's goal is to restore users' trust and confidence when conducting blockchain transactions. All transactions will be processed on Polygon’s network.
1INCH (-12%) - This week, decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch announced the launch of its newest product, Aqua. Aqua is a liquidity protocol that allows users to utilize their tokens across multiple applications without those tokens leaving their wallets. The goal is to enable users to loan out their tokens while still voting with them simultaneously. Currently, Aqua is available for developers to test and start implementing, with a full rollout planned for 2026.
ZK (-4.6%) - The Layer-2 protocol zkSync, which utilizes zero-knowledge proofs, is currently holding a vote to expand the use case of its ZK token. Previously, the ZK token was used solely for governance. However, a proposal put forward in early November encourages the community to vote on broadening its application to generate revenue from its various expanding business lines. Specifically, fees from on-chain interoperability and off-chain enterprise licensing would be allocated towards buying back ZK tokens. These buybacks would then be directed into staking, burns, or other ecosystem funding initiatives. The proposal is expected to pass with strong community support, but the final vote will take place on Friday.

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