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Messari Monthly

Messari Monthly: September 2025

Chris Davis, Sam Ruskin, AJC, Patryk Krasnicki, Jake Koch-Gallup, Dylan BaneSep 5, 2025 ⋅ 15 min read

Key Insights

  • Virtuals’ daily fees jumped 597% in August, from $33,000 to $230,000, even as its market cap fell 10%, signaling a break in correlation between price and fundamentals. This divergence was partly driven by newer agents like Mamo, ArAIstotle, and 1000xAgent.
  • Onchain Gacha marketplaces have reached product-market fit, processing $124.5 million in volume in August and positioning tokenized trading cards as a leading use case for exotic RWAs. Their growth highlights how tokenization can repackage collector experiences with instant liquidity and global access.
  • Kinetiq markets on Pendle (kHYPE and vkHYPE) have attracted $805.9 million in TVL. With 49.3% of kHYPE's supply deployed on Pendle, Kinetiq makes up 90.4% of Pendle's TVL on Hyperliquid and 7.4% of Pendle’s total TVL.
  • By late August 2025, ETH-focused digital asset treasuries (DATs) like BTCS, SBET, ETHZ, and BMNR all fell below their ETH-backed net asset value (NAV), signaling a structural repricing rather than a temporary arbitrage opportunity.
  • Unit surpassed $1 billion in TVL after growing 1,529% since February, fueled by additional asset integrations and a whale-driven $3.2 billion BTC/ETH volume day that outpaced Coinbase and Bybit. This demonstrates Hyperliquid’s growing competitiveness with top centralized exchanges in both perpetuals and spot markets.

This monthly report showcases 5 distinct perspectives from the Enterprise team for September. Each section features a unique chart or graphic, accompanied by in-depth analysis that contextualizes the data and examines its broader implications for the crypto industry.

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Chris Davis
capradavis

Prior to joining Messari, Chris was the Growth Lead at a Paradigm and a16z-backed gaming startup called LootRush. His primary focus is Consumer Products, Music x Crypto, Gaming, Digital Art, and market buying local tops.

Sam Ruskin
0xCryptoSam

Sam was previously a product manager at ether.fi, as well as LifeMed AI. He graduated from Ohio State University, where he founded the Ohio State Blockchain Club. He is now an Enterprise Research Analyst at Messari focused on finding the next best applications and protocols in internet finance.

AJC
AvgJoesCrypto

AJC is a Research Manager at Messari for the Enterprise team. His primary focuses are on Bitcoin and Consumer. Prior to joining Messari, AJC wrote an independent crypto blog.

Patryk Krasnicki
Solofunk

During his 3.5-year tenure at Messari, Patryk contributed across Messari's Diligence, Protocol, and Enterprise research teams. As Research Manager, his primary focus was on Layer-1 and Layer-2 infrastructure and the DeFi ecosystems atop them.

Mentioned Assets
Outline
  • Key Insights
  • Virtuals: Quietly Emerging from the Trough
  • Pokémon TCG & Exotic RWAs: A New Opportunity for Crypto
  • Hyperliquid Staking Goes Kinetiq on Pendle
  • The Arbitrage Trap: Why ETH DATs Trade Below NAV
  • Hyperliquid’s Unit surpasses $1B TVL as spot market briefly surpasses CEX volumes
Authors
Chris Davis
Prior to joining Messari, Chris was the Growth Lead at a Paradigm and a16z-backed gaming startup called LootRush. His primary focus is Consumer Products, Music x Crypto, Gaming, Digital Art, and market buying local tops.
Sam Ruskin
Sam was previously a product manager at ether.fi, as well as LifeMed AI. He graduated from Ohio State University, where he founded the Ohio State Blockchain Club. He is now an Enterprise Research Analyst at Messari focused on finding the next best applications and protocols in internet finance.
AJC
AJC is a Research Manager at Messari for the Enterprise team. His primary focuses are on Bitcoin and Consumer. Prior to joining Messari, AJC wrote an independent crypto blog.
Patryk Krasnicki
During his 3.5-year tenure at Messari, Patryk contributed across Messari's Diligence, Protocol, and Enterprise research teams. As Research Manager, his primary focus was on Layer-1 and Layer-2 infrastructure and the DeFi ecosystems atop them.
Mentioned Assets