- Bitcoin and AI tokens were beaten by Ethereum, which had a 46% monthly gain, beating all other major crypto sectors.
- ETH fee burns throughout the space topped at $22.4 million, with Uniswap and Metamask accounting for the majority of that.
- DeFi activity remains strong, growing in wallets, exchanges, and infrastructure apps.
Ethereum’s momentum remains bullish, as Ethereum still outperforms the rest of the crypto market in growth and activity. A report published by Phoenix Group reveals that Ethereum-based DeFi applications are burning record amounts of ETH, showing rising on-chain usage. During the past 30 days, the total fee burn hit 8,950 ETH or about $22.4 million.
TOP #ETHEREUM BURNER #DEFI PROJECTS IN THE LAST MONTH#Uniswap $UNI #Metamask #Gnosis $GNO #1INCH #Aave $AAVE #Pendle $SXT #KyberSwap $LON $PSP pic.twitter.com/QBwtjIRuXF
— PHOENIX – Crypto News & Analytics (@pnxgrp) June 1, 2025
Uniswap, Metamask, Gnosis Lead ETH Destruction
Uniswap dominated all DeFi protocols with 308.4 ETH burned in the past month, translating to over $771,000 in dollar value. Metamask came next and burned 164.9 ETH, valued at $412,300. In third place was Gnosis, burning 126.1 ETH (or $315,300).
Among the other major contributors were 1inch (101.9 ETH), Aave (52.8 ETH), and Pendle (47.9 ETH), each valued between $119,800 and $254,800. Fee burns for smaller platforms like ParaSwap and Tokenlon, while small, were still measurable and reflected greater user participation across DeFi.
Ethereum’s leadership in DeFi utility is bolstered by data taken from Ultrasound Money and visualized by Phoenix Group. With the correlation of higher burn rates with elevated user engagement, ETH’s supply is constricting faster than demand is growing.
Ether Outpaces Bitcoin, DeFi, and AI Tokens
According to Merlin The Trader on X, Ethereum soared by 46% in 30 days, beating Bitcoin, DeFi tokens, artificial intelligence tokens, and meme coins. Ether has been up 42% from the start of the month.
The $ETH ecosystem is leading the market.
46% monthly gains.
42% MTD performance.
Outperforming Bitcoin, DeFi, AI, and Memecoins.The crowd sleeps.
Smart money rotates. pic.twitter.com/jwKkucK2aa— Merlijn The Trader (@MerlijnTrader) May 31, 2025
Bitcoin rose by only 11.7% in the same timeframe, and its market cap is $2.2 trillion, fully diluted. While AI and meme tokens gained 14% and 8.2% respectively, DeFi tokens rose 13.5%.
Ethereum, with a market cap of $316 billion, had performed month on month better than all. However, the smart contract sector increased by only 8.1%, showing that Ethereum’s gains are not solely influenced by wider category movement but by real network utility and value capture.
The growing ETH burn also shows the reality that the community is more than just speculative interest, it is real on-chain interaction. With more decentralized apps gaining traction with users, the Ethereum fee structure inherently removes ETH from the cash flow, tied to EIP-1559. The lower supply supports price appreciation in times of high activity. This news comes as the Ethereum Foundation (EF) recently borrowed $2 million in GHO stablecoins by placing wETHs as collateral in the Aave protocol.
Uniswap continues to dominate as the top DEX by volume with its lead in burn rate. The addition of protocols such as Pendle and Space and Time demonstrates the growing adoption of newer platforms, while the presence of the retail wallet, Metamask, suggests mainstream retail wallet usage.
