Curve Finance, a decentralized lending protocol and exchange, notched record-breaking trading volumes of nearly $35 billion in the first quarter of 2025, a spokesperson for the protocol told Cointelegraph. 

Trading volumes increased more than 13% from the first quarter of 2024, largely due to a surge in transactions, from around 1.8 million to some 5.5 million in Q1 2025, Curve said. 

The strong Q1 volumes come amid overall declines in the cryptocurrency market, with the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies dropping by more than 20% in the year-to-date as of March 31, according to data from CoinGecko.

Curve’s total value locked (TVL) over time. Source: DefiLlama

Related: Curve Finance launches ‘Savings crvUSD’ yield-bearing stablecoin

Changing DeFi Landscape

Launched in 2020, Curve has taken numerous steps in the past year to keep pace with the changing decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape.

In June 2024, Curve adopted crvUSD, its stablecoin, for fee distribution to tokenholders, replacing an older model that paid holders in shares of the 3crv liquidity pool.

In November, Curve partnered with Elixir, a blockchain network, to help onboard BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, to DeFi. 

By the end of 2025, Curve plans to consolidate its lending markets into a single user interface and provide borrowers with more time to close positions before they are liquidated, it told Cointelegraph. 

Curve founder Michael Egorov said in March that he expects many decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to evolve into bespoke platforms for stablecoins pegged to various currency denominations. 

“Exchanges between stablecoins of different denominations like the euro, US dollar, and others are not yet properly solved. How to provide liquidity without losing money, but while earning a lot of money, is kind of an open question that I think will be solved soon,” Egorov said.

Despite the rise in transactions, the total value locked (TVL) on Curve’s platform is approximately $1.8 billion as of April 2, according to data from DefILlama, down from highs of roughly $2.5 billion at the start of the year.

Curve’s native token, Curve DAO (CRV), has a market capitalization of approximately $640 million at this writing, marking a more than 40% decline in the year-to-date, according to data from Cointelegraph.

Related: BTC miners adopted ‘treasury strategy,’ diversified business in 2024: Report