Peter Thiel-backed DeFi infrastructure startups are making notable advancements in 2025, addressing key challenges in the decentralized finance sector. Projects such as Plasma, Avantis, Bullish, and ETHZilla are focusing on scalability, liquidity, and real-world asset integration. Plasma, a Bitcoin-based stablecoin infrastructure, has secured $373 million in commitments and achieved over $2.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) at its launch. Avantis, a decentralized perpetual exchange on Base, raised $8 million in Series A funding and facilitated over $6.5 billion in trading volume by mid-2025. Meanwhile, Bullish, a crypto exchange also backed by Thiel, completed a $1.15 billion IPO, marking the first major stablecoin-settled crypto IPO on the Solana network. Additionally, ETHZilla, a Nasdaq-listed firm, deployed $100 million in Ethereum to EtherFi’s restaking protocol in September 2025, highlighting the growing institutional adoption of DeFi solutions.