2025 in crypto, on one hand, didn’t become as frenzied as 2020-2021. On the other hand, it marked deep, sequential technology development, optimizations, and the emergence of new use cases in crypto. That’s why this year became a landmark for BRRR DAO. As a dynamic collective of researchers and developers in crypto, we set out to push the boundaries of Web3 and DeFi infrastructure. Over the past year, our team delivered cutting-edge research, launched a solver with plans to expand it across different protocols and ecosystems, and established integrations with a number of protocols and companies - all while staying true to our ethos of openness and innovation.
Cutting-Edge DeFi Research in 2025
One of BRRR DAO’s key objectives is advancing knowledge and technology in DeFi and crypto. Beyond applied development, in 2025 our research team published several in-depth works analyzing emerging protocols and technologies. This allowed us not only to better understand deep and non-obvious mechanisms in DeFi, but also to understand which direction technology development will take.
Unichain from Uniswap and TEE Technologies
We started the year with an analysis of Unichain - an optimistic rollup announced by Uniswap. The first article examined Flashbots’ Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) implementation in Unichain, along with potential bottlenecks. In the second part, we dove deeper into TEE usage problems in the crypto industry - fragmentation, security risks, barriers to decentralization - and the future of TEE in DeFi, using Unichain as a case study. These publications helped clarify not just how Unichain works, but also how fast, MEV-resistant trading functions through innovations like the TEE-oriented block builder and “Flashblocks.”
This resonates with our ideas about further BRRRolver development and DeFi technologies in general. The crypto world has shifted from churning out protocols and competing on marketing with impressive numbers of active wallets and volumes (not real value) to creating qualitatively new and specialized technologies. Unichain, despite its centralization, brings speed approaching Solana-like chains to the EVM world. TEE and Flashblocks centralization will likely transition to decentralized form over time through deTEE. And ultra-speed opens completely new use cases for EVM, including HFT, more efficient flash loans, Prop AMMs with more efficient pricing, native reduction of malicious MEV due to operational speed, and much more.
Chainlink SVR and Oracle MEV
The next important technology we focused on was Smart Value Recapture (SVR) from Chainlink - an advanced oracle mechanism designed to return MEV (specifically, Oracle Extractable Value) to protocols. In July 2025, we published a report on SVR. The first part detailed how Chainlink’s SVR optimizes liquidations in Aave and distributes MEV revenue, including its integration with the Aave lending platform. The second part compared SVR with other value extraction solutions through oracles like UMA Oval, API3 OEV, Pyth Fast Relay, and Redstone.
This research again underscored how important fine-tuned optimizations are versus simply increasing speed and reducing fees. Any economic system strives to find optimal solutions and reduce friction to improve capital efficiency. And SVR with similar solutions is a response to the need for faster reaction time to changing conditions (prices). This can be compared to the evolutionary development of living organisms: in an aggressive and dynamic environment, whoever reacts faster wins.
CoW Protocol
At second half of 2025, BRRR DAO released a four-part series research on CoW Protocol (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4), reflecting our deep dive into the world of decentralized trading solvers. The first part analyzed why CoW Protocol is attractive for solver developers, with a breakdown of financial flows and statistics. Subsequent materials examined solver auction mechanisms in detail, reward models (including changes after the CIP-67 update), and compared CoW’s RFQ intents with similar systems like 1inch Fusion and UniswapX. This extensive research provided an insider’s view of solver economics and CoW’s innovative batch auction model, filling a gap in public knowledge.
Notably, our team conducted this work not just as observers but as developers - at that time we were actively building our own solver for CoW Protocol and discovered that existing public materials were either outdated or incomplete.
By conducting and publishing this research, we increased transparency in the CoW system and laid the groundwork for launching our solver. And deep understanding of solver mechanics and the infrastructure around it establishes understanding of how DeFi will continue to develop in its pursuit of efficiency - and the foundation for further expansion.
Will this become obsolete with the emergence of Prop AMMs in EVM? Most likely, Prop AMMs in EVM will take a different form, and private price feeds may become their foundation for ensuring ultra-fast quote update speeds. And solvers are, one way or another, an important element for the fragmented EVM ecosystem - unlike the Solana monolith.
BRRRolver Launch: Our Solver for CoW Protocol
The culmination of our development work in 2025 was the creation and launch of BRRRolver - BRRR DAO’s own solver for CoW Protocol. In general terms, solvers are off-chain bots that find liquidity and execute user “intents” on CoW Swap, competing for the best outcome. The most widely used “intents” are swaps from one token to another. Building a high-performance solver requires deep expertise in MEV, auctions, and smart contract integration - exactly what our research throughout 2025 prepared us for.
After months of R&D and testing, BRRRolver launched on CoW Protocol in Q3 2025. On September 4, 2025, we announced the BRRRolver launch on CoW Swap, introducing a “research and optimization-oriented” solver ready to bring BRRR - Bring Real Rapid Returns - to the CoW ecosystem. Initially launched on the Base network, BRRRolver quickly proved its effectiveness. In its first month alone, it took 2nd place in transaction share on CoW Protocol’s Base deployment, processing approximately 18% of all trades and over $30 million in cumulative volume. As of publication, BRRRolver’s total volume exceeds $100m (considering how little time has passed since launch).
This success validated our solver strategy’s effectiveness and demonstrated the value of a research-driven approach: deep understanding of CoW mechanics and economics allowed us to optimize BRRRolver from day one for successful operation in the solver auction environment.
One indicator of the effectiveness of BRRRolver’s algorithms is that it has consistently ranked second in CoW Protocol awards for several weeks in a row, second only to Wintermute’s Rizzolver.
Flash Loans and Aave Integration
A major milestone in CoW Protocol’s evolution in 2025 - and therefore BRRRolver’s - was the integration of Aave flash loans into the CoW solver ecosystem. In December, CoW Protocol and Aave presented a joint solution enabling intent-oriented swaps using Aave flash loans: essentially, when an Aave user needs to swap assets, rebalance a position, or repay collateral, CoW solvers can optimally execute this operation. BRRR DAO proudly found itself at the forefront of this development, adapting BRRRolver for full utilization of Aave lending pools as a flash liquidity source.
With the Aave x CoW integration, our solver evolved from a pure order-matching engine into a “leverage activator.” Now BRRRolver (and other leading solvers) can not only match buy and sell orders but also execute complex trades using flash loans that were previously impossible. For users, this means more functional DeFi operations - for example, repaying an Aave loan and withdrawing collateral in a single transaction via a CoW intent, all with MEV protection.
From a technical standpoint, flash loan implementation required significant engineering effort. We reworked BRRRolver’s internal engine to support “virtual” funds obtained through borrowed liquidity and integrated CoW’s auction logic with the Aave lending protocol. CoW Protocol’s new Hooks feature played a key role here - it allows solvers to inject custom steps before and after trade settlement. This innovative combination of CoW intents and Aave flash loans clearly demonstrates DeFi’s composability and expands solver capabilities. It’s also an excellent illustration of how much “heavy lifting” happens behind the scenes to improve user experience and capital efficiency.
The era of systematic efficiency
For BRRR DAO, launching a solver and participating in the Aave integration became a major achievement. In fact, this is the culmination of our research (not all of which is published) and applied development. We worked closely with the core CoW team to improve BRRRolver’s stability and functionality, as well as align it with Aave flash loan flows from launch. This is a perfect example of how DeFi protocols and third-party developers (like BRRR DAO) jointly create synergistic value: CoW Protocol expands its presence in Aave, Aave users get optimal execution with MEV protection, and BRRRolver gains new opportunities for improving capital efficiency, competition, and earnings by facilitating complex transactions. BRRRolver also allows us to provide feedback to CoW and forecast further development strategy as optimizations are implemented in its algorithms and infrastructure.
Next, we plan to launch BRRRolver on Ethereum to capture even more market share and value. But BRRRolver is just the beginning. It’s one building block in an increasingly complex DeFi where finely calibrated efficiency is increasingly prioritized over brute force. DeFi isn’t a single highway but a complex cave system with many narrow passages (this also resembles the circulatory system from large vessels to small ones), where the main efficiency and yield are hidden. That’s why our goal in 2026 isn’t just developing solver-oriented technologies, but exploring and expanding into new DeFi passages where subtle, calibrated optimization matters more than drilling straight through.
BRRR DAO
Is a team of experienced Web3 enthusiasts with diverse expertise, committed to actively participating in the evolution of the blockchain industry. Deep in our vision: Introducing ₿RRR DAO: Frontier Founders.