A new era for measuring and rewarding liquidity in the cryptocurrency market is emerging, thanks to Turtle’s innovative Liquidity Leaderboard. Launched in 2025, this framework is designed to track and reward one of the most critical assets in digital finance—onchain liquidity—at a time when market depth is diminishing across digital assets.
The Turtle Liquidity Leaderboard ranks participants based on verified deposits, user distribution, and engagement multipliers, creating a standardized scoreboard for both protocols and liquidity providers. This initiative comes in response to a report from Kaiko, which indicated that liquidity for the top 50 altcoins by market depth had decreased by approximately 30% in the first quarter of 2025. This decline is attributed to diminishing market-making incentives and a concentration of liquidity in fewer assets.
Turtle’s leaderboard redefines how capital allocation is monitored and rewarded among protocols competing for sustainable liquidity. It employs three distinct categories to assess participants: the Liquidity Score, which accounts for time-weighted deposits into supported partners; the Distribution Score, which measures liquidity sourced from user referrals; and Boosts, which apply multipliers for verified identity and activity. Unlike traditional points programs or engagement metrics that can be easily manipulated, Turtle’s framework is anchored in capital that is verifiable and substantive.
“Liquidity has been overlooked in favor of vanity metrics, and our goal is to make it the most significant signal,”
stated Turtle’s CEO, Essi.
The launch builds upon Turtle’s previous successes. Since 2024, the company has facilitated liquidity for ecosystem launches, managing over $4 billion in deposits across more than 300,000 wallets. During the recent Arbitrum TAC “Summoning” event, Turtle vaults attracted impressive liquidity, garnering more than $100 million in the first week, escalating to approximately $790 million by the mainnet launch, with notable participation from Curve founder Michael Egorov.
Turtle’s growing influence was further validated in May 2025 when it secured a $6.2 million seed round, led by THEIA and supported by notable investors such as Susquehanna International Group and ConsenSys. Additionally, Turtle has ventured into cross-domain leaderboards, launching on Kaito’s Yapper attention leaderboard, which ranks participants based on engagement. The liquidity leaderboard expands this concept to capital flows, aligning protocols and allocators by measuring verified commitments rather than mere impressions.
As described by Chief Technology Officer Nick Thoma, the initiative aims to merge liquidity with distribution and social incentives, providing protocols with enduring capital. Comparable systems have garnered market interest, with incentive platforms like Royco amassing nearly $3 billion in total value locked through innovative design that channels capital across protocols. Furthermore, established models such as bribe and ve-token mechanisms on Curve and Velodrome continue to shape liquidity allocation strategies.
By creating a transparent and composable scoreboard, Turtle aspires to offer a competitive edge that allows protocols to white-label the system for their individual launches. Future iterations of the leaderboard may include protocol-specific rankings and enhanced SocialFi integrations, fostering a blend of cultural engagement and financial contribution.
The framework is set to evolve in the coming months, transitioning into a white-label component that allows protocols to embed it directly into their campaigns. This will consolidate time-weighted deposits, referral flows, and verified user signals into a singular metric of market commitment.
As the crypto landscape continues to evolve, Turtle’s Liquidity Leaderboard represents a pivotal shift, prioritizing genuine liquidity over superficial metrics. This approach not only enhances visibility for liquidity providers but also facilitates more efficient capital distribution for protocols in an increasingly competitive market.
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