Every month, we dive deep into the State of DeFi. As the sector continues to evolve, we’re bringing the biggest updates to you in one place.
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DeFi Stats We’re Watching
Total value locked in DeFi: $75.18 (+1.8%)
Monthly DEX volume: $167.80B (-4.76%)
Monthly perp volume: $477.76B (-20.92%)
Lido: $17.81B (+8.53%)
Aave: $14.71B (+7.97%)
Morpho: $7.89B (+10.97%)
Hyperliquid: Inflow: $10.2B / Outflow: $6.8B / Netflow: $3.4B
Base: Inflow: $1.4B / Outflow: $1.0B / Netflow: $352.9M
Robinhood Chain: Inflow: $309.0M / Outflow: $26.7M / Netflow: $282.3M
Solana: $99.4M
Ethereum: $43.7M
Hyperliquid: $35.0M
The metrics are accurate at the time of publication. The percentage change is over a 30-day period.
Noteworthy DeFi Developments
Lido introduced its Curated Model V2 upgrade with the goal of consolidating its validator set into the new 0x02 validator type introduced in Ethereum’s recent Pectra upgrade. Let’s break it down. Historically, Ethereum validators were required to hold 32 ETH, worth over $60,000 today, as staked collateral. However, 0x02 validators are able to stake a massive amount more: up to 2,048 ETH, which increases a validator’s voting power and likelihood of producing new blocks. The goal is to reduce the amount of validators, which in turn reduces the amount of network congestion needed to send messages between nodes.
Uniswap turned on its fee switch for its latest v4, resulting in an increase in protocol revenue and a jump in the price of the UNI token. The switch occurred a few days after Uniswap introduced Permissioned Pools, a feature built on top of v4 that allows for the trading of regulated RWA’s with a user verification process.
Aave introduced a proposal to deprecate operations on 6 “low usage” chains including Sonic, Scroll, ZKsync, Metis, Soneium and Aptos. If implemented, the proposal would affect roughly $98.1 million in combined TVL.
A DeFi App We Tried in August: Collector Crypt (CARDS)
What it does: Collector Crypt is a Solana based platform that tokenizes trading cards. All the cards offered on the platform have been professionally graded by established, trusted grading companies like PSA, BGS, or CGC.
Once graded, physical cards are shipped into an insured, climate-controlled vault storage run by its custody partners. Collector Crypt then mints corresponding NFTs on Solana, which represents ownership and can be bought, sold, or swapped on the platform.
Collector Crypt also offers the ability to buy “packs,” or groups of randomly chosen cards which users can decide to hold, sell, or redeem for the physical card. The platform has a token, CARDS, which provides liquidity for gacha packs and marketplace trades.
Our thoughts: Using Collector Crypt feels like using OpenSea or Rarible, just with Pokemon-like cards instead of CryptoPunks. The main landing page displays a seemingly endless list of trading cards ranging from holographic Charizard, to old-school Michael Jordan pieces. Clicking on an item brings up details such as an enhanced image, the owner, the price, and the card's transaction history. You are given an option to buy the card outright or participate in an auction.
Overall, the interface is sleek and easy to navigate, however, what the platform demonstrates is arguably more important.
High quality trading cards are an example of a traditionally illiquid market, where value is locked away in the physical card and collectors need to find a buyer, agree on a price, and deliver the card in order to release that value. By tokenizing the card, Collector Crypt can connect sellers to a much wider transparent marketplace, and give holders the ability to use their cards as an asset or leverage, instead of simply a collectible. The platform also reduces the need to ship physical cards with every transaction as the ownership NFT can be sent to any wallet, and redeemed for the physical card at the request of the holder.
Stats on the project:
Data as of August 6, 2026
$CARDS market cap: $323.3M
Annualized platform revenue: $77.0M
30-day DEX volume: $149.62M
Disclaimer: This section reflects our analysts’ subjective impressions from testing apps and differs from our otherwise fact-driven content. Opinions are based on our evaluation; readers should conduct their own research.
More DeFi Updates
Aave v4 went live on Avalanche with the goal of creating a lending and borrowing market for tokenized assets.
Token Relations partners with Forgd to put its Market Maker performance data in front of investors, check it out here
Morpho launched Midnight, a fixed-rate, fixed-term lending protocol, on Base.
Maple Finance launched syrupUSDG on Robinhood chain. The asset is structured similarly to Maple’s other offerings, like syrupUSDT and syrupUSDC, giving exposure to Maple’s lending market and providing liquidity for institutions to borrow from.
Uniswap partnered with Morpho to launch Earn, a product that lets Uniswap app users earn yield on their USDC, USDT, and ETH.
Jupiter released an upgrade to their spot trading feature called Spot V2. The new interface provides traders with recent news, sentiment analysis, whale activity, and other information to help them in making trading decisions.
Ether.fi removed re-staking rewards from its weETH token. Previously, the liquid staking token would give exposure to both staking and re-staking rewards, increasing yield for holders as well as risk by doubling the ways a user can be penalised. Now, weETH provides yield for Ether.fi’s liquid staking alone, while a second token, weETHs, provides exposure to Ether.fi’s re-staking activity.
Accountable, an onchain verification company, announced a new lending arrangement which extends a credit line between K3 Capital and Galaxy, via Monad.
Debates over EIP-8363 continued to heat up as Aave’s CEO, Stani Kulechov, and EtherFi’s CEO, Mike Silagadze, opposed the upgrade. The Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP), would start burning validator rewards as the total staking ration rises.
DeFi word of the month: Rehypothecation
Definition: When a platform reuses the collateral that a user deposited to back additional loans or its own positions, putting the same assets to work more than once.
Used in a sentence: The lending protocol boosted yields by rehypothecating user deposits across several markets.
This is the State of DeFi. August Edition.
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This information is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research.
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