Every month, we’re diving into the state of the overall DeFi sector: the biggest developments, changes and updates across the ecosystem. All in one place.
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DeFi Stats We’re Watching
Total value locked in DeFi: $71.82B $73.57B (+2.44%)
Monthly DEX volume: $6.43B (-1.08%)
Monthly perp volume: $19.64B (-17.82%)
Lido: $16.50B (+10.16%)
Aave: $13.70B (+10.33%)
Morpho: $7.11B (+5.57%)
Base: Inflow: $810.0M / Outflow: $234.7M / Netflow: $575.3M
Arbitrum: Inflow: $5.53B / Outflow: $4.99B / Netflow: $536.1M
OP Mainnet: Inflow: $156.1M / Outflow: $46.0M / Netflow: $110.1M
Hyperliquid: $1.64B
Base: $332.8M
OP Mainnet: $292.3M
The metrics are accurate at the time of publication. The percentage change is over a 30-day period.
Noteworthy DeFi Developments
Morpho has raised $175 million in a funding round led by Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Ribbit Capital. Morpho says it will use the new funding to deepen partnerships with financial institutions and to keep building the infrastructure needed for businesses to create their own "programmable credit products."
BonkDAO’s Treasury was drained of $20 million after an attacker quietly spent about $4 million over several days buying up BONK tokens through exchanges, and then submitted a proposal to drain money from the treasury. The proposal was passed with only seven wallets participating in the vote. The attack was possible due to a lack of a “quorum” requirement, which would have required a minimum number of wallets to vote on proposals. BonkDAO also had not implemented any requirements for a delay between the vote passing and the money moving, and did not have emergency backup controls.
Robinhood has launched its own public blockchain along with a wave of new products. Robinhood Chain supports lending and borrowing, while "Stock Tokens" provides tokenized versions of stocks that live on the Robinhood Chain.
A DeFi App We Tried in July: Matcha
What it does: Matcha is a DEX aggregator built by 0x. Instead of hosting its own liquidity, Matcha scans more than 130 liquidity sources across 16 networks, and routes each trade to the best available price, splitting orders across multiple venues to improve execution, if required.
On top of the core swap, it offers: limit orders; cross-chain swaps that bundle bridging and trading into one transaction; and an MEV-protected, gasless execution mode called Matcha Auto.
Our thoughts: Matcha offers a clean trading interface similar to other DEX offerings, but its real advantage lies in its support for cross-chain swaps. This greatly expands the app’s usability and makes trading across ecosystems extremely easy, effectively blending the functions of a bridge and a DEX.
Additionally, Matcha’s extensive integrations across multiple chains and liquidity sources helps the app feel like a one-stop shop for making almost any trade.
Matcha Auto also protects traders from MEV tactics by sending transactions through a private order flow auction. This prevents sandwiching and front-running attacks, and is especially useful for large trades, often the targets of MEV bots.
Overall, Matcha is one of the more complete multichain swap surfaces available for both individual and large traders, as it combines best-price routing, single-transaction cross-chain trades, MEV protection, and built-in token safety checks.
Stats on the project:
Data as of July 13, 2026
Average Daily Users: $2.6K
Annualized revenue: $4.32M
30-day DEX volume: $235.7M
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
JustLend launched Supply and Borrow Market V2, which changes how lending works on the platform by introducing isolated vaults and lending pools, and adding an adaptive interest rate system that automatically adjusts borrowing costs based on how much of the available funds are currently being borrowed. The JST token jumped around 3% on the heels of the announcement.
Maple and Kraken launched a fully onchain "warehouse facility". Under the system Maple's investors will supply cash that flows through the facility to fund Kraken's loans, and in return earn interest that's backed by real Bitcoin and Ethereum collateral.
VALR, Africa's largest crypto exchange, partnered with Hyperliquid to offer perpetual futures markets. According to Hyperliquid, this is the first time a centralized exchange has integrated its protocol to offer a perpetual futures product to its customers.
Gauntlet closed a $125 million Series C funding round, led by SBI Holdings.
Lido's DAO voted to add “dual governance”, a new safety mechanism that gives stakers (stETH holders) veto power over governance decisions. The proposal passed with a near-unanimous result, with about 53.6 million LDO tokens voting in favor, and only 20 thousand LDO voting opposed.
Mantle said its "Super Portal" (a system it built with the crypto exchange Bybit) is being migrated to Chainlink's CCIP from LayerZero. This move affects over $2.5 billion worth of value, and is part of the more than $7.2 billion in assets that have migrated from LayerZero to Chainlink since May 2026.
SIERRA, a DeFi rewards and incentives protocol, launched its third "points farming" market on Pendle. The launch follows the strong performance of SIERRA’s second points farming market, which saw liquidity more than double to $18 million, total value locked (TVL) double to $28 million, and became the ninth largest market on Pendle. The third market will be open from July 2 to August 6, 2026.
DeFi word of the month: Open Interest
Definition: The total value of derivative contracts, such as perpetual futures, that are currently open and have not yet been settled or closed.
Used in a sentence: Bitcoin's open interest climbed to a record high, signaling that more traders were opening leveraged positions and that a sharp move in either direction could trigger a wave of liquidations.
This is the State of DeFi. July 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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