The decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem has seen a decline in on-chain economic activity in August, according to an analysis from investment manager firm VanEck. Exchange volume dropped to $52.8 billion, 15.5% lower than in July.The findings are based on VanEck’s MarketVector Decentralized Finance Leaders Index (MVDFLE), which tracks the performance of the largest and most liquid tokens on DeFi protocols, including Unisawp UNI, Lido DAO LDO, Maker MKR, Aave AAVE, THORchain RUNE, and Curve DAO (CRV).The DeFi Index underperformed Bitcoin and Ether in August, falling 21% in the month, notes the report. The results were exacerbated by UNI token negative performance of 33.5%, as investors sold off tokens to capture gains from July.Another key metric for the ecosystem, the total value locked (TVL) declined 8% in August, from $40.8 billion to $37.5 billion, slightly outperforming Ethereum’s 10% slump in the month.Even though DeFi tokens had poor performance in August, the ecosystem witnessed positive developments throughout the month, such as Uniswap Labs’ dismissal of a class action lawsuit, and Maker and Curve’s stablecoin growth.Curve Finance’s stablecoin crvUSD saw a significant growth in August, achieving a new all-time high of $114 million borrowed. CrvUSD is pegged to the U.S. dollar and relies on a collateralized-debt-position (CDP) model.However, Curve Finance’s governance token, CRV, has not shown promising signs of recovery since the exploit, with its price falling 24% in August to $0.45.VanEck analysis notes that if crvUSD can continue to grow to the point that it offsets the drop in exchange revenue caused by decreasing DeFi volume, CRV price may see some relief.Additionally, VanEck pointed out that current levels of global interest rates, in particular in the United States, continue to put pressure on stablecoins. The aggregate market capitalization of stablecoins fell 2% in August to $119.5 billion.

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Information	Details
Geography	Global
Countries
Sentiment	neutral
Relevance Score	9
People	VanEck, Michael Egorov
Companies	VanEck, Maker, Curve Finance, Michael Egorov, Curve DAO, Uniswap Labs, THORchain, Lido DAO, Aave
Currencies	Maker, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Curve DAO, THORChain, Uniswap, Lido DAO, Aave
Securities	None