defi

According to The Block, Standard Chartered Bank has initiated coverage on Morpho for the first time, setting a target price of $60 for its native token MORPHO by the end of 2030, representing a potential increase of approximately 2787%.Geoff Kendrick, Head of Global Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, provided annual forecasts in the report: $3.5 in 2026, $11 in 2027, $22 in 2028, $40 in 2029, and reaching $60 in 2030.The report noted that Morpho is the second-largest decentralized lending protocol after Aave, with current deposits in Morpho Markets of approximately $5.5 billion and a scale of about $4.3 billion in Morpho Vaults. Analysts believe that as the total assets in DeFi are expected to grow 37 times by 2030, Morpho is likely to benefit from this.Standard Chartered previously predicted that by 2030, the upside potential for UNI is approximately 34 times, and for AAVE, it is about 38 times.

According to Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI), the Aave DAO commissioned service provider ACI has officially ceased operations today, marking the end of this community-led governance platform after more than three years of operation.Reflecting on this, Marc Zeller noted that ACI was established during a low point for DeFi, with Aave's TVL shrinking to a quarter of its peak, and the protocol losing about $35 million annually. During its tenure, ACI helped Aave turn around its operational status to an annual revenue of $150 million, drove the AAVE price up by 9 times, and established a mature DAO governance and service network.Marc stated that the end of ACI is not the end of the journey, and new project plans will be announced soon.

According to The Block, the Paradigm-supported protocol Symbiotic has officially launched Symbiotic Core V2, transforming from a restaking protocol into infrastructure aimed at the DeFi collateral market.Core V2 allows various applications such as insurance, credit, and RWA to share a single collateral pool, with each vault able to independently set risk parameters, asset types, positions, and loss conditions, enforced on-chain. Idle funds can be automatically routed to blue-chip lending protocols like Aave and Morpho to earn base yields, and can be called upon when performance is required.The first product based on Core V2, Liquid Lane, has been used for RWA instant settlement, supporting the early redemption of various tokenized assets for stablecoins; Nexus Mutual plans to use it as reinsurance capacity, while Cap is used to expand institutional credit guarantees.Symbiotic has previously completed approximately $29 million in Series A funding and $5.8 million in seed funding.

According to DeFiLlama data, the recent net inflow ranking of centralized exchanges is as follows:Top three in the 24-hour dimension: Bybit ($25.48 million), Bitfinex ($19.63 million), Bitget ($17.12 million).Top three in the 7-day dimension: Bitget ($743 million), OKX ($312 million), Bitfinex ($81.46 million).Top three in the 30-day dimension: Bitfinex ($472 million), Bitget ($397 million), Gate ($253 million).

According to RootData's financing data statistics, in June 2026, the crypto primary market disclosed a total of 42 financing and merger events, with a total financing amount of approximately $898 million, a month-on-month decrease of 60.5% and a year-on-year decrease of 67.3%. Additionally, there were 15 merger events, with a disclosed amount of approximately $305 million. Overall, funds continue to concentrate on infrastructure, DeFi, and CeFi, with institutional-level capital markets, on-chain credit, derivatives trading, and stablecoin payment/settlement becoming the main incremental directions.DeFi was the most active sector this month, completing 18 financing and merger events, with a disclosed amount of approximately $330 million. Morpho completed a $175 million financing, becoming the largest financing project in the DeFi sector this month; Fomo completed a $75 million Series B financing, indicating that on-chain trading and consumer-level entry points still have appeal.The infrastructure sector had a total of 13 events, with a disclosed amount of approximately $453 million, ranking first in terms of amount. Projects such as Digital Asset, Ornn, and Trace Finance received funding support around institutional-level capital markets, AI computing financialization, and stablecoin settlement infrastructure.CeFi completed a total of 12 events. Although there were not many non-merger financing events, mergers and institutional trading services performed outstandingly. SBI Holdings acquired the Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank for approximately $289 million, becoming the largest merger event this month; SignalPlus completed a $50 million Series B1 financing, and EDGE Markets completed a $29.2 million Series A financing, indicating that institutional-level trading, derivatives, and compliant financial services are still key areas for capital allocation.The top five projects this month totaled approximately $944 million, accounting for about 76% of the overall disclosed scale. The top three projects in terms of financing and merger amounts are: institutional-level blockchain infrastructure company [Digital Asset](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Digital Asset?k=MzYyMA== "Blockchain software and service provider") ($355 million), Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank ($289 million, merger), and on-chain credit protocol Morpho ($175 million).In terms of investment institutions, Coinbase Ventures, a16z, Pantera Capital, CoinFund, Paradigm, Animoca Brands, HashKey Capital, and others remain active, with top capital more inclined to bet on projects with clear institutional clients, compliance paths, and real use cases.

According to the latest weekly report from Gate Ventures, market risk appetite has further cooled, leading to an overall correction in the cryptocurrency market. BTC fell 6.4% over the week, ETH fell 7.9%, and the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies declined by 5.4%, with the Fear and Greed Index dropping into the "Extreme Fear" range.In terms of capital flow, the spot BTC ETF saw a net outflow of $1.79 billion in a single week, setting a record for the largest single-week net outflow in history, and has recorded outflows for seven consecutive weeks; the spot ETH ETF experienced a net outflow of $273.3 million during the same period, putting continued pressure on market liquidity. Meanwhile, STRC under Strategy has traded below par value for the sixth consecutive week, with the market continuing to focus on its dividend rate adjustments and capital operation progress.In terms of industry development, RWA applications and blockchain infrastructure construction are continuing to advance. Enso launched an RWA application supporting the trading of over 500 tokenized assets, further promoting the development of the tokenized asset trading ecosystem; the SEC and CFTC are coordinating to publicly solicit market opinions on the portfolio margin system, continuously improving market infrastructure.In terms of investment and financing, a total of 18 financing deals were completed last week, with a disclosed total financing amount of $210.3 million. Among them, the DeFi sector had the highest financing scale, raising a total of $114 million, indicating that market funds continue to focus on on-chain financial innovation and infrastructure construction.

According to DefiLlama data, the total locked value (TVL) of DeFi across the network once fell below 70 billion USD, setting a new low since February 2024. Currently, the total TVL across the network is approximately 70.129 billion USD.From the peak of about 171 billion USD in October 2025, DeFi TVL has cumulatively decreased by about 60%. In the past 7 days, the total market value of stablecoins has slightly decreased by 0.97%, while DEX spot trading volume has increased by 8.21% compared to the previous week.

DefiLlama data shows that in the past week, the income returned to token holders from DeFi protocols was mainly concentrated in a few projects, with the top ten protocols accounting for over 80% in total.Among them, Hyperliquid ranked first with approximately $12.3 million, accounting for about 43.9%; Pump ranked second with about $3.5 million, accounting for about 12.6%; protocols such as Aerodrome, Uniswap, and Chainlink also made it to the top. Holders Revenue refers to the value returned to token holders through methods such as token buybacks, burns, or distributions to stakers.

According to data from CryptoRank.io, the total TVL of global liquid staking protocols fell to $33.4 billion in the second quarter of 2026, a decrease of 56.1% from the historical high of $76 billion in the third quarter of 2025, marking three consecutive quarters of decline.Specifically, the fourth quarter of 2025 was $61.4 billion, the first quarter of 2026 was $45.2 billion, and the second quarter further dropped to $33.4 billion. The liquid staking sector continues to face pressure, reflecting that the overall DeFi ecosystem is still in a weak cycle.

The Sui ecosystem lending protocol Suilend officially announced that the DeFi development team Bluewater Labs will acquire Suilend and its ecological products SpringSui and STEAMM (AMM), and will take over its subsequent development and operational work. In addition, Bluefin co-founder Zabi will serve as the new CEO of Suilend.The announcement stated that after the acquisition is completed, Suilend will continue to operate as an independent platform, retaining its own brand, product direction, and underlying infrastructure. During the transition period, the team will adopt a security-first strategy, and users will not need to take any action; all current protocol functions such as deposits, lending, staking, and trading will continue to operate as usual.

The founder of DefiLlama, 0xngmi, announced the launch of a new off-chain proof/verification service, which will be used to verify and audit off-chain data, including information such as bank account balances, to help projects achieve reliable verification of real-world assets and other off-chain data.

CryptoRank's latest report shows that the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi has declined for six consecutive months, dropping from approximately $115 billion in January 2026 to about $70 billion currently, with a cumulative decline of 39% this year, reflecting the ongoing adjustment following the peak of the crypto market in 2025.Data indicates that since 2026, there have been 121 security incidents in the DeFi sector, resulting in total losses of approximately $942 million. Among these, 85 attack incidents occurred in the second quarter, with losses of about $775 million, making it one of the most frequently attacked quarters on record. The attacks on Drift Protocol ($295 million) and KelpDAO ($293 million) in April accounted for more than half of the annual losses.Among the top ten public chains by TVL, only TRON and Hyperliquid achieved positive growth. Specifically, TRON's TVL increased by about 5% this year, mainly supported by USDT transfers, stablecoin settlements, and lending demand; Hyperliquid grew by approximately 6.7%, benefiting from its leading position in the on-chain perpetual contract market and the expansion of the HyperEVM ecosystem.However, the report points out that this round of the DeFi downturn is significantly milder than the cycle from 2021 to 2022. During that year, DeFi TVL plummeted by over 70% within seven months, whereas current funds are increasingly flowing into stablecoins, RWA, derivatives, and infrastructure sectors, indicating a more diversified and mature market structure compared to the previous cycle.

Standard Chartered stated that Aave could rise 50 times to $3,500 by 2030. The bank expects that as DeFi assets grow 37 times and tokenized finance goes on-chain, Aave will benefit.

Castle Labs released an RWA industry report stating that the on-chain tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has reached $28.2 billion, an increase of about 500% compared to early 2025, with a peak of $31.8 billion.Currently, tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds and money market funds remain the largest category, with a scale of about $17 billion, accounting for nearly 60% of the entire RWA market, among which BlackRock BUIDL and Hashnote USYC have both surpassed $3 billion in scale. The report also points out that tokenized stocks have become one of the fastest-growing RWA sub-sectors, growing over 170% this year, significantly higher than the approximately 60% growth rate of tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds.Castle Labs believes that the expansion of stablecoins, the entry of institutional funds, and the advancement of regulatory frameworks such as CLARITY and MiCA are driving the continuous on-chain migration of traditional financial assets. However, the current industry's biggest bottleneck has shifted from asset issuance to redemption mechanisms and DeFi composability. Currently, of the approximately $28.2 billion in on-chain RWA, only about $3 billion has entered DeFi, with a penetration rate of about 10%.