DeFi TVL August 2026 Week 4: Coinbase Stocks on Base & Term Finance Hack
The DeFi market pushed higher during the fourth week of August, with total TVL rising to $88.8B after gaining 5.2% in seven days. Bitcoin approached $80,000 and Ethereum moved above $2,500 as the Fear & Greed Index held in Greed territory at 73, extending the recovery that began in the prior week.
A mix of product expansion and security stress shaped the week. Base launched Coinbase Tokenized Stocks with Portals as a day-one partner, bringing real US equities onchain with yield opportunities from the start. At the same time, Term Finance lost $8.5M in a governance exploit, and a 3% move in PT-reUSD triggered $36.4M in liquidations on Morpho.
This week's edition covers the Coinbase Tokenized Stocks launch on Base, the Term Finance exploit, and the Morpho liquidation cascade. We also track nine straight days of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF inflows and Ripple's RLUSD crossing $2B in market cap.
On the yield front, we have identified the top five positions on Portals Explorer, spanning Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, and BSC, with strategies across stablecoin staking, isolated lending, curated vaults, and real-world asset yield. Let's jump into the data for this week of August 2026.
Market Pulse
- Total Market Cap: $2.69T (+1.7% 7d)
- DeFi TVL: $88.8B (+5.2% 7d)
- BTC Price: $79,601 (+2.3% 7d)
- ETH Price: $2,505 (+4.6% 7d)
- Gas (ETH): ~0.10 Gwei
- Sentiment: Greed (73)
This week extended the recovery across DeFi, with TVL growth outpacing the broader market. The capital continues to rotate from passive holdings into active yield-bearing positions.
Ethereum remained the main driver of DeFi's expansion, supported by ETH's 4.6% weekly gain and continued strength in staking and lending protocols. Bitcoin's move toward $80,000 added further support to market sentiment.
Gas fees stayed exceptionally low at roughly 0.10 Gwei, keeping vault deployments, looping strategies, and cross-chain rebalancing inexpensive on mainnet.
The week-over-week performance shows that institutional flows and retail activity are both contributing to the current move, with ETF demand reinforcing the broader recovery.
Top Yields on Portals Explorer
This week, we highlight five yield opportunities currently tracked on Portals Explorer. These positions span Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, and BSC, offering exposure to stablecoin staking, isolated lending markets, curated vaults, and real-world asset yield.
1. USD AI Staked USDai (Arbitrum)
The USD AI Staked USDai position on Arbitrum is offering an 8.35% APY with $410.08M in TVL. This position provides direct exposure to the USD AI savings rate through staked USDai on Arbitrum.
The strategy offers a straightforward stablecoin yield profile with growing onchain liquidity.
Depositors face smart-contract risk and potential depeg exposure to the underlying USDAI stablecoin.
2. Morpho USDC / USDe (Base)
The Morpho USDC / USDe market on Base is offering a 3.74% APY with $330.52M in TVL. This isolated lending market allows users to supply USDC against Ethena's USDe synthetic dollar collateral.
The market operates at a 91.5% liquidation loan-to-value ratio, reflecting the fact that both sides of the trade are dollar-denominated. Supply is coming largely from curated USDC vaults allocating across Morpho Blue.
Depositors face counterparty risk tied to Ethena's delta-hedging model, along with Morpho smart-contract exposure.
3. NVDA SuperVault (Base)
The NVDA SuperVault on Base is offering a 36.78% APY with $102.85K in TVL. This Superform vault gives users onchain exposure to NVIDIA-linked assets through the Coinbase Tokenized Stocks launch on Base.
The position is part of the first wave of tokenized-stock yield strategies live on Portals Explorer, allowing users to combine equity exposure with onchain yield generation in a single position. The vault currently holds NVDAC as its reserve asset and has seen active deposit flow since launch.
Depositors face smart-contract risk, strategy risk from the vault's evolving onchain allocation, and market risk tied to NVIDIA-linked price exposure.
4. Morpho Clearstar Yield USDC (Base)
The Morpho Clearstar Yield USDC vault on Base is offering a 6.08% APY with $30.12M in TVL. This automated USDC lending vault is curated by Clearstar Labs and allocates across Morpho Blue markets on Base.
The vault leans into higher-yielding frontier collateral markets with automated reallocation and active onchain risk monitoring. The combined rate includes a 4.10% base APY and a 2.00% reward APY.
Depositors face curator allocation risk and exposure to newer collateral types that may be less battle-tested than blue-chip markets.
5. Morpho Sentora PRIME Main (Ethereum)
The Morpho Sentora PRIME Main vault on Ethereum is offering a 5.76% APY with $212.74M in TVL. This Morpho Vault V2 accepts PayPal USD and concentrates lending against PRIME, Hastra's staked wYLDS token.
The underlying yield comes from home equity line of credit lending to real estate borrowers rather than crypto market activity. The combined rate includes a 3.41% base APY and a 2.26% reward APY.
This position offers real-world asset yield with onchain vault transparency, while still carrying curator, smart-contract, and underlying credit risk.
Explore Tokenized Stocks on Base
Track, manage, and optimize your DeFi portfolio across major networks with Portals Explorer. Zap into the stocks and DeFi opportunities they power in one place.
Discover Base Tokenized Stocks on Portals
DeFi News
Term Finance Loses $8.5M in Governance Attack
DeFi lending protocol Term Finance lost roughly $8.5M on August 24 after an attacker seized control of its onchain governance system. The attacker self-approved a malicious proposal that reset the standard seven-day timelock to zero, allowing immediate execution of vault-draining transactions.
The exploit netted 2,841.74 WETH and 1,679,639 USDC, with the stablecoins quickly swapped for DAI to complicate tracing.
PT-reUSD 3% Drop Triggers $36.4M in Morpho Liquidations
A roughly 3% decline in PT-reUSD, a Pendle principal token tied to the reUSD stablecoin, triggered approximately $36.4M in liquidations on Morpho on August 25. One wallet's large purchase of YT-reUSD pushed the implied yield to 20%, driving PT-reUSD down just enough to cascade through leveraged loop positions.
Borrowers had repeatedly deposited PT-reUSD as collateral to borrow USDC and buy more PT-reUSD, leaving less than 3% headroom before liquidation. Pendle said the oracle worked as designed, and Steakhouse Financial reported no lender losses or bad debt.
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs Extend Inflow Streak to Nine Days
Spot Bitcoin ETFs added $242.3M on August 27, extending their inflow streak to nine consecutive trading days. Spot Ethereum ETFs matched the pace with $235M, also marking nine straight days.
August Bitcoin ETF inflows have topped $3B, making it the strongest month of 2026. Solana ETFs added $60.91M and Hyperliquid ETFs drew $24.42M on the same day, while total net assets across spot Bitcoin ETFs reached $79.16B.
Ripple's RLUSD Stablecoin Crosses $2B Market Cap
Ripple's dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD crossed $2B in market capitalization on August 25, less than two years after its December 2024 launch. Nearly $1B, or 46% of supply, now circulates natively on the XRP Ledger, with the remainder on Ethereum.
Monthly transfer volume exceeded $11.8B across 1.3M transactions. RLUSD now accounts for more than 90% of all stablecoin supply on the XRP Ledger.
The stablecoin is backed 1:1 by cash and equivalents with monthly Deloitte attestations under New York Department of Financial Services regulation.
Coinbase Tokenized Stocks Go Live on Base
Base launched Coinbase Tokenized Stocks on August 24, bringing real US company shares onchain as ERC-20 tokens backed 1:1 in regulated, bankruptcy-remote custody. NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, and Meta are among the first stocks available, tradeable 24/7 and composable with DeFi lending, collateral, and yield strategies.
The launch marks the first time tokenized equities can earn yield while held in a self-custodial wallet.
The rollout positions Base as a leading venue for tokenized equity experimentation and gives DeFi users a new category of collateral and yield-bearing positions.
Portals Updates
Coinbase Tokenized Stocks Are Live on Portals
Portals is a day-one launch partner for Coinbase Tokenized Stocks on Base, alongside Aave, Morpho, Euler, and Aerodrome. Real US company shares, issued by Coinbase and backed 1:1 in regulated custody, are now tradeable 24/7 onchain and can be deposited, lent, used as collateral, or routed into yield strategies.
The first Base stock positions are live on Portals Explorer, starting with NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, and Meta. Users can zap into any participating position with any token on any supported EVM chain in a single transaction. Launch partners include Tau Labs, IPOR Fusion, Beefy, Ample, and Superform.
A $10,000 raffle is running for users who zap into participating Base stock positions. The prize pool splits between 19 random winners and a volume leaderboard, with all incentives tracked on Merkl. Eligible to users outside the US only.
Explore Base tokenized stocks on Portals Explorer
Chain Performance Analysis
Ethereum extended its dominant position this week, with DeFi TVL climbing 5.34% to $49.64B. The chain continues to capture the majority of institutional capital and high-value activity, supported by ETH's 4.6% weekly gain and near-zero gas fees that keep complex strategies economically viable.
Solana posted the strongest percentage gain among major chains, surging 11.14% to $5.93B. The network benefited from renewed DeFi activity and the launch of State of Solana, a real-time intelligence platform from DeFi Development Corp that tracks network, staking, and validator metrics.
Base gained 4.63% to $5.49B, continuing its steady growth trajectory driven by Morpho lending markets, stablecoin deposits, and the arrival of Coinbase Tokenized Stocks. BSC added 2.52% to $5.54B, while Tron grew 1.98% to $5.23B in its role as a stablecoin settlement layer. Bitcoin's DeFi ecosystem climbed 4.19% to $4.15B, recovering from last week's contraction.
Top DeFi Protocols
Lido remains the largest protocol in DeFi, commanding $24.01B in TVL after a 4.72% weekly gain. The protocol's stETH liquid staking derivative continues to serve as foundational collateral across lending, restaking, and yield strategies throughout the ecosystem.
Aave V3 follows with $17.42B in TVL, gaining 3.34% over the week. The protocol crossed $30B in total deposits on August 22, according to founder Stani Kulechov, marking a 30% increase in Q3 as onchain liquidity rebounded.
SSV Network holds $12.47B, up 3.76%, reflecting continued growth in distributed validator technology adoption. Morpho Blue climbed to $9.58B with a 4.51% gain, despite the PT-reUSD liquidation event, showing continued confidence in its isolated lending architecture. Binance Staked ETH rose 4.68% to $9.27B, while EigenCloud gained 3.42% to $6.63B. Sky Lending slipped 2.02% to $5.62B, the only top-seven protocol to post a weekly decline.
Looking Ahead
Governance Security Takes Center Stage
The Term Finance exploit puts governance module security in the spotlight. Expect more protocols to implement hard-coded minimum timelocks that cannot be reduced by any single governance proposal.
Governance-focused audits will likely become a standard line item alongside core smart contract reviews. Depositors should check whether their protocols enforce timelock floors that governance itself cannot override.
Tokenized Equities Open a New DeFi Frontier
Coinbase Tokenized Stocks on Base represent the first time real US equities can earn yield in a self-custodial wallet. With roughly $127T in global equity value as the addressable market, the success of this launch could determine how quickly traditional assets migrate onchain.
Watch for TVL growth in Base stock positions and whether other chains follow with competing tokenized equity offerings.
Institutional Flows Show No Signs of Slowing
Nine consecutive days of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF inflows, combined with August's $3B monthly total, suggest institutional accumulation is structural rather than speculative. The CLARITY Act's expected Senate vote in September could provide further regulatory tailwinds.
Solana and Hyperliquid ETF inflows indicate institutions are beginning to diversify beyond the two largest assets.
Read last week's edition: DeFi TVL August 2026 Week 3: CLARITY Act Rally & Aave Concentration Risk
About portals.fi: Portals is the DeFi Super App. A one-click gateway to the entire onchain economy. Powered by real-time data and seamless execution, Portals connects traders to over 20 million assets, thousands of protocols, and every major blockchain.
Disclaimer: The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only. It is not investment advice. Please do your own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. DeFi investments carry significant risks, and past performance does not guarantee future results. More details here.
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