Cody McGrath 
DeFi token broke out of a two-week bearish price dominance to trade in the green, as the top 100 tokens registered double-digit gains over the past week
The number of unique active wallets increased by 3.7% on a daily average in August compared to May, providing some hope for the future of decentralized applications, or DApps.
With little over a week till the Merge, SEBA Bank has started offering institutional Ethereum staking services.
On the other hand, layer-2 scalability options anticipate a large reduction in carbon emissions following the Merge.
Two DeFi protocols were the targets of concerted flash loan assaults over the previous week.
A user was able to gain $371,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC) on Wednesday thanks to a cunning attack that targeted Nereus Finance, an Avalanche-based lending platform.
The very next day, on Thursday, another similar flash loan assault cost New Free DAO, a project focusing on non-fungible tokens (NFT), around $1.25 million.
After nearly two weeks of overwhelmingly adverse price behavior, the top-100 DeFi coins by market cap had a week of positive price movement.
The majority of the tokens had double-digit gains, and Luna Classic (LUNC), formerly known as Terra (LUNA), entered the top 30 with gains of more than 100% during the previous seven days.
DApp activity increased 3.7% in August: Report
According to a report from DappRadar, DApps have shown a minor recovery for the first time since May, with the daily average of unique active wallets (UAWs) climbing 3.7% on a month-over-month basis.
The Flow protocol, which increased by 577% UAW as a result of Instagram’s backing for its NFTs and the game Solitaire Blitz, was a contributing factor in the increase.
However, compared to the prior month, Solana UAW declined by 53% in August, while sales fell by 68%, the data said.
Institutions will be able to use SEBA Bank’s staking services for Ethereum
A digital asset platform launched a solution enabling institutions to engage in Ether (ETH) staking as the Ethereum network transitions from proof-of-work (PoW) consensus to proof-of-stake (PoS).
SEBA Bank, a Swiss digital asset banking platform, announced the debut of an Ethereum staking service for organizations looking to profit from staking on the Ethereum network in a press release given to Cointelegraph.
The company claims that the action is a reaction to the expanding institutional demand for DeFi services.
Degens obtaining fork tokens by borrowing ETH causes issues for DeFi systems
DeFi protocols have been plagued by the rising number of speculators taking out Ether loans to increase their chances of earning forked Ether proof-of-work tokens (ETHPoW).
Since a large number of Ether miners are anticipated to continue working on a forked PoW chain or possibly even multiple chains after the eagerly anticipated Merge, the issue has gained traction over the past month or so.
Avalanche flash loan exploit results in the theft of $371K in USDC
Nereus Finance, an avalanche-based lending protocol, was the target of a cunning hack that saw a user profit $371,000 in USD Coin by using a smart contract exploit.
One of the first companies to identify the exploit on Tuesday was the blockchain cybersecurity company CertiK, which revealed that the attack affected Nereus liquidity pools for automated market maker Curve Finance and decentralized exchange (DEX) Trader Joe.
Protocol token for DeFi 99% of NFD is destroyed following a flash loan attack
A DeFi protocol called New Free DAO was subjected to a number of flash loan attacks on Thursday, which cost a reported $1.25 million. In the wake of the attack, the native token’s price decreased by 99%.
Several DeFi protocols provide flash loans, which let users borrow sizable amounts of assets without making upfront collateral deposits, unlike regular loans.
The only requirement is that the loan must be repaid in one transaction within a predetermined timeframe.
However, bad adversaries frequently take use of this capability to amass significant resources in order to carry out expensive attacks against DeFi protocols.
Market overview for DeFi
According to analytical data, DeFi’s total locked value only slightly changed from the previous week. Approximately $61.02 billion was the TVL value at the time of publication.
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, the bulk of DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization saw double-digit gains last week, while a small number of tokens continued to trade in the red.
With a 101% increase over the previous 7 days, LUNC led all gainers on a weekly basis. Chainlink (LINK) came in second with gains of 14.8%. On the weekly charts, Compound (COMP) increased by 7.71%, while PancakeSwap (CAKE) had a rise of 6.24%.