The decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape faced a challenging month in August as exchange volume dipped 15.5% to settle at $52.8 billion — led primarily by a decline in some of the most dominant DeFi tokens, according to data from investment manager VanEck.

VanEck’s report also touched on global interest rates, especially in the U.S., and their pressure on stablecoins. August saw a 2% decline in the total market capitalization of stablecoins, which stood at $119.5 billion at the end of the month.

The firm associates this drop with rising interest rates in conventional finance, prompting investors to transition from stablecoins to money market funds, enticed by an approximate 5% risk-free yield.

DeFi dip

The figures in the report were taken from VanEck’s MarketVector Decentralized …