Blockchain data reveals that Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a prominent venture capital firm, has sold a portion of its investment in MakerDAO's MKR governance tokens as the price of coins reached a near one-year high. The firm transferred $7 million of MKR from its crypto wallet to a new address, which then began depositing batches of tokens worth approximately $1.5 million per day to crypto exchange Coinbase. This move suggests that a16z intends to sell its tokens. Despite the sale, a16z still holds 1.3% of MKR's circulating supply, worth $14 million.

MakerDAO's native token MKR has experienced significant gains in July, with a rally extending its gains in 2021 to 122% from its low of $506.8 on January 1. On July 25, MKR spiked by over 12.5% to reach a daily high near $1,195 before correcting. The platform's recent announcement of a token buyback program and roadmap for updates, including plans to enter the AI sector and launch several internal AI tools, may have contributed to the token's rally. However, the bears are defending the $1,200 price level aggressively, while bulls are trying to ensure that MKR price consolidates above the $1,050 support level.

MakerDAO officially announced that its DeFi lending protocol, Spark Protocol, centered around the DAI stablecoin, has reached a new historical high in DAI lending volume, reaching 14.44 million tokens.

Aave's V3 lending protocol has attracted over 10,000 users in less than six months due to increased user activity. The value of assets locked (TVL) has grown by 60% since the launch of V3, reaching $6.12 billion at present. Aave's TVL growth has propelled it to replace MakerDAO as the second-largest DeFi protocol after Lido Finance.

The governance token of MakerDAO, MKR, has seen a surge in price following the introduction of a token buyback program. The token briefly reached a one-year high of $1,200 before settling at around $1,144. The buyback program, called the Smart Burn Engine, removes MKR supply from the market by allocating excess DAI stablecoins to purchase MKR from a UniSwap pool. MakerDAO is one of the largest and oldest DeFi lending protocols and is currently undergoing a major overhaul, including upgrading its tokens and breaking up its structure into smaller autonomous organizations.

According to makerburn data, MakerDAO's intelligent burn engine has been activated, with a current treasury surplus of $63.6 million, of which over $50 million ($13.6 million) will be used to repurchase MKR and add it to Uniswap V2 as LP along with DAI. According to on-chain information, repurchases are currently being executed approximately every 27 minutes, with an average repurchase amount of around $5,000.

Aave has overtaken MakerDAO as the second-largest DeFi protocol in terms of total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama data. This is due to a 15% drop in Maker's TVL since March 10, caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the depeg of USDC and its DAI stablecoin, and a fall in DAI supply rates.

Peer-to-peer lending has become a popular alternative to traditional banking, allowing borrowers and investors to connect directly without intermediaries. This article highlights five decentralized P2P lending services, including Aave, which offers flash loans, and Compound, which uses an algorithm to modify interest rates based on asset availability and demand. MakerDAO is known for its stablecoin, DAI, and its decentralized governance architecture, while dYdX provides borrowing and lending features for derivatives trading. Fulcrum, powered by bZx, offers seamless integration of lending and margin trading services and uses decentralized governance through its native token.

Whales have been buying DAI in an attempt to accumulate more BTC, leading to a spike in revenue for MakerDAO. Despite the growing interest in BTC from institutional players like BlackRock, DAI may emerge as a beneficiary. Traders have been closely monitoring the price range of $30k to $31k for Bitcoin and accumulating stablecoins such as DAI. MakerDAO's revenue has grown by 41.5% over the last month, with Real-World Assets (RWA) being a major contributor.

Non-profit organization Bluechip has launched a rating platform to provide transparent and unbiased evaluations of stablecoins in the crypto market. The platform currently rates 15 stablecoins and gold-pegged tokens based on Bluechip's SMIDGE rating framework, which evaluates stability, management, implementation, decentralization, governance, and externals. The launch is supported by MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen, Reserve’s co-founder Nevin Freeman, and StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson, among others. The platform aims to provide a simple tool and clear grading system to help users make informed decisions when choosing stablecoins.