Aave (AAVE)

The Bank of Canada 🇨🇦 just published a 32-page report on DeFi lending. It found Canadian banks average a 0.65% non-performing loan rate. Aave is 0%. Canadian banks average a 1.69% net interest margin. Aave is 0.64%. Canadian banks average a 74.2% loan to deposit ratio. Aave is 40%.

$461M lost in Q1 2026. 35 exploits. One quarter. Drift $285M. Step Finance $40M. Truebit $26.4M. Resolv $24.5M. Matcha $16.8M. Blend Pools $10.97M. IoTeX $8M. Saga $7M. Aperture $3.2M. CrossCurve $3M. Cyrus Finance $5M. SolvBTC $2.7M. FOOM Cash $2.26M. Moonwell $1.78M. TMX TRIBE $1.4M. Makina $4.2M. YO Protocol $3.73M. Venus $3.7M. Ploutos $390k. LML $950k. GoonFi $254k. dTRINITY $257k. Gondi $230k. Polycule $230k. Fusion IPOR $336k. Aave V3 $862k. Revert Lend $50k. Wise Lending $66k. Molt EVM $127k. Curve LlamaLend $240k. Goose Finance $8k. Veil Cash $5k. PRXVT $97k. DeFi doesn't have an adoption problem. It has a risk problem.

Aave DAO is voting on the updated Aave Will Win Framework. $25M in stables, 75K AAVE (~$9M), and $17.5M in growth grants. ~$51M total. Following DAO feedback, Aave Labs made some changes: - Vote is unbundled. V4 and foundation are now separate proposals - AAVE vesting moved from 2 years to 4 - Accountability framework with KPIs per product (screenshot attached) - Revenue independently audited by a third party - Unspent funds returned to treasury - Aave Pro grant cut from $5M to $2.5M, Aave App raised to $7.5M but milestone-gated - Labs absorbing ~40 functions from BGD and ACI who both left. Helping to justify $51m budget. (ACI voted AGAINST on this new proposal as well). What didn't change: - Revenue deductions still at Labs' discretion (now audited) - No AAVE holdings disclosure - No foundation structure yet, but a commitment to propose one within 180 days They addressed a lot of the feedback. Sadly, I lost all 20k $AAVE delegated to me so my vote doesn't matter anymore.

Before launching Aave V4 on Mainnet, the team validated its logic across 4M Virtual TestNet instances. As institutional and fintech teams build on top of Aave, testing and validating integrations with the protocol is essential for building resilient financial systems. And Virtual TestNets make this possible. 🤝

First $1M borrow reached on Aave V4. https://t.co/ApTz8hUIIw

Shoutout to @fhenix and @coinempress for putting me up to this. Combining Aave, Emma Chamberlain and FHE into one pitch was a nice challenge! Let me know if I nailed it https://t.co/GAB4PYEKK0

$5.4M deposited into @aave V4 across Core, Plus and Prime hubs https://t.co/wDDeP8iQlH

Shoutout to @fhenix and @coinempress for putting me up to this. Combining Aave, Emma Chamberlain and FHE into one pitch was a nice challenge! Let me know if I nailed it https://t.co/GAB4PYEKK0

I’ve seen @aave V3 vs V4 TVL comparisons on the timeline, but this misses two important points: \n\n1) V4’s TVL is being limited for a while to responsibly scale the protocol. This is essential for security and building trust amongst users and partners.\n\n2) V4 also allows us to go after net new business opportunities that would be harder with V3. Which sets us up to pursue them faster.\n\nSo even in a case where V4 is 20% of V3 in 12-15 months, that $4B+ TVL would be net new business. Nothing positions Aave to win more than that.

🔥 KULECHOV: “We want to expand from a lending protocol into a credit protocol and tap into real-world opportunities.” @StaniKulechov of @Aave at Cointelegraph Connect: Cannes. https://t.co/98dy0qvthA