Aave

What Aave does

Aave is a decentralized, non-custodial liquidity protocol that enables overcollateralized lending and borrowing on public blockchains. Founded in 2017 and operating since 2020 after evolving from ETHLend, Aave is headquartered in the Cayman Islands (Aave Labs) with an operating entity in Ireland (Push Virtual Assets Ireland Limited) and is governed at the protocol level by the Aave DAO via the AAVE governance token. The protocol runs on 12+ blockchains including Ethereum mainnet, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, Aptos, and Plasma, with core architecture comprising Pool smart contracts, Chainlink oracle integrations, aTokens, flash loan adapters, and — as of March 2026 — the V4 Hub-and-Spoke architecture with three initial Liquidity Hubs (Core, Prime, Plus), the Umbrella safety module securing $246.6M in backstop, and the GHO native overcollateralized stablecoin.

Aave serves five distinct customer segments: (1) DeFi-native retail and professional suppliers/borrowers accessing the protocol permissionlessly through self-custodial wallets; (2) institutional asset managers and banks via Aave Horizon, a permissioned Ethereum market for tokenized real-world asset collateral (VanEck VBILL, BlackRock BUIDL, Franklin Templeton BENJI, Ondo, Midas/Fasanara mGLOBAL) with $550M+ supplied; (3) fintechs, wallets, exchanges and developers integrating via the Aave Kit SDK/API to embed yield, lending and Vaults (MetaMask, Whop, Kraken via Ink L2, Cap, Ethena, Lido, LatAm fintechs Lemon/Belo/Ripio/Buenbit); (4) US retail consumers via the Aave App iOS product offering up to 9% APY with $1M balance protection; and (5) LatAm unbanked/underbanked consumers via embedded-DeFi fintech partnerships. Revenue is generated through governance-set reserve factors on borrow interest (the primary recurring stream), flash loan fees (0.05% V3), 100% of GHO borrow interest routed to the DAO treasury, liquidation bonuses, and integrator yield-share fees — all consolidated under the April 2026 'Aave Will Win' governance proposal into the Aave DAO treasury, yielding $907M in FY2025 protocol revenue. Aave Labs operates as the primary contributor and steward without controlling the protocol itself.

Name

Aave

Legal name

Aave Labs

Website

https://aave.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Aave is a decentralized, non-custodial liquidity protocol enabling overcollateralized lending and borrowing across 12+ blockchains. It serves DeFi retail users, institutional RWA participants (Horizon), fintech integrators (Aave Kit), and US consumers (Aave App), governed by the Aave DAO.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Decentralized Finance Lending Protocol

NAICS

Securities and Commodity Exchanges (523210), Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (525)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200), Asset-Backed Securities (6189)

akta.pro primary industry

Decentralized Lending Protocols (DeFi Money Markets) (FSADAFAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Tokenized Debt, Notes & On-Chain Credit Instruments (FSADAFAM), Syndicated Crypto Loans & Credit Facilities (FSADAFAK), Crypto-Backed Consumer Loans (Secured) (FSADAFAG)

Keywords

• Decentralized lending protocol
• Defi liquidity markets
• Non-custodial borrowing
• Tokenized rwa lending
• Crypto yield generation

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Reserve factor on borrow interest: Each borrowable reserve has a governance-set reserve factor — the percentage of borrow interest routed to the Aave Treasury per asset. This is the protocol's primary recurring revenue stream, with suppliers receiving the remainder.
2. Flash loan fees: Suppliers receive 0.05% of flash loan volume in V3 (0.07% in V2). Flash loans are programmatic, single-block uncollateralized loans driving fee revenue proportional to protocol utilization.
3. GHO stablecoin interest (100% to DAO): 100% of repaid interest on GHO borrows is redirected to the Aave DAO treasury rather than to asset suppliers, unlike other Aave reserves. GHO generated over $14 million in annualized revenue and contributed to the $907M full-year 2025 protocol revenue.
4. Liquidation bonus / penalties: Liquidators repay borrower debt and receive the collateral plus a governance-set liquidation bonus (e.g., 5% for ETH, 15% for YFI per documentation examples); protocol captures value via the mechanism ensuring protocol solvency.
5. Vault yield share / integrator fees: Aave V3 Vaults allow integrators to create dedicated lending pools for their users; integrators can set a yield share as revenue, enabling embedded-DeFi fee revenue from partners.
6. Merged product revenue under 'Aave Will Win' governance proposal: April 2026 governance proposal passed with 75% support consolidated all product revenue streams into the Aave DAO treasury, creating direct economic alignment between token holders and protocol growth across V3, V4, GHO, Horizon and the Aave App.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion5 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Aave is a decentralized, non-custodial liquidity protocol composed of open-source smart contracts deployed across multiple public blockchains (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, Aptos, Plasma). Users supply crypto assets to earn variable interest or open overcollateralized borrow positions, with the protocol generating revenue through governance-set reserve factors on borrow interest, flash loan fees, and GHO stablecoin interest routed to the Aave DAO treasury.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Aave App: Consumer mobile savings application powered by Aave, offering up to 9.00% APY with balance protection.
• Aave Pro
• Aave Kit
• Aave Horizon
• GHO
• Umbrella

Products and services

• Aave Protocol V3 Open-source, permissionless liquidity protocol enabling crypto users to supply assets to earn variable interest or borrow against overcollateralized positions across multiple blockchain networks.
• Aave Pro (V4) Next-generation interface for Aave V4's Hub-and-Spoke architecture, offering earn, borrow and swap functionality with unified liquidity across curated risk markets targeting permissioned lending and RWA use cases.
• Aave App Self-custodial mobile savings application for retail consumers offering up to 5.00% base APY plus boosts up to 9.00% per year, with $1M per-account balance protection and withdrawals to bank or stablecoin wallet.
• Aave Kit Developer integration stack enabling fintechs, wallets, exchanges, banks and asset managers to embed Aave lending, yield, vaults and custom markets into their products, with optional yield-share fees and KYC eligibility support.
• Aave Horizon Permissioned institutional lending market on Ethereum allowing qualified institutions to supply tokenized real-world assets as collateral and borrow stablecoins, with hybrid model where anyone can supply stablecoins. Grew to over $550M in supplied assets.
• GHO Stablecoin Decentralized, overcollateralized stablecoin native to the Aave Protocol, minted against supplied collateral on V3 Ethereum markets, with 100% of repaid interest routed to the Aave DAO treasury and Chainlink CCIP bridging to Arbitrum.
• Umbrella Safety Module

Quantifiable outcome

• $3.46T in lifetime deposits across all Aave Protocol markets
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers19 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration28 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

25 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• MetaMaskflagshipTechnology or IntegrationMetaMask selected Aave as its DeFi lending partner to power 'Stablecoin Earn' inside MetaMask mobile wallets, giving 100M+ users direct access to USDC/USDT/DAI yields via Aave's V3 infrastructure with variable reward rates, aTokens, zero additional fees and one-click withdrawal. Strategic commercial integration extending Aave's distribution to the largest self-custodial wallet user base.
• Kraken (Ink L2 / Tydro)flagshipTechnology or IntegrationKraken launched 'DeFi Earn' powered by Aave. Funds are converted to USDC if needed and deposited into a vault on the Ink network that supplies liquidity to Aave. Available across Kraken's Consumer, Pro, mobile and Krak wallet interfaces. Kraken's Ink L2 built Tydro on Aave V3. Aave holds ~60% of Ink's lending market share.
• WhopflagshipTechnology or IntegrationWhop launched 'Whop Treasury' built into the Whop Finance suite. Yield, distributed by Veda, comes from Aave's Plasma market. Whop serves 21M+ users across 144 countries with $3B annual payouts. User balances convert to USDT0 stablecoins and route through a Veda vault on Plasma that allocates to Aave's lending markets.
• Kinexys by J.P. MorganflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerKinexys (fka Onyx) participated in Project Guardian led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), using a modified version of Aave Arc (predecessor to Aave Horizon) on Polygon mainnet for tokenized SGD/JPY FX pilot with DBS and SBI Digital Asset Holdings. Insights from Project Guardian directly shaped Aave Horizon's design — hybrid model with tokenized RWA collateral permissioned to qualified institutions. J.P. Morgan validated institutional DeFi on Aave.
• Cap (Covered Agent Protocol)coreTechnology or IntegrationCap integrates Aave to deploy idle stablecoin reserves and as a benchmark rate for its yield generation, growing to one of Aave's largest USDC depositors with over $360M supplied (80% of cUSD reserves) on the Aave V3 Core Ethereum market. Cap's Hurdle Rate floor uses Aave's USDC supply rate; Aave accounts for over 90% of stcUSD's cumulative yield. Cap TVL grew to $500M since launch August 2025.
• EthenaflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic 'Aavethena' partnership. sUSDe listed on Aave V3 December 2024; Aave hosts Pendle PT-sUSDe as collateral; July 29 launch of Ethena 'Liquid Leverage' on Aave. More than 50% of USDe-related assets deposited on Aave. Ethena's USDe reached $10B in 500 days powered by Aave's liquidity engine.
• LidocoreTechnology or IntegrationLido's liquid staking (wstETH) combined with Aave to power DeFi's ETH yield engine; wstETH is a major collateral asset across Aave V3 markets.
• AvalanchecoreTechnology or IntegrationAvalanche uses Aave to securely access decentralized capital markets; Aave V3 is deployed on Avalanche; identified as a cornerstone integration.
• BlockdaemoncoreTechnology or IntegrationBlockdaemon uses Aave to power institutional access to onchain yield for institutional clients; integration with staking infrastructure.
• BTCScoreTechnology or IntegrationNasdaq-listed BTCS uses Aave to finance its Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) strategy; a publicly listed company using Aave markets for treasury operations.
• GalaxycoreTechnology or IntegrationGalaxy uses Aave for institutional liquidity in practice; completed $75M collateralized loan obligation with Grove joint-venture on Avalanche.
• MastercardflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerMastercard's 'Agent Pay for Machines' (AP4M) is an AI-agent payment infrastructure with 30+ launch partners including Aave Labs. Aave provides the credit and liquidity layer for AI agent activity; uses scoped credentials and on-chain policy signals recorded on Polygon, Solana and Base. Mastercard leadership acknowledged it as positioning rather than near-term revenue driver.
• CoW SwapcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership with CoW Swap, the leading DEX aggregator and pioneer of intent-based trading. Integrated in Aave's 'Swap Tokens' feature alongside ParaSwap; 15bps discounted fee for correlated asset swaps (stablecoins, ETH-correlated, BTC-correlated) vs 25bps standard.
• Push (Aave Labs subsidiary - Push Virtual Assets Ireland Limited)coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerPush is an Aave Labs subsidiary that secured MiCAR authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland, enabling regulated zero-fee stablecoin on/off-ramping for GHO and other stablecoins across the EEA.
• Lemon (Argentina)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLemon is the earliest LatAm fintech partner since 2022; embeds Aave's lending infrastructure into its consumer mobile app to enable Argentine users to earn stablecoin yield. Lemon now has 130,000+ active customers managing ~$40M in deposits (73% YoY growth); average user age ~30.
• Belo, Ripio, Buenbit (LatAm fintechs)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLatin American fintech partnerships embedding Aave's lending infrastructure into consumer mobile apps for users in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia to earn yields on stablecoin holdings without direct blockchain interaction, targeting 200M+ unbanked/underbanked individuals.
• Stable FinanceflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerAave Labs acquired Stable Finance (San Francisco-based fintech simplifying onchain savings) after Stable hired Jefferies to advise on a potential sale; backed by Mac Venture Capital. Stable Finance's founder and engineering team joined Aave Labs to develop consumer-facing DeFi products; Stable app to be phased out and technology integrated into Aave products.
• VanEck (VBILL tokenized Treasury Fund)coreTechnology or IntegrationAave Horizon RWA market integrates VanEck's tokenized Treasury Fund VBILL as productive collateral for institutional lending.
• Midas (mGLOBAL) / Fasanara CapitalcoreTechnology or IntegrationMidas launched mGLOBAL, a security token tracking a short-duration private credit portfolio managed by Fasanara Capital, and integrated it into Aave Horizon, the institutional version of the Aave lending market.
• Chainlink (oracle partner)coreTechnology or IntegrationChainlink used for decentralized price feeds and redemption ratio feeds across Aave markets; a GHO bridge facilitator utilizing Chainlink CCIP enables GHO bridging to Arbitrum. KelpDAO is migrating rsETH to Chainlink CCIP after the April 2026 exploit; Aave risk framework requires minimum three independent verifiers (CCIP DVN model) for cross-chain assets.
• VedacoreTechnology or IntegrationVeda distributes yield from Aave Plasma market to Whop Treasury users; also manages yield strategies for Kraken Bitcoin Vault routing capital to Aave and Morpho. Veda serves as the underlying yield-distribution infrastructure enabling embedded DeFi.
• Babylon LabscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBabylon Labs submitted a Temperature Check to Aave DAO to integrate Trustless Bitcoin Vaults with Aave V4 — enabling native BTC as collateral without bridges, wrappers, or custodians. Babylon Foundation also committed $3M USDT split between Aave V3 ($2M) and Aave V4 ($1M) as a liquidity signal.
• DeFi United coalition (Aave, Compound, LayerZero, EtherFi, Lido, Mantle, Consensys, Arbitrum DAO, Golem Foundation)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCoalition coordinated by Aave to recover from the April 18, 2026 KelpDAO rsETH bridge exploit ($293M). Secured $302M+ in commitments (incl. 25,000 ETH from Aave's treasury, 5,000 ETH from Aave founder Stani Kulechov, 30,000 ETH pledged by Consensys/Joe Lubin, 2,000 ETH from KelpDAO, 30,000 ETH from Mantle, 1,900–3,000 ETH proposed by Compound). Joint governance proposal to Arbitrum DAO requesting release of 30,765 frozen ETH.
• Compound, EtherFi Foundation, Golem Foundation, Lido DAO, LayerZero, Ink Foundation, TyrdocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDeFi United coalition partners who pledged ETH (cumulative 43,500+ ETH, over $101M) to the rsETH recovery effort coordinated by Aave Labs following the April 2026 KelpDAO bridge exploit.
• Coinbase, Stripe, OKX, Ripple, Solana Foundation, Polygon Labs, Alchemy, Anchorage Digital, MoonPay, BVNK, Adyen, CloudflareminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-launch partners in Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M) platform alongside Aave Labs. The group validates AI-agent commerce use cases across traditional cards, bank accounts, and stablecoins; Aave provides credit/liquidity layer.

Scale indicators17 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights8 records

Direct peers

• Morpho: Decentralized lending protocol that operates both as a peer-to-peer matching layer over Aave and via independent Morpho Blue markets. Directly competes in DeFi lending with optimized yield and capital efficiency, and is already integrated alongside Aave (e.g., Kraken Bitcoin Vault deploys to both Aave and Morpho).
• Compound: One of the original DeFi money market protocols on Ethereum offering algorithmic lending and borrowing. Direct competitor to Aave's pooled-money-market model; participates alongside Aave in the DeFi United recovery coalition post-KelpDAO exploit.
• MakerDAO (Sky): Decentralized protocol issuing the DAI/sDAI stablecoin against crypto collateral with lending market mechanics. Direct competitor in DeFi lending and stablecoin issuance; recently launched Spark Protocol as a lending front-end competing with Aave.

Emerging players

• Spark Protocol: Sky/MakerDAO's lending front-end offering supply, borrow, and DAI savings. Emerging competitor leveraging MakerDAO's stablecoin dominance and recently voted 1,900-3,000 ETH support in DeFi United coalition, directly challenging Aave's lending market share.
• Euler: Modular DeFi lending protocol supporting multiple sub-deposits per asset and customizable risk parameters. Emerging competitor offering modularity features that overlap with Aave V4's Hub-and-Spoke architecture, targeting sophisticated DeFi users.
• Silo Finance: Isolated lending markets protocol where each asset has its own lending market with no shared liquidity. Emerging competitor offering isolated risk similar to Aave's Isolation Mode and V4 Spoke model, targeting new asset listings without cross-contamination risk.
• Maple Finance: Institutional-grade DeFi credit protocol focused on undercollateralized lending to crypto-native institutions. Emerging competitor in the RWA/institutional lending space that overlaps with Aave Horizon's permissioned RWA market.
• Curve Finance: Leading DEX for stablecoin swaps and liquidity provision. Adjacent competitor in DeFi stablecoin ecosystem; integrates with Aave through crvUSD lending markets and shares user base for stablecoin yield strategies.
• Frax Finance: Decentralized stablecoin and DeFi protocol issuing FRAX and offering lending markets (Fraxlend). Adjacent competitor in stablecoin issuance and DeFi lending, with modular architecture similar to Aave V4.

Others

• Lido: Largest liquid staking protocol for ETH (wstETH). Deep integration partner rather than direct competitor—Lido's wstETH is primary collateral on Aave V3 Ethereum markets, making Lido both a key liquidity source and ecosystem participant in Aave's ETH lending engine.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/aave-dao/aave-v3-origin
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/aave
• Xx.com/AaveAave
• Facebookfacebook.com/AaveWow

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds10 records

Investors20 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments11 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Aave