What Is Aave? Inside the DeFi Lending Protocol
DeFi protocol Aave is one of the largest lenders of cryptocurrency and its AAVE token has a larger market cap than rivals Maker or Compound. Here's how it works.
Market Cap (Mcap)
Rank
#46Mcap
$2.42BFully Diluted Mcap
$2.51BSupply
Circulating
15,429,368Total
16,000,000Created On
N/AAll Time High (ATH)
ATH
$661.69ATH Change
-76.33%ATH Date
May 18th, 2021Total Value Locked (TVL)
TVL
$19.33BMCap to TVL Ratio
0.13FDV to TVL Ratio
0.13Aave Chart
Price
Volume
Market Cap
Other coins
Learn about Aave
Aave News
Sep 25, 2026
Law and Order
KelpDAO Developer Sues LayerZero Over $292M Bridge Exploit
The company behind KelpDAO has sued LayerZero and its chief executive over the exploit that drained $292 million from the restaking protocol in April, alleging LayerZero endorsed in writing the exact bridge configuration it later blamed for the loss. Evercrest Technologies filed the notice of civil claim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Wednesday, naming LayerZero Labs Ltd., LayerZero Labs Canada Inc. and co-founder Bryan Pellegrino, who is sued personally over posts on Telegram and X...
Aug 7, 2026
DeFi
Tokenized Asset Deposits Tripled to $7.4B as DeFi Shrank: CoinShares
Deposits of tokenized real-world assets into decentralized lending platforms and exchanges more than tripled over the past year, climbing from $2.3 billion to $7.4 billion, while total deposits across DeFi fell by approximately 15%. The figures come from The Growth of Hybrid Finance, published Thursday by asset manager CoinShares and on-chain data provider Token Terminal. It is the pair's second joint report, covering the second quarter of 2025 through the second quarter of 2026, with all data s...
Jul 14, 2026
Business
UK to Defer Capital Gains Tax on DeFi Lending, Liquidity Pool Deposits
The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs has confirmed that depositing cryptoassets into DeFi lending protocols and liquidity pools will no longer count as a taxable disposal, deferring any capital gains tax until an investor makes a genuine economic disposal of the assets. The change, set out in a policy paper published Monday, takes effect from 6 April 2027 and will amend the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992. HMRC estimates it will affect around 700,000 individuals and trustees who use crypto loans...
Jun 26, 2026
Opinion
Morning Minute: Kraken Eyes 15% Stake in Aave at $385M Valuation
Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify. GM! Today’s top news: Crypto majors are mostly red down 1-5%, SOL leads; BTC at $59.5k Strategy’s STRC falls to $73 and new low; MSTR at $84 Tether’s USDT flips ETH in FDV after ETH slide, now 2nd biggest token Kraken...
Jun 24, 2026
Markets
Aave Token Could Climb 50x by End of 2030, Standard Chartered Says—Here's Why
Analysts at Standard Chartered are betting big on Aave, one of the largest lending platforms in decentralized finance (DeFi), projecting that its native token could surge nearly 50 times from current levels by the end of the decade—a forecast that arrives just months after the protocol was rattled by a major ecosystem exploit. In a research note released Wednesday, Geoff Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets research, initiated coverage of Aave's token (AAVE) with a price target of...
May 8, 2026
Coins
Arbitrum DAO Signals Support for $70 Million for Kelp DAO Exploit Relief
Arbitrum DAO delegates have signaled strong support for releasing roughly $70 million in frozen ETH toward a coordinated recovery effort for victims of the Kelp DAO rsETH exploit—but no funds have been approved for release, and no transfer has been authorized. Friday's vote was a Phase 1 temperature check on Snapshot, a non-binding sentiment poll that runs before any formal proposal is submitted under the Arbitrum DAO Constitution. It does not affect Arbitrum's governance contracts, the treasury...
Apr 28, 2026
DeFi
Aave, Compound Unveil Technical Plan to Address Fallout From $290M Kelp DAO Hack
Aave-led coalition DeFi United has published a technical plan to restore backing for rsETH tokens and eliminate bad debt left by North Korean hackers on Aave and Compound. The recovery strategy calls for converting committed ETH into rsETH in controlled tranches, then liquidating the attacker's positions through temporarily adjusted oracle prices. The coalition aims to recover approximately 13,000 ETH from affected positions on Aave's Ethereum and Arbitrum markets, and 16,776 ETH from Compound....
Apr 27, 2026
DeFi
Aave-Led 'DeFi United' Relief Effort Raises $300 Million to Cover Kelp DAO Exploit Losses
A coordinated relief effort to raise funds following Kelp DAO’s $290 million exploit this month crossed a critical threshold on Monday, receiving enough contributions to potentially cover decentralized finance’s biggest hack in recent memory. The organization dubbed DeFi United, which has been promoted by Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov, has raised 132,650 Ethereum (ETH), according to its website. With Ethereum recently changing hands around $2,300, the sum was valued around $303 million. D...
Apr 24, 2026
DeFi
Aave Leads ‘DeFi United’ Push to Contain $292M KelpDAO Fallout
Aave and a coalition of DeFi protocols are mobilizing a coordinated recovery effort, branded "DeFi United,” to absorb bad debt stemming from the April 18 exploit that drained $292 million from KelpDAO's cross-chain bridge, leaving the sector's largest lending protocol grappling with an estimated $123.7 million to $230.1 million shortfall. Aave founder Stani Kulechov kicked off the push on Wednesday with a personal pledge of 5,000 ETH. Aave service providers have been leading the DeFi United eff...
Apr 23, 2026
DeFi
Circle Economist Proposes 50% Rate Ceiling to Snap Aave's USDC Liquidity Crisis
An economist at USDC issuer Circle proposed an emergency overhaul of Aave’s lending mechanics on Wednesday, calling for a massive interest rate hike to break a liquidity crunch that has left users’ funds trapped on the lending protocol for the past five days. After users borrowed massive amounts of stablecoins to escape fallout associated with Kelp DAO's recent $291 million exploit, quadrupling the maximum interest rate on Aave should shock the system back into balance, according to Circle Chie...
Apr 21, 2026
Opinion
Morning Minute: Saylor's $2.54B Buy Buoys Bitcoin
Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes or less, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify. GM! Today’s top news: Crypto majors continue grind up, led by Bitcoin; BTC +2% at $76,480 Saylor buys $2.54B in BTC, 3rd biggest buy ever; 85% powered by STRC AAVE publishes full incident report; losses range $...
Apr 20, 2026
Opinion
Morning Minute: DeFi's Future in Question After $292M KelpDAO Exploit
3,478.5543 Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes or less, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify. GM! Today’s top news: Crypto majors fall then rebound as Iran tensions escalate; BTC at $75.4k ETFs see $1.4B in inflows on the week, 2nd biggest week of year DeFi TVL falls by $13B as KelpDAO exploi...
Apr 20, 2026
DeFi
LayerZero Pins $292M KelpDAO Bridge Hack on North Korea’s Lazarus Group
The exploit that drained roughly $292 million from KelpDAO’s cross-chain bridge over the weekend was “likely” the work of North Korea’s Lazarus Group, specifically its TraderTraitor subunit, LayerZero said in a preliminary analysis on Monday. Attackers drained 116,500 rsETH, a liquid restaking token backed by staked ether, from the KelpDAO bridge on Saturday, setting off withdrawals across the decentralized finance sector that pulled more than $10 billion out of lending protocol Aave. Kelp DAO E...
Apr 19, 2026
DeFi
Kelp DAO Exploit Sparks Aave Liquidity Crunch, $6.2 Billion Withdrawal Panic
Less than a day after attackers drained $291 million in crypto from infrastructure linked to decentralized finance project Kelp DAO, users on Aave, one of DeFi’s most battle-tested protocols, struggled to withdraw funds amid a liquidity crunch. A bridge that typically allows users to move an asset called rsETH from one network to another was exploited on Saturday, prompting Aave to freeze markets tied to the token, which attackers had used to borrow funds from the platform, the lending protocol...
Apr 7, 2026
Markets
Aave Token Falls Near 2-Year Low as Risk Management Firm Becomes Latest to Depart
AAVE, the native token of the decentralized lending protocol of the same name, fell to a nearly two-year low Tuesday amid ongoing DAO disputes and following its recent V4 protocol launch. The Ethereum-based token fell to a recent low of $86.15 earlier Tuesday, marking the lowest price registered since July 2024. It has ticked back up to a recent price of $89.12, still showing a nearly 17% drop in the last month of trading and down more than 86% from its 2021 all-time high mark of $661.69. A s...
Mar 12, 2026
Markets
Crypto Trader Loses Nearly $50M in Aave Trade, Protocol Offers $600K Fee Refund
A crypto trader lost almost the entire value of a $50 million transaction on Thursday after executing a large swap for Aave’s governance token through the decentralized finance protocol’s trading interface. The user attempted to buy AAVE with $50 million worth of the stablecoin USDT through the Aave interface, according to a statement posted on X by Aave founder Stani Kulechov. Because the order was unusually large relative to available liquidity, the interface issued a warning flagging “extra...
Mar 9, 2026
Markets
Aave Users Reach Record as Traders Quietly Shift Capital Toward DeFi Lending
Monthly active users on DeFi lending protocol Aave reached roughly 155,000 in February, marking an all-time high and nearly doubling over the past six months. The rise in users comes as investors increasingly seek yield through decentralized lending protocols, according to on-chain analytics platform Token Terminal data. Sean Dawson, head of research at on-chain options platform Derive, told Decrypt that market dynamics appeared to be the primary driver behind the swelling of users. “The larg...
Dec 16, 2025
Law and Order
Crypto Lending Protocol Aave Says SEC Has Ended 4-Year Investigation: 'DeFi Will Win'
Aave announced Tuesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has concluded its investigation into the decentralized finance (or DeFi) protocol, with no intention to recommend an enforcement action. It comes four years after the investigation was opened, the Aave CEO said on X, over which time the project has invested significant time, energy, and funds in protecting itself from the SEC. “This process demanded significant effort and resources from our team, and from me personally as t...
Nov 18, 2025
Opinion
Morning Minute: Aave Takes Aim at Banks, Fintechs with New Aave App
Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack. GM! Today’s top news: Crypto majors fall another 4-5% continuing downtrend; BTC at $91,200 Bitcoin officially wipes out 2025 YTD gains, now red CBOE rolling out perps-like continuous futures for BTC and ETH White House evaluating major IRS rule to evaluate foreign crypto holdings Trump Hotels t...
Oct 17, 2025
Markets
Is Smart Money Exiting? Whales Dump Solana, Aave, and Aster
Whales are offloading significant altcoins, testing the crypto market's already fragile state and hindering its recovery. The "smart money" retreat comes amid a broad market downturn. Bitcoin's Plunge Below $105,000 Sends Crypto Market Cap to Lowest Level Since July The total crypto market capitalization has shed over 5% in the past 24 hours, dropping to $3.67 trillion, according to CoinGecko data. Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and other major altcoins are posting losses of between 6% and 9% as the...
