Decentralized finance protocol Aave has exceeded $1 trillion in cumulative lending volume, becoming the first DeFi platform to reach that milestone.

“A decade ago, DeFi and Aave didn’t exist. They were just ideas. Today, Aave stands as the backbone of onchain lending, powering a new financial system that is open, global, and unstoppable,” Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov said in an X post on Wednesday.

Kulechov described the achievement as another step toward Aave’s ambition of becoming the “largest, most efficient liquidity network in the world,” adding, “One that builders, banks, and fintechs plug into by default, fundamentally improving liquidity and cost structures across global finance.”

In August, Aave Labs introduced Aave Horizon, a dedicated lending market on Ethereum tailored for traditional financial institutions and other professional investors seeking to borrow stablecoins against tokenized real-world assets. Early participants included VanEck, WisdomTree and Securitize.

Kulechov has also pointed to longer-term opportunities in tokenizing what he calls “abundance assets,” such as solar energy infrastructure, battery storage systems and robotics. He estimates that these sectors could collectively represent $50 trillion in value by 2050.

Originally launched as ETHLend in November 2017, the protocol rebranded to Aave in September 2018. It now secures more than $27.2 billion in total value locked, allowing users to earn yield on deposits and borrow against crypto collateral. Aave remains ahead of other major DeFi lending platforms — including Morpho, JustLend, SparkLend, Maple, Kamin Lend and Compound Finance — each of which holds more than $1 billion in locked value.

Over the past 30 days, Aave generated more than $83.3 million in fees, nearly quadruple the amount recorded by its closest competitor, Morpho.

Governance tensions emerge over funding proposal

The milestone coincides with internal debate regarding funding and revenue allocation between Aave Labs and the Aave decentralized autonomous organization.

Tokenholders have been asked to approve a proposal that would allocate up to $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens to Aave Labs. In exchange, Aave Labs would direct all revenue from Aave-branded products to the DAO treasury under a model financed by the DAO itself.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/aave-reaches-1-trillion-lending-volume

https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2026713373690229189

https://x.com/aave/status/2026710482833252557

https://defillama.com/protocols/lending

https://aave.com/blog/horizon-launch