Summary
Aave governance approved the Aave Will Win Framework in April 2026, and as part of that framework Aave Labs committed to publishing quarterly updates on its work as a service provider to the Aave DAO. This report combines the first the 180 days since that approval, spanning Q2 and Q3 2026.
Over the last 180 days, Aave Labs’ team of about 97 team members put an estimated 100,000 hours into its work for the Aave DAO and completed 6,096 tracked issues and 36 projects of various scopes across engineering, security, product, design, growth, marketing, governance, and legal. Over the same period, Aave Labs authored 26 onchain governance proposals and 20 Snapshot votes, and shipped 28 items including products, features, and protocol deployments. Aave Labs also prepared and implemented the DAO-approved onboarding of 33 unique assets, deployments on four new chains, and four new Aave V4 Liquidity Hubs with their corresponding Spokes.
Throughout Q2, Aave Labs assumed roughly 40 technical and supporting functions that BGD Labs and the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) previously performed for the DAO, including contract maintenance, security coordination, proposal payload engineering, and developer tooling, and it completed both transitions while rsETH incident response (detailed below) was still underway.
Q3 was a strong quarter for launches and product expansion across the Aave ecosystem. Following DAO approval, Aave Labs implemented Aave V4 deployments on Avalanche, Arc, and Base, and V4 grew from $212.6 million deposits to $1.34 billion in Q3, passing its first $1 billion on September 16. Since launching from zero at the end of March, V4 has grown to more than $1.3 billion deposits in roughly six months. Aave App opened early access on iOS, expanded to five total chains, and launched instant onramps for eligible U.S. users through licensed third-party providers. We also opened up Stable Vaults, the vault infrastructure behind the Aave App, for enterprise use. Other key launches include the official Aave MCP server, which gives AI a direct connection to read Aave data and prepare transactions, the Aave V3 interface redesign, and the addition of each new V4 deployment to Aave Pro.
On the security side, Certora completed formal verification of core Aave V4 and Stable Vaults contracts against defined specifications, and three new V4 security audits were published over the period. Aave Labs coordinated these engagements, including scoping, remediation of findings, and fix review, before the final reports were published.
Aave Labs’ UK subsidiaries Push Labs Limited and Push Virtual Assets Limited (together, Push) were also registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as cryptoasset exchange providers. Push provides fiat on- and off-ramp services for eligible Aave App users.
Aave protocol revenue totaled $44.58 million across the 180 days, while deposits across all versions of the protocol grew by $9.69 billion in Q3 alone.
Summary by Quarter
| Item | Q2 | Q3 | 180 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onchain proposals authored by Aave Labs | 19 | 7 | 26 |
| Snapshot votes authored by Aave Labs | 7 | 13 | 20 |
| Products, features, and deployments shipped | 8 | 20 | 28 |
| Total unique assets onboarded | 6 | 27 | 33 |
| New chain deployments | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| New Aave V4 Liquidity Hubs | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| New integrations and partnerships announced | 11 | 9 | 20 |
| Incentive campaigns launched and supported | 12 | 102 | 114 |
rsETH Response
On April 18 at 17:35 UTC, an exploit of the rsETH cross-chain bridge resulted in the release of 116,500 rsETH on Ethereum without a matching amount being burned on the source chain. The exploit did not involve the Aave Protocol’s smart contracts, which continued to operate as designed. The attacker supplied 89,567 of the stolen rsETH across eight Aave V3 positions and borrowed 82,650 WETH and 821 wstETH against it, after which the Aave Protocol Guardian froze the affected reserves within 85 minutes and the Risk Stewards made roughly 295 parameter changes across V3 reserves over the following weeks to contain exposure.
Aave Labs, TokenLogic, and LlamaRisk then helped coordinate DeFi United, a cross-protocol effort to restore rsETH’s backing for affected users. Within a week, Consensys and Joseph Lubin committed up to 30,000 ETH with strategic advice from SharpLink, Aave service providers proposed that Aave DAO contribute 25,000 ETH, and Golem contributed 1,000 ETH, while EtherFi, Ethena, Mantle, Frax, the Ink Foundation, Tydro, and LayerZero also joined the effort.
On April 25, Aave service providers, together with EtherFi, Kelp, LayerZero, Compound, and others, submitted a proposal asking the Arbitrum DAO to release into the recovery the ETH that the Arbitrum Security Council had frozen after the exploit. The vote reached quorum with more than 1,600 addresses representing over 190 million ARB. On May 1, a restraining notice was issued against the Arbitrum DAO in connection with an unrelated case. Following an application by Aave LLC, the court modified the notice on May 8 to allow the onchain vote and the transfer of the ETH to Aave LLC.
Aave governance executed AIP 478 on May 6, which liquidated the eight attacker positions without affecting any other users or Umbrella, Aave’s staking-based backstop. AIP 482 followed on May 16 and restored WETH borrowing limits to their pre-incident levels across the V3 Ethereum Core, Ethereum Prime, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea markets. Kelp refilled the bridge with recovered rsETH across five tranches totaling 116,131.72 rsETH, which fully restored rsETH’s backing by May 26 and returned all Aave markets to normal operation.
Aave Labs prioritized its incident response work over its launch schedule and moved the affected launches into Q3. The public post mortem gives a fuller account of the response.
DAO Launches Overview
Aave Labs authored 26 onchain proposals and 20 Snapshot votes over the 180 days, and it submitted another 16 onchain proposals on behalf of other service providers. Onchain proposals are binding votes that execute code on the protocol, and Snapshot votes are offchain votes the DAO uses to approve a direction before the onchain step.
Aave Labs submitted the other 16 proposals in collaboration with TokenLogic, LlamaRisk, Chaos Labs, and Certora as part of the payload engineering function it took over from BGD Labs. A payload is the smart contract code that a proposal executes, and Aave Labs now writes, tests, and submits that code for other service providers in addition to its own proposals.
Aave Labs also published the Technical Asset Listing Framework to the governance forum on May 28, which sets one technical standard for every new asset listing, continued listing, and material parameter expansion across Aave V3, Aave V4, and Aave Horizon, along with requirements for ongoing monitoring of listed assets. The framework passed Snapshot in July and is now a formal part of the asset onboarding process.
Assets Onboarded
Aave Labs prepared the technical onboarding of 33 unique assets approved by the DAO over the 180 days, with six in Q2 and 27 in Q3. Eight came through standalone listing proposals, and 25 launched with the four new chain deployments. An asset that appears in more than one market, such as USDC, is counted once, in the first market where it was onboarded during the period.
| Listing | Market | New assets | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIP 472, Apr 14 | Aave V3 Ethereum Core | PT-USDG-28MAY2026 | 1 |
| AIP 476, Apr 25 | Aave V3 MegaETH | USDe | 1 |
| AIP 493, Jun 15 | Aave V3 Plasma | PT-sUSDe-22OCT2026 | 1 |
| AIP 495, Jun 17 | Aave V3 Ethereum Core | PT-srUSDe-22OCT2026 | 1 |
| AIP 496, Jun 20 | Aave V4 Global Dollar Hub | PT-USDG-24SEP2026 | 1 |
| AIP 502, Jun 29 | Aave V3 MegaETH | stcUSD | 1 |
| AIP 501, live Jul 2 | Aave V3 Monad, new deployment | USDT0, USDC, GHO, mUSD, AUSD, WETH, cbBTC, wstETH, weETH, syrupUSDC, sUSDe | 11 |
| AIP 504, live Jul 15 | Aave V4 Avalanche, new deployment | AVAX, sAVAX, BTC.b, WETH.e, USDT, EURC | 6 |
| AIP 508, Jul 27 | Aave V4 Global Dollar Hub | syrupUSDG | 1 |
| AIP 516, Sep 5 | Aave V4 Global Dollar Hub | PAXG | 1 |
| Security Council, live Sep 16 | Aave V4 Arc, new deployment | cirBTC | 1 |
| Security Council, live Sep 25 | Aave V4 Base, new deployment | AAPLc, AMZNc, GOOGLc, METAc, MSFTc, NVDAc, TSLAc | 7 |
| Total | 33 |
The Monad market also launched with USDe, the Avalanche deployment with USDC, the Arc deployment with USDC, EURC, and WETH, and the Base deployment with USDC, which are counted in their earlier rows.
Onchain Proposals Authored by Aave Labs in Q2
| Proposal | Published | What it does | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aave Will Win Framework, Primary Funding Request | Apr 8 | Approves the framework and funding for Aave Labs’ work as a service provider, including these accountability reports | Passed, executed |
| Deprecate Aave V3 Scroll Instance | Apr 13 | Begins winding down the Aave V3 market on Scroll | Passed, executed |
| Onboard USDe to Aave V3 MegaETH | Apr 14 | First submission to list Ethena’s USDe on MegaETH | Expired, replaced by AIP 476 |
| Onboard PT-USDG 28MAY2026 on V3 Core | Apr 14 | Lists Pendle’s PT-USDG principal token as collateral on Ethereum Core | Passed, executed |
| Onboard USDe to Aave V3 MegaETH | Apr 25 | Lists Ethena’s USDe on the MegaETH market | Passed, executed |
| rsETH Incident, Liquidate rsETH attacker positions | May 1 | First version of the attacker liquidation proposal | Cancelled, replaced by AIP 478 |
| rsETH Incident, Liquidate rsETH attacker positions | May 1 | Liquidates the eight rsETH attacker positions and moves the collateral to the Recovery Guardian for return to users | Passed, executed |
| Winding Down the LEND Migration Contract | May 4 | Closes the contract that converted the legacy LEND token into AAVE | Passed, executed |
| Complete Offboarding Plan for Chaos Labs | May 7 | Completes the handover of Chaos Labs’ risk duties after its exit as a service provider | Passed, executed |
| rsETH Incident, WETH LTV Restoration Across V3 Instances | May 11 | Restores how much users can borrow against WETH to pre-incident levels across six V3 markets | Passed, executed |
| Add CoW Swap Adapters to flashBorrowers | May 11 | Exempts the CoW Swap contracts behind Aave interface swaps from flash loan fees, lowering costs for users | Passed, executed |
| Maintenance, Grant AL RETRY_ROLE on a.DI | Jun 3 | First version of the cross-chain message retry permission | Cancelled, replaced by AIPs 510 and 520 |
| Onboard PT-sUSDe-22OCT2026 to Aave V3 Plasma | Jun 15 | Lists Pendle’s PT-sUSDe as collateral on Plasma | Passed, executed |
| Monad aDI path activation | Jun 17 | Connects Monad to a.DI, Aave’s cross-chain governance messaging system, so DAO votes can execute on Monad | Passed, executed |
| Onboard PT-srUSDe-22OCT2026 to Aave V3 Core | Jun 17 | Lists Pendle’s PT-srUSDe as collateral on Ethereum Core | Passed, executed |
| Launch of V4 Paxos Hub and onboard PT-USDG-24SEP2026 | Jun 20 | Launches the V4 Global Dollar Hub on Ethereum with PT-USDG as its first collateral | Passed, executed |
| Update USDG Price Feed on Aave V3 Instances | Jun 24 | Updates the oracle that prices USDG across V3 markets | Passed, executed |
| Aave V3.7 Monad Activation | Jun 26 | Activates the Aave V3 market on Monad with 12 assets | Passed, live July 2 |
| Onboard stcUSD to Aave V3 MegaEth | Jun 29 | Lists Cap’s stcUSD as collateral on MegaETH | Passed, executed |
Onchain Proposals Authored by Aave Labs in Q3
| Proposal | Published | What it does | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Claim Helper Role to StkGhoMigrator | Jul 3 | Lets the stkGHO to Savings GHO migration tool claim users’ outstanding rewards as part of each migration | Passed, executed |
| Aave V4 Avalanche Activation | Jul 10 | Launches Aave V4 on Avalanche with a Liquidity Hub, three markets, and seven assets | Passed, executed |
| Onboard syrupUSDG on Aave V4 Global Dollar Hub | Jul 27 | Lists Maple’s syrupUSDG on the Global Dollar Hub | Passed, executed |
| Maintenance, Grant AL RETRY_ROLE on a.DI (Part 1) | Aug 21 | Grants a limited technical role to retry delivery of already-approved governance messages that fail to arrive on another chain | Passed, executed |
| Onboard PAXG to Aave V4 Global Dollar Hub | Sep 5 | Lists Paxos’ gold-backed PAXG as collateral on the Global Dollar Hub, so users can borrow USDG against gold | Passed, executed |
| Maintenance, Grant AL RETRY_ROLE on a.DI (Part 2) | Sep 15 | Completes the retry permission across the remaining chains | Passed, executed |
| Aave V4 Risk Stewards Activation | Sep 25 | Lets risk service providers adjust V4 supply caps, borrow caps, and risk settings within preset limits, without a separate DAO vote for each change | Passed, executed |
Snapshot Votes Authored by Aave Labs
| Proposal | Published | What it does | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARFC, Onboard PT-USDG-28MAY2026 to Aave V3 Core | Apr 1 | Approval to list PT-USDG on Ethereum Core | Passed, executed as AIP 472 |
| Temp Check, OnPboard USSD to Aave V3 Sonic | Apr 13 | Early check on listing USSD on Sonic | Passed |
| ARFC, Aave Protocol Bug Bounty Programs Restructure | May 5 | Raises critical bug payouts fivefold on V4 and Core V3 and simplifies reviews | Passed, live May 14 |
| ARFC, Establish Aave Rewards Multisig and Initial Incentives Operations Mandate | May 21 | Sets up a multisig wallet and mandate to run Aave incentive programs | Vote closed |
| Temp Check, Deploy Aave V4 on Avalanche | Jun 3 | Early check on deploying V4 on Avalanche | Passed, executed as AIP 504 |
| Temp Check, Deploy Aave V4 on Arc | Jun 5 | Early check on deploying V4 on Arc | Passed, advanced to ARFC |
| ARFC, Onboard stcUSD to Aave V3 MegaETH | Jun 19 | Approval to list stcUSD on MegaETH | Passed, executed as AIP 502 |
| ARFC, Deploy Aave V4 on Avalanche | Jul 6 | Approval of the V4 Avalanche deployment and its parameters | Passed, executed as AIP 504 |
| ARFC, Technical Asset Listing Framework | Jul 9 | Sets one technical standard for every asset listing on Aave V3, Aave V4, and Aave Horizon | Passed |
| ARFC, Onboard syrupUSDC to Aave V3 Core | Jul 20 | Approval to list Maple’s syrupUSDC on Ethereum Core | Vote closed |
| ARFC, Onboard USDai and sUSDai to Aave V3 Arbitrum | Jul 20 | Approval to list USDai and sUSDai on Arbitrum | Vote closed |
| ARFC, Aave App Launch | Jul 21 | Brings the launch of Aave App to the DAO | Vote closed |
| ARFC, Aave Governance Emergency Guardian Signer Rotation | Aug 19 | Rotates the signers on the multisig that can cancel malicious governance proposals | Vote closed |
| ARFC, Onboard PAXG to the Global Dollar Hub in Aave V4 Ethereum | Aug 19 | Approval to list PAXG on the Global Dollar Hub | Passed, executed as AIP 516 |
| ARFC, Onboard cirBTC on Aave V3 Core and Aave V4 Core | Sep 1 | Approval to list Circle’s cirBTC on V3 and V4 on Ethereum | Vote closed |
| ARFC, Deploy Aave V4 on Arc | Sep 2 | Approval of the V4 Arc deployment and its parameters | Passed, activated Sep 16 |
| ARFC, Activate Aave Risk Stewards on Aave V4 | Sep 2 | Approval of Risk Stewards on V4 | Passed, executed as AIP 523 |
| ARFC, Deploy Aave V4 on Base | Sep 21 | Approval of the V4 Base deployment and its Equities Hub | Passed, activated Sep 25 |
| ARFC, Onboard syrupUSDC to Aave V4 on Arc | Sep 29 | Approval to list syrupUSDC on V4 Arc | Passed, live Oct 7 |
| ARFC, Aave Institutional | Sep 30 | Proposes Aave Institutional, a credit offering for institutional borrowers | Vote closed |
Functions Absorbed from BGD Labs and ACI
During Q2, Aave Labs assumed roughly 40 technical and supporting functions from BGD Labs and ACI (with others taken on by TokenLogic), spanning developer tooling, security coordination, and governance infrastructure. Aave Labs now maintains the Aave Address Book, which is the official registry of every Aave contract address and deployment, the Aave Helpers, which are shared code libraries used across proposals, the Aave CLI, which is the command-line toolkit developers use to build on Aave, and the Aave Permission Book, which publicly documents the addresses that hold permissions on the protocol.
Aave Labs is also adapting the Correlated Assets Price Oracle (CAPO) to V4. CAPO limits how quickly the price of a yield-bearing asset such as wstETH can rise, which protects Aave markets from price manipulation.
Through the same transition, Aave Labs took on security coordination and vulnerability response support for V3 and earlier versions, along with ongoing contract maintenance for those versions and the deprecation of the legacy Safety Module. Aave Labs now prepares the technical deployment work for DAO-approved asset listings and chain launches across protocol versions, which over this period included the V3 Monad market and the V4 Avalanche, Arc, and Base deployments.
Aave V4
Aave V4 passed $1 billion deposits on September 16 and reached a high of $1.41 billion on October 12. Over the 180 days, V4 expanded from Ethereum to three more chains, with four new Liquidity Hubs and seven new markets approved by the DAO and implemented by Aave Labs, while deposits grew in every month of the period and active loans passed $400 million on September 29.
Deployments and Hubs
| Deployment | Live | Liquidity Hub | Markets | Assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | Jul 1 | Global Dollar Hub | Global Dollar | PT-USDG-24SEP2026, USDC, USDT, USDG, syrupUSDG, PAXG |
| Avalanche | Jul 15 | Avalanche Core Hub | Main, AVAX Correlated, Forex | AVAX, sAVAX, BTC.b, WETH.e, USDC, USDT, EURC |
| Arc | Sep 16 | Arc Core Hub | Main, Forex | USDC, EURC, cirBTC, WETH |
| Base | Sep 25 | Equities Hub | MAG7 | AAPLc, AMZNc, GOOGLc, METAc, MSFTc, NVDAc, TSLAc, USDC |
The Global Dollar Hub went live on Ethereum on July 1 as the first new Liquidity Hub since V4 launched, and it is built for assets tied to Paxos’ USDG stablecoin. Maple’s syrupUSDG and Paxos’ gold-backed PAXG joined the Hub in Q3, and USDG deposits on Aave passed $100 million in August.
Aave V4 went live on Avalanche on July 15, which made it the first V4 deployment outside Ethereum, and the deployment passed $30 million deposits on September 23. On September 16, Aave Labs announced that V4’s first RWA Hub, a market where institutions can borrow against tokenized real-world assets, is planned to launch on Avalanche, subject to governance approval, with Tether’s USA₮ as its main source of dollar liquidity.
Aave V4 went live on Arc, the layer 1 blockchain built by Circle, on September 16, the same day the network launched. The deployment passed $300 million deposits on October 12, and Maple’s syrupUSDC was added as collateral on October 7.
Aave V4 went live on Base on September 25 with the Equities Hub, which accepts Coinbase Tokenized Stocks as collateral. Access is limited to users in eligible jurisdictions outside the U.S.
Externally Managed V4 Instances
Two partners moved to run their own V4 instances during Q3, with each partner managing its instance outside the Aave DAO’s risk mandate and sharing revenue with Aave DAO.
| Instance | Chain | Status | Assets | Revenue to Aave DAO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EtherFi | Optimism | Live Aug 14 | Collateral PAXG, SPYx, WBTC, ETH, ETHFI | Revenue share with Aave DAO |
| Sentora | Ethereum | Launched Oct 22 | Borrowable RLUSD, PYUSD, OUSD, with collateral USDe, PRIME, mWIN, PST, kBTC | 50 percent of protocol revenue, with a minimum 20 percent reserve factor |
On August 14, EtherFi moved the credit backend for EtherFi Cash to a dedicated Aave V4 instance on Optimism, which lets more than 100,000 cardholders borrow against PAXG, SPYx, WBTC, ETH, and ETHFI. The instance passed $100 million deposits in its first week. EtherFi manages the instance itself, outside Aave DAO governance, and it shares a portion of its revenue with Aave DAO.
Sentora published an ARFC on September 28 for an externally curated Hub and Spoke framework on V4, under which Sentora would run its own Liquidity Hub on Ethereum with RLUSD Yield, OUSD Yield, and Bluechip markets at launch and a PYUSD Yield market planned later. Sentora sets collateral, risk parameters, interest rate curves, liquidation settings, and oracles, while the Aave DAO Governance Short Executor keeps ownership of the contracts and admin roles, and any change that increases risk would wait 48 hours behind an onchain timelock. Aave DAO receives 50 percent of the instance’s protocol revenue.
Babylon Integration
Native BTC loans, powered by Babylon’s Trustless Vaults, ran on V4 testnet in June, and the integration is now in audit with Certora, two independent researchers, and an internal Aave Labs review. Bringing native Bitcoin to V4 would unlock much more BTC collateral for Aave than currently exists inside the wrapped versions of the asset.
V4-Specific Security and Risk Management
Aave Labs’ smart contract security team led the security work on V4 over the 180 days. Alongside external audits, the team introduced AI-assisted code review across Aave Labs repositories and coordinated each external engagement through scoping, remediation, and fix review.
Aave Labs worked with Certora to formally verify the core V4 contracts in July, covering the Liquidity Hub, the Spoke, and the Tokenization Spoke contracts along with the math libraries they rely on. Formal verification uses mathematical proofs to check that code behaves according to a defined set of specifications. Aave Labs also worked with Sherlock on a new V4 security audit published May 26, and with ChainSecurity on two more, one on the Tokenization Spoke published June 19 and one on the Liquidity Hub, Spoke, and position manager contracts published July 21.
AIP 523, authored by Aave Labs and approved by the DAO, activated Risk Stewards on V4 on September 25. Risk Stewards allow risk service providers to raise or lower supply caps, borrow caps, and other risk settings within preset limits and waiting periods, so V4 can adjust to demand within days, with no separate DAO vote needed for each change.
Aave Labs also worked to integrate Chainlink SVR into Aave V4 markets for eligible assets. SVR, short for Smart Value Recapture, captures the profit that bots earn from liquidations and returns it to the DAO, and on V3 it has returned over $11 million to the DAO treasury since March 2025.
Product Overview
Over the 180 days covered in this report, Aave product surface area expanded significantly, including a consumer app for earning onchain stablecoin yield, enterprise vault infrastructure, a direct connection for AI agents, and a redesigned V3 app. Aave Labs shipped several items including products, features, and protocol deployments over the 180 days.
| Launch | What it is |
|---|---|
| Aave Pro reserve pages | Per-asset pages showing interest rates, supply and borrow caps, and top addresses |
| Aave Pro markets page | One view of each V4 market’s assets, connected Hubs, and composition |
| Chainlink SVR on V4 | Price feeds that return liquidation profits to the DAO |
| Savings GHO vault and GhoRouter | A new Savings GHO vault paying the Aave Savings Rate, and one-step moves between USDC, GHO, and Savings GHO |
| Aave Pro watch wallets | Read-only tracking of any wallet’s V4 positions without connecting it |
| Aave Pro rewards claiming | Track and claim incentive rewards directly in Aave Pro |
| Aave Glass | A refraction design system for the web, used across Aave interfaces |
| V4 Global Dollar Hub | A V4 Liquidity Hub on Ethereum for USDG-related assets |
| Aave V3 on Monad | A new V3 market launched with 12 assets |
| stkGHO to Savings GHO migration tool | One-step migration for holders of the legacy staked GHO |
| Stable Vaults | Infrastructure that lets any business offer stable onchain yield on stablecoins |
| Aave V4 on Avalanche | V4’s first chain beyond Ethereum, also supported in Aave Pro |
| Aave App early access | The Aave mobile app opened to its first users on iOS |
| Aave MCP server | A direct connection for AI assistants to read Aave data and prepare transactions |
| Aave Insights | A hub for AAVE token information and protocol data |
| Aave V4 on Arc | V4 live on Circle’s layer 1 on its launch day |
| Aave V3 interface redesign | A full redesign of app.aave.com, including dark mode |
| Swaps on Plasma | Asset swaps and collateral or debt swaps on the Plasma market, powered by CoW Swap |
| Aave App deposits from Ethereum | USDC and USDT deposits into Aave App from Ethereum |
| Aave App deposits from Base | USDC deposits into Aave App from Base |
| Aave V4 on Base | The Equities Hub for loans against Coinbase Tokenized Stocks |
| V4 Risk Stewards | Faster cap and parameter updates on V4 within preset limits |
| Aave App deposits from Ethereum | USDC and USDT deposits into Aave App from Ethereum |
| UX improvements | Updates across Aave App, Aave Pro, and the V3 interface |
| Aave App Deposits from HyperEVM | Stablecoin deposits to Aave App from HyperEVM |
| Aave App deposits from BNB Chain | Stablecoin deposits to Aave App from BNB Chain |
| Instant U.S. onramps | Instant dollar deposits into Aave App for eligible U.S. users, through licensed providers |
Aave App
Aave App opened to its first users through Ghost Passes on August 26, and since then users from around the world have started using the app, funding it with stablecoins or from their bank accounts through Push and licensed providers. Balances across all Aave App users have since crossed $45 million.
During Q3, Aave Labs added instant deposit onboarding for eligible U.S. users, provided through licensed providers, and expanded Aave App from one chain to five, adding Ethereum, Base, HyperEVM, and BNB Chain to Arbitrum so users can deposit stablecoins from any of those networks. Aave Labs also spent Q3 developing the Android version of the app, which we currently expect to complete in the coming months.
During the period, Aave Labs’ UK subsidiaries Push Labs Limited and Push Virtual Assets Limited were registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as cryptoasset exchange providers under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.
Aave Pro
Over the last 180 days, Aave Labs shipped a myriad of UI and UX improvements to Aave Pro on mobile and web.
The new markets page in Aave Pro brings each V4 market’s data, deposit and borrow assets, connected Hubs, and composition into a single view, and new reserve pages show each asset’s interest rates, supply and borrow caps, and top addresses. Watch wallets lets users track the V4 positions, balances, and activity of any wallet without connecting it, with custom names and avatars, and Merkl rewards lets users track and claim incentive rewards from Merkl, a rewards distribution platform, without leaving Aave Pro. With Avalanche support and the additions of Arc and Base, Aave Pro now covers every DAO-operated V4 deployment.
Aave Labs’ backend and full-stack engineers also rebuilt the system that indexes Aave V4 and serves its data to the Aave API and Aave Pro. The new backend consolidates protocol data into a single pipeline that is more robust, faster, and cheaper to run, and initial estimates show a 50x improvement on some of the heaviest load times in Aave Pro. Aave Labs started with V4 and will begin moving every protocol version and other data sources onto the same pipeline, which will let the team ship new features faster and give integrators confidence that the data they display is accurate.
The Earn and Borrow flows in Aave Pro were also rebuilt in Q3, which give users a clearer path to deposit, earn, and borrow across Aave V4 markets, and the new Earn flow replaced the Deposit page in October. The team also spent Q3 working on the functionality behind position swaps, which let users swap their collateral or debt from one asset to another without unwinding and reopening the position. Position swaps are expected to launch in Q4. Aave Labs is also developing a leverage feature for Aave Pro, which would let users open a leveraged position in a single flow instead of looping deposits and borrows by hand, and it is also expected to launch in Q4.
Aave V3 Interface
In July, the Staked GHO to Savings GHO migration tool went live so that stkGHO holders could move into Savings GHO in one step and keep earning at the Aave Savings Rate. In September, Aave Labs released a full redesign of the Aave V3 interface to bring the UI/UX to a standard expected from Aave products. This was followed by asset swaps and position swaps powered by CoW Swap on the Plasma market, which let users swap any asset, or swap their collateral and debt, with protection against front-running.
Aave Kit
Stable Vaults launched in July as the vault infrastructure behind Aave App, with per-user earning rates, earning across multiple chains and strategies, and deposits and withdrawals in multiple stablecoins. Any business can use Stable Vaults to embed onchain stablecoin yield in its own product, choosing which stablecoins to accept, which strategies to run, and what rate to offer each user, without building the underlying infrastructure itself. Certora formally verified the Stable Vault, Funds Handler, Asset Registry, Allocator, and IOU token contracts.
Aave Labs released the official Aave MCP server in September. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the standard AI assistants use to connect to outside tools, and the Aave MCP server gives those assistants one endpoint to read protocol data, manage positions, and prepare transactions across every Aave V3 and V4 deployment, with no authentication, API key, or signup required. The server never holds user funds and returns unsigned transactions for the user’s own wallet to approve.
Aave Labs’ design engineering team developed the refraction technique behind Aave Glass for the web, along with the family of interface components that use it. The technique works in Chromium, Safari, and Firefox on desktop and mobile, and Aave Labs published a write-up that covers the displacement map, the WebGL path for canvas and video surfaces, and other implementation details.
Aave Institutional
Aave Labs spent Q2 and Q3 building out new institutional pipelines including a new credit offering designed to bring institutional users to Aave, and brought the Aave Institutional ARFC to Snapshot on September 30. A governance proposal published on September 15 also introduced Custodied Collateral Lending on V4, which would let institutions borrow stablecoins against assets held in custody at Anchorage, with balances kept in sync onchain through Chainlink CustodySync. Together, these initiatives are intended to open Aave to institutional users it has not previously reached.
In June, Bitwise became the investment manager of USCC on Aave Horizon, which already held over $120 million USCC deposits, and Midas’s mGLOBAL went live on June 23 with a strategy managed by Fasanara Capital. Active loans backed by real-world assets on Aave Horizon and other Aave markets passed $500 million on June 30.
Securitize also proposed onboarding HINC, the Neuberger Securitize High Income Tokenized Fund, to Aave Horizon, and Midas proposed onboarding mWIN, a fixed income strategy managed by Wellington Management. In September, Aave Labs also announced V4’s first RWA Hub on Avalanche, which is expected to use Tether’s USA₮ as its main source of dollar liquidity, and work on the Hub is underway ahead of launch.
Security and Infrastructure
Throughout Q2 and Q3, Aave Labs built out a dedicated smart contract security team, which now sits under the new Chief Information Security Officer role, and scoped, scheduled, and managed more than 20 security engagements across the protocol and product stack.
On April 10, Aave Labs completed a SOC 2 Type II examination covering the Trust Services Criteria of Security, Availability, and Confidentiality, an independent assessment of the controls Aave Labs uses to develop and operate its software.
The bug bounty restructure went live on May 14, which aligned payouts with the risk level of each part of the Aave ecosystem, simplified the review process, and raised the payout caps for critical bugs fivefold on Aave V4 and Core Aave V3. Aave’s bug bounties now run on Immunefi, Sherlock, and Cantina, with ongoing triage of submitted reports.
On August 13, Aave Labs published the first results from AI-assisted security scanning of V3 and V4, which adds automated review alongside the human audits that have covered every Aave protocol generation since 2020.
Aave Labs also published the Technical Asset Listing Framework on May 28, which sets one technical standard for every new asset listing, continued listing, and material parameter change across Aave V3, Aave V4, and Aave Horizon.
Aave Labs also supported LlamaRisk’s initiative to derisk low-value assets on Aave V3 by implementing the payloads for AIP 521, which deprecated low-adoption assets, and AIP 526, which deprecated the oracles for long-tail assets.
Throughout Q2-Q3, Aave Labs published technical network assessments ahead of each new deployment. Aave Labs also implemented the payload that funded Certora’s Concord Equivalence Checker, a tool that confirms upgraded contracts behave the same as the code they replace, and in August it led the rotation of signers on the Aave Governance Emergency Guardian, the multisig that can cancel malicious governance proposals.
Aave Labs also supported the setup of emergency multisigs for V4 and Aave Horizon, strengthened device and identity security across the team in response to industry-wide phishing activity, ran disaster recovery and key-holder readiness exercises, and published a new security page at aave.com/security.
Lastly, Aave Labs built Aave Checkpoint, which is a tool that checks governance proposal code against its forum specification before execution.
Protocol Metrics
| Aave Protocol, all versions | Apr 1 | Jul 1 | Oct 1 | Q3 change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total supplied | $43.92B | $24.11B | $33.80B | +$9.69B |
| Total borrowed | $17.74B | $10.18B | $13.30B | +$3.12B |
| TVL | $26.18B | $13.93B | $20.49B | +$6.56B |
Deposits across all versions of Aave grew by $9.69 billion in Q3, a 40 percent increase from July 1, and borrows grew 31 percent over the same period. Aave V3 added $8.71 billion deposits during the quarter, rising from $23.19 billion to $31.90 billion and passing $30 billion on August 22. The decline in Q2 came mainly from the rsETH incident and a broader drop in DeFi TVL of more than 25 percent, and most of it occurred in the month of the incident. Figures in this section are derived from publicly available onchain data, and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not constitute financial reporting.
| Aave V4 | Apr 1 | Jul 1 | Oct 1 | 180-day change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total supplied | $5.08M | $212.6M | $1.34B | +$1.33B |
| Total borrowed | $1.38M | $75.7M | $402.9M | +$401.5M |
| TVL | $3.71M | $136.9M | $932.8M | +$929.1M |
V4 deposits rose more than sixfold in Q3 alone, from $212.6 million to $1.34 billion, and V4 borrows grew more than fivefold over the same quarter.
| Month end | V4 total supplied |
|---|---|
| April | $38.5M |
| May | $115.6M |
| June | $212.3M |
| July | $319.0M |
| August | $782.0M |
| September | $1.32B |
| Stablecoins, all versions | Jul 1 | Oct 1 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total supplied | $9.17B | $9.60B | +$0.43B |
| Total borrowed | $6.86B | $7.63B | +$0.77B |
Stablecoin borrowing grew 11 percent in Q3, which outpaced deposit growth and raised utilization from 75 percent to 79 percent.
Protocol Revenue
Aave protocol revenue totaled $44,580,501 across the 180 days, with $27,288,040 in Q2 and $17,292,461 in Q3. Q2 revenue was 33 percent higher than in the same quarter of 2025. Protocol revenue figures are derived from onchain data, and may be revised. They do not constitute financial statements of Aave Labs or the Aave DAO.
| Revenue line | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 | 180-day total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Borrow interest | $16,216,907 | $12,508,761 | $28,725,668 |
| SVR liquidation fees | $3,055,368 | $330,057 | $3,385,425 |
| aToken interest | $1,739,656 | $1,031,761 | $2,771,416 |
| Swap fees | $1,090,056 | $1,207,378 | $2,297,434 |
| GHO interest | $997,601 | $1,131,884 | $2,129,486 |
| Liquidation fees | $1,254,849 | $72,372 | $1,327,221 |
| Staking income | $1,275,935 | $0 | $1,275,935 |
| Facilitator deposit yield | $402,096 | $475,917 | $878,013 |
| Borrow interest accruals | $324,568 | $461,042 | $785,610 |
| Special income | $683,854 | $0 | $683,854 |
| Flashloan fees | $210,389 | $73,257 | $283,646 |
| Partnership fees | $28,781 | $0 | $28,781 |
| Treasury yield | $7,982 | $32 | $8,014 |
| Total | $27,288,040 | $17,292,461 | $44,580,501 |
| Month | Protocol revenue | Borrow interest |
|---|---|---|
| April | $10,854,317 | $7,396,747 |
| May | $5,963,245 | $4,335,357 |
| June | $10,470,478 | $4,484,802 |
| July | $5,421,635 | $3,939,709 |
| August | $5,677,535 | $4,145,114 |
| September | $6,193,291 | $4,423,937 |
In Q2, revenue reached its low in May and recovered by June to within four percent of the April total. Liquidation activity drove most of that recovery, as SVR liquidation fees rose from $114,116 in May to $2,778,497 in June and liquidation fees rose from $28,650 to $1,187,092.
Several revenue lines grew from Q2 to Q3, with swap fees up 11 percent to $1.21 million, GHO interest up 13 percent to $1.13 million, facilitator deposit yield up 18 percent, and borrow interest accruals up 42 percent. Swap fees are also up 229 percent from Q3 2025.
Product Revenue
The figures below reflect gross product revenue minus direct revenue sharing, rebates, subsidies, and user incentives paid to external partners, following the revenue definition in the framework.
| Product | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Aave Pro and aave.com (CoW Swap fees) | $1,071,195 | $1,207,378 |
| Aave Horizon | $102,983.39 | $100,430 |
| Total | $1,174,178.39 | $1,307,808 |
Aave Labs Expenses and Headcount
Headcount
Over the 180 days, Aave Labs welcomed senior team members across strategy, security, backend engineering, data, and quantitative research.
| Name | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo | Chief Strategy and Business Officer | Previously Chief Strategy Officer at Ava Labs (Avalanche) |
| Josselin Feist | Security Researcher | Previously an independent researcher on the V4 audit rounds |
| Justin D’Errico | Principal Backend Engineer | Previously Zapper backend team |
| Erik Desjardins | Principal Backend Engineer | Previously Zapper backend team |
| Chris Roberge | Senior Backend Engineer | Previously Zapper backend team |
| George Bennett | Data Engineer | Developed Aavescan |
| Anantdeep Parihar | Staff Quant Strategist Engineer | Previously Chaos Labs |
| Chris Bradbury | Director of Product Management, Aave Pro | Previously Summer.fi |
Aave Labs ended Q3 with 97 team members. Twenty three team members joined and twenty three departed over the 180 day period, through a mix of voluntary exits and roles that closed when teams were restructured. We are grateful for what each of them contributed and are glad to help where we can as they move on. Aave Labs focused its hiring on smart contract security, application and infrastructure security, and engineering, alongside BD and growth as we expand the audience for Aave across retail users, institutions, and fintech partners.
Aave Labs Expenses (excluding token compensation)
Aave Labs directed most of its budget toward building and securing Aave’s products and infrastructure, with engineering and product accounting for 63% of spending over the 180 days.
| Function | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | $4,202,248 | $4,173,347 | $8,375,595 |
| BD & Growth | $1,926,839 | $1,638,244 | $3,565,083 |
| Product | $2,026,703 | $1,913,460 | $3,940,163 |
| Legal & Finance | $1,279,983 | $1,366,255 | $2,646,238 |
| Other operations | $448,197 | $502,278 | $950,475 |
| Total | $9,883,970 | $9,593,584 | $19,477,553 |
Share of Q2 + Q3 2026 spend by function
Engineering ███████████████████████████ 43.0%
Product █████████████ 20.2%
BD & Growth ███████████ 18.3%
Legal & Finance ████████ 13.6%
Other operations ███ 4.9%
Q4 Outlook
Q4 started out strong with the launch of the first externally curated markets on Aave V4, as Sentora deployed its own Liquidity Hub on Ethereum on October 22. Aave Pro added a new Earn flow along with support for externally curated Hubs, Ethena Pay launched Earn+ with a vault strategy that runs on Aave V4 on Avalanche, and active loans on V4 passed $500 million for the first time.
Over the rest of the quarter, Aave Labs intends to support bringing V4 to more networks and assets, subject to governance approval. Proposals to deploy on Tempo and Monad are moving forward, native Bitcoin borrowing through Babylon is expected to follow once its audits are complete, and stock-backed loans on Base are expected to move to Chainlink 24/7 pricing, which keeps tokenized stock collateral priced through weekends and market holidays. Work on a number of other ongoing projects and partner integrations is also underway.
In parallel, Aave Labs is preparing to launch V4’s first RWA Hub on Avalanche, with Tether’s USA₮ as its main source of dollar liquidity. Aave Labs is also working toward making Custodied Collateral Lending and the Aave Institutional credit offerings operational, subject to governance approval where required.
Aave Labs also expects to bring the Aave App to Android and add more deposit chains, and to expand Aave Pro’s feature set with leverage, position swaps, and more. Aave Labs also plans to move the remaining protocol versions onto its rebuilt data pipeline and continue laying the groundwork for Phase 1 of the Aave Foundation, and we look forward to sharing that progress with the DAO in our next quarterly update. Plans described in this section reflect current expectations and may change.
Important Information: This report is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or recommendation in relation to any digital asset, security, or financial product, or investment, legal, tax, or other advice. Aave Labs publishes this report in its capacity as a service provider to the Aave DAO. Aave Labs does not control or operate the Aave Protocol, which is governed by AAVE tokenholders through decentralized governance processes. Figures are derived from onchain data, third-party sources, and internal records. They are unaudited, may be revised, and are not financial statements. Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations, are subject to governance decisions and other uncertainties, and are not guarantees of future outcomes. This report is provided “as is,” without representations or warranties of any kind.