Greetings, Aave community!
Aave Labs has continued to make steady progress on multiple protocol endeavors in line with its service provider scope, with Aave V4 development as the primary focus.
The below summary highlights developments in the Aave Protocol and reflects Aave Labs’ transparent and collaborative approach of building in public, welcoming community feedback, and fostering auditability through open-source principles.
August update:
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Advanced Aave V4, completed refactor and optimizations, began multi‑firm security reviews and formal verification, and granted service providers access to the prototype.
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Launched Horizon’s RWA Instance, opening a strategic new market and revenue stream for the protocol and the community.
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Concluded the Aptos CTF (150 KYCed teams, no findings), added the OtterSec report, and raised initial caps to $1,000,000 per asset, in line with existing risk assessment.
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Progressed GHO Multichain Strategy, supported the Gnosis launch, and progressed Ink, GSM remote deployments, and the CCIP Bridge.
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Iterated on the Aave Interface and released the V3 SDKs and public API.
Aave V4 Updates
We completed the main refactor and a round of performance and gas optimizations across the codebase, bringing the implementation to a stable baseline for external review. In parallel, the team built documentation for private sharing with security teams to facilitate understanding of design choices and the specification of the different features. We also completed the reinvestment feature; a refactor and optimization of key logic flows, including the user account data calculation and struct packing; and inflation attack protection.
Security moved forward on multiple tracks. Security reviews by three renowned security researchers kicked off, covering the entire codebase. Plus, a fourth security researcher is scheduled to begin in September. Formal verification with @Certora is underway, the first set of properties has already surfaced actionable findings that we are addressing and re‑testing. @Certora is scheduled to start their manual review in mid September, and we are also aligning timelines with additional providers, bringing multiple firms to review the codebase and contribute independent insights.
The team hosted a full code walkthrough with DAO service providers and included security teams, walking through the latest architecture and change set and collecting feedback. We are also granting service providers access to the V4 prototype to facilitate early testing and review. Internally, the team is running a devnet with multiple Spokes to validate end‑to‑end paths and gas profiles, and to inform configuration choices ahead of broader testing.
What else are we working on?
Horizon’s RWA Instance
Horizon officially launched this month following AIP-361, marking the first dedicated RWA market in the Aave ecosystem.
Over the month, we finalized configuration parameters together with @LlamaRisk, aligned on the multisig approach with them, and progressed on the upcoming incentive strategy with @TokenLogic and @ACI. We also worked with @bgdlabs on the AIP pull request prior to submitting it for voting, to keep the implementation consistent with the broader architecture. In parallel, we coordinated with Horizon’s first partners on asset onboarding and continued preparation for upcoming RWAs from asset managers and issuers, including testing and advancing issuer-led compliance requirements, with @LlamaRisk supporting due diligence and risk review of upcoming assets.
The launch of Horizon marks a pivotal milestone for the Aave community, intended to unlock RWAs as collateral, diversify protocol fee streams, and strengthen GHO’s role as a settlement asset for onchain finance. For technical details, see the Horizon developer docs.
Aave V3 on Aptos
The Capture the Flag (CTF) campaign concluded, with 150 KYCed teams participating and no successful findings reported. We added the OtterSec audit report to the repository, continued developing our custom fuzzer, and upgraded monitoring for Aave V3 on Aptos.
After markets were unfrozen, we launched with initial supply caps of $250,000 per asset and increased them to $1,000,000 per asset the next day in response to demand. We will continue adjusting caps toward the targets proposed by risk providers in the AIP. In parallel, we are working to bring GHO to Aptos with a Move native implementation adapted to the network’s specifics.
GHO Multichain Strategy
During August, GHO went live on Gnosis (led by @kpk), and the Aave Labs team provided support and review throughout the development process. Likewise, GHO is being enabled as a fee token on Avalanche in the Aave Interface. We advanced the Ink expansion toward readiness, adding a code abstraction to streamline @bgdlabs review and facilitate the automation of future deployments, and coordinated with @TokenLogic on prospective rollouts to Plasma and Linea. On the infrastructure side, we supported @TokenLogic on the GSM Remote development; their pull request is nearly ready following external audits (including @Certora) and is being prepared for merge. In parallel, the GHO CCIP Bridge pull request was reviewed by @bgdlabs and is pending updates.
Uniswap CDP GHO Positions
Following recent discussions with the Uniswap Foundation and delegates, we paused this initiative while waiting for their feedback, including on tax mechanics and governance quorum. We plan to return with an updated proposal for community review once Uniswap DAO discussions on tax mechanics and quorum reach a settlement.
Interface
Aave V4 Interface
We iterated on the design of the new Aave Interface, covering the collateral factor selector, wallet connection flows, and overall component quality. In parallel, the team discussed and scoped architectural improvements, including an improved approach designed to enhance performance.
Aave Software Development Kit (SDK)
We released the Aave V3 SDKs and public API to production, with documentation now live. The team updated the Aave V3 Overview to introduce core protocol concepts and common use cases ahead of the SDK and API guides. We are also working on publishing an examples repository and short walkthrough videos covering typical integration patterns. In parallel, work continues on the V4 SDK to keep client applications aligned with the upcoming protocol iteration.
Ongoing Integrations
Aave Labs team integrated the Aave v3.5 release into the Aave Interface. In parallel, Added USDC Masiv campaign on Avalanche to encourage broader adoption. Additional updates included general bug fixes and minor feature enhancements, in alignment with ongoing efforts alongside @ACI and @TokenLogic.
What’s coming next?
Our main focus for the coming month will be
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Advancing V4 security efforts and production launch strategy.
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Growing adoption of Horizon’s RWA Instance and monitoring early usage.
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Expanding GHO multichain rollouts.
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Continuing to evolve Aave V3 on Aptos.
Stay tuned for next month’s update.
Aave Labs