TLDR
- Aave has crossed $1 trillion in cumulative lending volume, a first in DeFi history
- The protocol holds $27.2 billion in total value locked and generated $83.3 million in fees in the last 30 days
- Aave Labs launched Aave Horizon in August to serve institutional investors using real-world assets as collateral
- A community dispute is ongoing over a $42.5 million funding proposal for Aave Labs
- AAVE token trades around $117, down over 40% in the past year, with a market cap near $1.8 billion
Aave has become the first DeFi protocol to record $1 trillion in cumulative lending volume. The milestone was confirmed this week by Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov via a post on X.
Aave crossed $1 trillion all-time loans.
A first in DeFi history. pic.twitter.com/9zMKhtGq6R
— Aave (@aave) February 25, 2026
Kulechov launched the protocol as ETHLend in November 2017 before rebranding to Aave in September 2018. It has since grown into the largest decentralized lending platform by total value locked.
The protocol currently holds $27.2 billion in TVL. It leads competitors including Morpho, JustLend, SparkLend, and Compound Finance, all of which hold over $1 billion in TVL individually.
Aave generated $83.3 million in fees over the past 30 days. That figure is nearly four times the amount produced by its closest competitor, Morpho.
Institutional Push
In August, Aave Labs launched Aave Horizon, a lending market on Ethereum built for traditional finance institutions. It allows firms to borrow stablecoins against real-world assets as collateral.
VanEck, WisdomTree, and Securitize were among the first institutional participants. The move reflects Aave’s push to connect DeFi infrastructure with traditional financial firms.
Kulechov has also pointed to asset tokenization as a future growth area. He expects assets like solar energy, battery storage, and robotics — which he calls “abundance assets” — to reach a combined $50 trillion in value by 2050.
Community Dispute Over Funding
The $1 trillion milestone arrives alongside internal disagreement within Aave’s community. A DAO proposal is currently asking AAVE tokenholders to approve a package of up to $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens for Aave Labs.
In exchange, Aave Labs would route all revenue from Aave-branded products back to the DAO treasury.
The proposal has divided the community over how much financial control Aave Labs should hold compared to the decentralized governance body.
AAVE Token Price
AAVE is currently trading around $117. The token has fallen more than 40% over the past 12 months, having traded above $300 at earlier points in that period.
The market capitalization sits near $1.8 billion. The Market Cap-to-TVL ratio is below 0.1, which some analysts have flagged as a potential indicator of undervaluation relative to prior market cycles.
Daily trading volume exceeds $300 million. The circulating supply stands at approximately 15 million tokens.
Price forecasts through 2030 range from $250 on the low end to $1,500 in more optimistic scenarios, depending on TVL growth, protocol revenue, and broader DeFi market conditions.
AAVE currently trades at approximately $117, with daily volume above $300 million and a market cap near $1.8 billion.
