DeFi lending company Aave reaches $40 billion locked value on-chain
Aave stated that this figure is the highest ever in decentralized finance protocols.
Aave, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has reached a new record for on-chain funds, according to data from DefiLlama.
In a post on X, Aave announced that their total value locked (TVL) has reached $40.3 billion as of May 12. On-chain data shows that Aave v3, the latest version of the protocol, has a TVL of around $40 billion.
Aave is a DeFi lending protocol that allows users to borrow cryptocurrency by depositing other cryptocurrencies as collateral. Meanwhile, lenders earn profits from borrowers.
“With these milestones, Aave is proving its dominance in the lending space,” DeFi analyst Jonaso said in a post on May 12 on X. TVL represents the total value of cryptocurrency deposited into the protocol’s smart contracts.
Breaking the all-time high
In December, Aave achieved its all-time high TVL largely due to the price of $ETH rising about 60% from the previous month. Ether and its staking derivative products accounted for nearly half of Aave's TVL, according to data from DefiLlama.
This time, Aave's all-time high TVL was also driven by user deposit inflows.
In terms of Ether, Aave's TVL increased from around 6 million ETH at the beginning of 2025 to nearly 10 million ETH on May 12. Measuring TVL in ETH accounts for the impact of volatile cryptocurrency prices.
