Aave reaches record TVL, becoming a competitor to major banks in the US

Aave has just recorded the highest total value locked (TVL) in history at $41.1 billion on August 24, making this decentralized lending protocol equivalent to the 54th largest commercial bank in the US when compared to total deposits according to data from the Federal Reserve (Fed) as of June 30.

Accordingly, Aave will surpass Prosperity Bank ($38.4 billion in deposits) and is only $300 million short of surpassing Bank OZK. With a total of 2,156 commercial banks in the US, Aave's scale is enough to place it in the top 2.5% of the largest banks in the country.

Data from DefiLlama shows that if we include Aave's outstanding loans worth $28.9 billion (as of August 24), the combined figure will reach $71.1 billion, just lower than the record of $29.1 billion set on August 13. At this level, Aave would rank alongside the 37th largest bank in the US, belonging to the top 1.7%.

Aave founder, Stani Kulechov, shared on social media on August 24:

“Aave Protocol is like the 37th largest bank, but not a bank, rather an open network for all financial institutions to connect, leveraging non-correlated yields with the Fed.”