Aave’s total value locked stood at $14.49 billion on 2026-05-18 across all versions and chains, down 52% from the protocol’s $30.25 billion peak six months earlier, according to DefiLlama on-chain aggregation. Today, Aave V3 holds 96.6% of total Aave TVL while V2 has shrunk to approximately $493 million in runoff. Per DefiLlama and CoinGecko market data, the figures below cover TVL, chain-level deployment, fees, the AAVE token, the GHO stablecoin, and the Safety Module backstop that anchors the DAO’s risk model.
Key Takeaways
- Aave’s combined V1 to V3 TVL is $14.49 billion as of 2026-05-18, with 96.6% of that liquidity sitting in V3 markets across 21 chains.
- Total borrowed against Aave deposits is approximately $11.12 billion, an overall protocol utilization of 74.82%.
- Aave V3 has generated $1.70 billion in all-time fees and $227.12 million in all-time protocol revenue.
- Ethereum anchors $11.46 billion of Aave V3 supply, with MegaETH at $667.14 million, the second-largest chain.
- The AAVE governance token trades at $88.39 with a market cap of $1.34 billion, down 86.6% from its $661.69 all-time high set on 2021-05-18.
- GHO, Aave’s native overcollateralized stablecoin, holds approximately $583.61 million in market cap and trades at $0.999 within tight peg bounds.
- The Safety Module backstop holds approximately $184 million in staked AAVE tokens (stkAAVE) earmarked to cover potential shortfall events.
Editor’s Choice
- Aave parent protocol TVL: $14.49 billion on 2026-05-18.
- Aave V3 supply TVL across all chains: approximately $13.98 billion.
- Aave V3 30-day fees: $73.36 million.
- AAVE token max supply: 16,000,000 AAVE, with 15,179,912 circulating (a 94.87% circulating ratio).
- Aave V3 share of all Aave TVL: 96.6%, leaving V2 at approximately 3.4%.
- Aave parent TVL decline from peak: 52% over 180 days from the November 2025 high.
- GHO stablecoin market cap: approximately $583.61 million with 584 million GHO outstanding.
Recent Developments
- May 18, 2026: Aave V3 supply TVL stands at approximately $13.98 billion with $10.91 billion in active borrows across 21 chains (May 2026 snapshot).
- April 18, 2026: Aave parent TVL was $17.95 billion, before a 19.2% decline over the following 30 days (April 2026 snapshot).
- November 21, 2025: Aave parent TVL peaked at $30.25 billion in the late-2025 cycle high.
- May 20, 2025: Aave parent TVL was $24.18 billion, putting the 12-month change at -40.1%.
- May 20, 2024: Aave parent TVL was $11.07 billion, before the V3 expansion that culminated in the November 2025 peak.
- 2026: Aave’s documentation now describes a four-product matrix (Aave App, Aave V3, Aave Pro V4, Aave Kit) with V4 organized around a hub-and-spoke liquidity model.
Aave Total Value Locked (TVL)
- Aave parent protocol TVL on 2026-05-18 was $14.49 billion across all versions and chains.
- Across all chains, Aave deposits sit at approximately $14.86 billion; total borrowed is approximately $11.12 billion.
- Implied protocol-wide utilization: 74.82%.
- TVL is down 19.2% over the trailing 30 days (from $17.95 billion on 2026-04-18).
- TVL is down 41.5% over the trailing 90 days (from $24.78 billion on 2026-02-17).
- TVL is down 52.1% over the trailing 180 days (from the $30.25 billion November 2025 peak).
- TVL is down 40.1% year over year (from $24.18 billion on 2025-05-20).
| Reference Date | Aave Parent TVL | Change vs Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-18 (current) | $14.49 billion | baseline |
| 2026-04-18 (30d ago) | $17.95 billion | -19.2% |
| 2026-02-17 (90d ago) | $24.78 billion | -41.5% |
| 2025-11-21 (180d ago) | $30.25 billion | -52.1% (peak band) |
| 2025-05-20 (12mo ago) | $24.18 billion | -40.1% |
| 2024-05-20 (24mo ago) | $11.07 billion | +30.9% |
Source: DefiLlama
Aave V3 vs Aave V2: The Version-Split Picture
- Aave V3 holds approximately $13.98 billion in supply TVL across 21 chains.
- Aave V2 holds approximately $493.73 million in supply TVL, concentrated in Ethereum legacy markets.
- V3’s share of the combined V2 plus V3 supply: 96.6%.
- Of V2’s approximately $493 million, $183.80 million is stkAAVE locked in the Safety Module (staking, not active lending).
- Active V2 Ethereum lending markets hold only $99.43 million.
- V2 still generates fees in runoff: $199,745 over the trailing 30 days from legacy positions.
- V2 all-time fees total $460.08 million, accumulated before V3 became dominant.
| Metric | Aave V3 | Aave V2 |
|---|---|---|
| Supply TVL | $13.98 billion | $493.73 million |
| Share of Aave total | 96.6% | 3.4% |
| 30-day fees | $73.36 million | $199,745 |
| All-time fees | $1.70 billion | $460.08 million |
| Active development | Yes | Runoff |
Source: DefiLlama
Aave by Blockchain: Where the $14 Billion Sits
- Ethereum hosts $11.46 billion of Aave V3 supply, with $8.41 billion borrowed (utilization 73.4%).
- MegaETH is the second-largest Aave V3 chain at $667.14 million supply and $390.45 million borrowed.
- Plasma reports 186.8% utilization with $520.89 million supplied against $973 million borrowed, borrowing in excess of locally accounted supply.
- Arbitrum holds $454.65 million in V3 supply with $361.06 million borrowed (utilization 79.4%).
- Base hosts $412.56 million in V3 supply with $295.37 million borrowed (utilization 71.6%).
- Avalanche markets hold $333.16 million in supply with 58.5% utilization.
- BNB Chain Aave V3 deployment holds $169.39 million in supply and $72.12 million borrowed (utilization 42.6%).
- Polygon supply: $143.45 million; Mantle supply: $134.55 million; Gnosis supply: $56.14 million.
By the numbers: Ethereum still holds roughly 82% of Aave V3 supply at $11.46 billion, but two newer deployments (MegaETH at $667 million and Plasma at $521 million) now sit ahead of long-standing Arbitrum and Base, per DefiLlama. The shift signals where new liquidity is forming inside the multi-chain footprint.
Aave Borrow Utilization and Active Debt
- Aave-wide borrowed amount is approximately $11.12 billion against approximately $14.86 billion in deposits.
- Implied protocol-wide utilization: 74.82%.
- Ethereum V3 utilization is 73.4%, the cleanest single-chain read.
- Arbitrum’s V3 deployment runs 79.4% utilization.
- Polygon and BNB Chain sit at the lower end of the deployment table, with Polygon at 41.5% utilization and BNB Chain at 42.6%.
Aave Loan-to-Value (LTV) Ratios and Risk Parameters
Aave V3 supports multiple borrowing modes, including a standard mode with conservative LTV ratios and an efficiency mode for correlated collateral pairs. Aave’s product matrix lists Aave V3 alongside Aave Pro V4, with V4 organized around a hub-and-spoke liquidity model covering Hubs, Spokes, Reserves, Assets, Chains, Incentives, and User Positions.
LTV ratios are configured per asset by the Aave DAO. The architecture supports isolation mode and efficiency mode for correlated collateral pairs.
Aave Protocol Fees and Revenue
- Aave V3 24-hour fees: $1,127,863.
- Aave V3 7-day fees: $7,747,190.
- Aave V3 30-day fees: $73,364,306.
- Aave V3 all-time fees: $1,698,042,865.
- Aave V3 30-day protocol revenue (treasury cut): $9,266,683.
- Aave V3 all-time protocol revenue: $227,123,465.
- Aave V3 protocol take rate over the trailing 30 days: roughly 12.6% of fees, with the remainder flowing to suppliers and the Safety Module reserve.
- Annualized fee run-rate at the current 30-day pace: approximately $893 million.
Key finding: Aave V3’s protocol take rate hovers near 13% of total fees, per DefiLlama’s fee/revenue split. Even at peak TVL, that structural ratio caps how much of a recovery accrues to the treasury rather than to liquidity suppliers, a constraint readers should factor into any AAVE token valuation tied to protocol cash flow.
AAVE Token Market Cap, Price, and Supply
- AAVE traded at $88.39 on 2026-05-18, per CoinGecko’s exchange-weighted price.
- AAVE market capitalization: $1,340,901,462.
- AAVE fully diluted valuation: $1,413,343,079.
- Circulating supply: 15,179,912 AAVE; max supply: 16,000,000 (a 94.87% circulating ratio).
- All-time high: $661.69, set on 2021-05-18, exactly five years before the current snapshot.
- Current price represents an 86.6% decline from the all-time high.
- Trailing 30-day price change: -22.7%; trailing 12-month change: -60.2%.
- 24-hour trading volume: $188,140,658.
- Market capitalization rank among all cryptocurrencies: 60.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | $88.39 |
| Market cap | $1.34 billion |
| FDV | $1.41 billion |
| Circulating supply | 15,179,912 AAVE |
| Max supply | 16,000,000 AAVE |
| All-time high | $661.69 (2021-05-18) |
| Drawdown from ATH | -86.6% |
| 30-day return | -22.7% |
| 1-year return | -60.2% |
| 24h volume | $188.14 million |
| Market cap rank | 60 |
Source: CoinGecko
GHO: Aave’s Native Stablecoin
- GHO traded at $0.999 on 2026-05-18, inside 0.1% of its dollar peg.
- GHO market capitalization: $583,612,055.
- GHO circulating supply: 584,000,000 tokens.
- GHO 24-hour trading volume: $6,097,250.
- GHO market cap represents roughly 4.0% of Aave’s total parent TVL, a small footprint relative to the lending markets that mint it.
GHO is an overcollateralized stablecoin minted against deposits in Aave V3 markets. Every GHO mint captures borrowing demand inside Aave rather than routing through external issuers.
Aave’s Safety Module and Slashing Risk
- Aave’s Safety Module holds approximately $184 million in staked AAVE (stkAAVE).
- Depositors lock AAVE in stkAAVE in exchange for staking rewards and bear up to 30% slashing risk in a shortfall event.
- The Safety Module has been live since the Aave V2 launch in 2020.
- The stkAAVE staking line appears on Aave V2’s chain TVL breakdown at $183.80 million (essentially the same as the Safety Module total).
The Safety Module is the DAO‘s insurance backstop against smart-contract or bad-debt events.
Why it matters: An approximately $184 million Safety Module against approximately $14.49 billion in deposits implies a backstop ratio near 1.3%, well below the loss-absorption ratios traditional finance regulators would require of a similar-sized lender.
Aave’s Multi-Year TVL Trajectory
- Aave parent TVL in May 2022 (post-Terra collapse): $9.07 billion.
- Aave parent TVL in May 2023 (bear-market low band): $5.24 billion.
- Aave parent TVL in May 2024: $11.07 billion.
- Aave parent TVL in May 2025: $24.18 billion.
- Aave parent TVL peak in November 2025: $30.25 billion.
- Aave parent TVL on 2026-05-18: $14.49 billion.
The four-year trajectory shows a tripling from 2023 to the 2025 peak, then more than half is given back.
Aave vs the Wider DeFi Lending Market
Aave remains a dominant name in DeFi lending alongside Compound, Spark, and Morpho. The DeFi lending pillar tracks the broader market context.
- Aave V3 is live across 21 chains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Optimism, Mantle, Gnosis, Sonic, Scroll, Linea, zkSync Era, MegaETH, Plasma, Soneium, X Layer, Metis, Celo, Fantom, and Harmony.
- Nine chains carry over $130 million in Aave V3 supply each, with Ethereum at $11.46 billion and the smallest of the nine (Mantle) at $134.55 million.
The takeaway: Aave’s regulatory surface is shaped by jurisdiction. The SEC and other authorities continue to evaluate where DeFi lending protocols fit under existing securities, lending, and money-transmitter frameworks. Aave itself does not custody user assets, depositors interact with smart contracts directly, which is the architectural anchor of the protocol’s non-custodial posture.
Aave V4 Pro and the Hub-and-Spoke Liquidity Model
- Aave Pro V4 is documented at aave.com/pro and described as “the full power of DeFi” within Aave’s four-product matrix.
- V4 documentation is organized around a hub-and-spoke liquidity model, with subsections for Hubs, Spokes, Reserves, Assets, Chains, Incentives, and User Positions.
- The V4 developer surface supports React, TypeScript, GraphQL, and Solidity entry points.
- Aave’s product matrix includes Aave App (savings frontend), Aave V3 (the original DeFi protocol), Aave Pro V4, and Aave Kit (developer toolkit).
V3 still concentrates all live TVL essentially; V4 targets operational inefficiencies that emerged as Aave scaled to 21 chains.
Common Questions
What are Aave’s borrowing interest rates?
Aave borrowing rates are set algorithmically per asset based on real-time utilization. When a market approaches its target utilization rate, rates rise sharply to discourage further borrowing and reward suppliers. With protocol-wide utilization at 74.82% as of 2026-05-18, most major Aave markets sit above the kink points where rates inflect upward. Specific APYs vary by asset and chain.
Who owns and governs the Aave protocol?
Aave is governed by AAVE token holders through the Aave DAO. The AAVE token has a 16,000,000 max supply, with 15,179,912 circulating (a 94.87% ratio), meaning most governance weight is already distributed rather than locked. Proposals affecting risk parameters, asset listings, and protocol upgrades are voted on through the on-chain governance system, and the DAO holds treasury control over protocol revenues.
How safe is it to deposit on Aave?
Aave depositors face smart-contract risk, oracle risk, and protocol-shortfall risk. The Safety Module holds approximately $184 million in staked AAVE as a slashable backstop, covering up to 30% of stkAAVE deposits if the DAO votes to use the module to absorb a shortfall. That backstop is approximately 1.3% of total Aave deposits, a thin ratio relative to traditional-finance loss-absorption requirements. Aave has operated without a major depositor-loss event since launch, but DeFi-specific risks remain in any non-custodial protocol.
Conclusion
Aave enters mid-2026 as a $14.49 billion protocol anchored almost entirely in V3, with 96.6% of liquidity sitting in V3 across 21 chains, and V2 reduced to approximately $493 million in legacy markets. Trailing 30-day fees of $73.36 million translate to a roughly $893 million annualized run-rate at the current pace, below what peak TVL multiples would have implied.
Ethereum still anchors the vast majority of Aave supply, but newer chains like MegaETH and Plasma have moved past long-standing Arbitrum and Base deployments. The Safety Module’s backstop covers a small fraction of deposits, a buffer the DAO will need to grow.
