Aave proposes winding down six blockchain markets affecting $98 million in deposits

Aave is proposing to wind down its markets on six underperforming blockchains, affecting $98.1 million in deposits. The proposal, drafted by LlamaRisk, targets deployments on chains like Aptos and zkSync that generate less than $5,000 in quarterly revenue, which fails to cover costs. The move is part of a broader strategy to reduce economic and technical risk while refocusing on more profitable ventures.

Market wind-down proposal

• ▪The proposed wind-down affects $98.1 million in supplied assets and $15.6 million in outstanding debt
• ▪A governance proposal recommends the Aave protocol wind down its V3 markets on six blockchains
• ▪The plan also includes offboarding 50 low-use reserves and 21 matured Pendle Principal Tokens across 11 deployments
• ▪The governance proposal was drafted by risk service provider LlamaRisk

Six blockchain deployments targeted

• ▪The proposed exit from the Aptos blockchain comes 11 months after Aave launched its V3 market on the chain
• ▪Prior to the proposal, Aave's markets on Scroll, zkSync, Metis, and Soneium were already frozen
• ▪The six blockchains targeted for a full market shutdown are Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos

Deposit values by chain

• ▪The six targeted chains hold less than 1% of Aave's total assets of approximately $14 billion
• ▪Supplied balances on the targeted chains are: Sonic ($7.6M), Scroll ($2.2M), Aptos ($1.7M), zkSync ($0.8M), Metis ($0.3M), and Soneium ($0.2M)

Cost-benefit rationale

• ▪Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated the wind-down will reduce the protocol's economic and technical risk surface
• ▪Each of the six targeted blockchain deployments generates less than $5,000 in quarterly revenue
• ▪The revenue from the targeted markets does not cover operational costs like price feeds, monitoring, and liquidation systems
• ▪The Aave deployments on Metis, Soneium, and Aptos each generate under $1,000 in quarterly revenue

Chainlink price-feed risk

• ▪A parallel proposal targets reserves flagged for high-risk Chainlink price feeds due to low liquidity of the underlying tokens
• ▪The price-feed proposal affects 10 deployments with $6.76 million in supply and $4.29 million in debt

V4 growth metrics

• ▪The cleanup is part of a "revenue-led protocol strategy" that refocuses capital toward institutional and real-world-asset markets
• ▪Aave's V4 deposits nearly doubled in the month prior to July 29, 2026