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

Jul 30, 2026

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.