Aave's lending reached a record 30.5 billion USD, accounting for 65% of the DeFi lending market.

Aave reached an active loan outstanding amount of 30.5 billion USD on September 18, accounting for 65% of the total 46.72 billion USD outstanding loan on decentralized protocols.

According to data from Token Terminal, Aave continues to maintain a strong leading position compared to its competitors. The closest competitor, Morpho, holds less than 5 billion USD in outstanding loans. At the same time, Aave has a total locked value of (TVL) 42 billion USD, making it the largest DeFi protocol by this metric, based on data from DefiLlama.

TVL Aave's growth is remarkable | Source: DefiLamaIf considered as a traditional commercial bank in the US, Aave's deposit scale would be equivalent to the 53rd largest bank, ranking in the top 2.5% of banks based on regulatory agency data as of June 30.

Aave is growing rapidly

In the past 7 days, Aave generated 24.6 million USD in transaction fees, ranking fifth among major cryptocurrency protocols, including centralized stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle. Among fully decentralized protocols, Aave ranks third in weekly fee revenue, only after Pump.fun and Uniswap.

Aave not only serves the basic lending needs but also acts as a liquidity source for traders seeking leverage, allowing them to use their held assets to borrow additional capital. At the same time, many investors deposit idle assets to earn yields, aiming for higher returns compared to traditional finance.

Yield advantage

The superior yield has attracted a large influx of capital into Aave. According to Aaverank, USDC deposits on the Base network currently offer a return of 5.76% APY, which is many times higher than the average of 0.39% of FDIC-insured U.S. banks.

Other networks also recorded similar discrepancies: USDC on Ethereum reached 5.12%, on Avalanche it was 5.03%; while USDT on Ethereum provided 5.09%, and on Linea about 3.94%. These yield levels far exceed traditional banking products, while still maintaining transparency and direct accessibility on the blockchain.

The strong growth of outstanding loans indicates that crypto investors are increasingly prioritizing the use of decentralized protocols to leverage and yield, in which Aave plays a key role in the entire sector.

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