Aave Becomes First DeFi Platform to Issue $1 Trillion in Loans

Aave surpasses $1 trillion in loans, a first in DeFi history.

The total volume of loans on the DeFi platform Aave has surpassed $1 trillion, marking the first time a project in the decentralized finance industry has reached this milestone.

Aave crossed $1 trillion all-time loans.

A first in DeFi history. pic.twitter.com/9zMKhtGq6R

— Aave (@aave) February 25, 2026

Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov emphasized that the protocol has become the “backbone of onchain lending.”

We’ve crossed $1 trillion in lending volume, a historic milestone for Aave and DeFi as a whole.

A decade ago, DeFi and Aave didn’t exist. They were just ideas. Today, Aave stands as the backbone of onchain lending, powering a new financial system that is open, global, and… https://t.co/quLb5C9CrX

— Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) February 25, 2026

The team plans to make the platform a primary source of liquidity for traditional banks and fintech companies. 

To attract institutional players, developers launched the Aave Horizon market on the Ethereum network in August. There, major players lend stablecoins backed by RWA. The first clients of the platform included VanEck, WisdomTree, and Securitize.

Aave confidently leads among lending platforms, with the total value locked in the protocol exceeding $26.9 billion.

This record coincided with disagreements within the community. Aave Labs is requesting DAO to allocate funding to developers: $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens. The agreement sparked debates over the distribution of control over the project’s revenues.

As reported, from April 1, BGD Labs, one of Aave’s key technical developers, will cease cooperation with the platform due to “radical changes” in the DAO structure.