Aave’s Total Value Locked Reaches $41.1 Billion

Aave reached an all-time high total value locked (TVL) of $41.1 billion on Aug. 24, positioning the decentralized lending protocol as the equivalent of the 54th largest US commercial bank by total deposits, based on Federal Reserve data as of Jun. 30.

The money market protocol would replace Prosperity Bank, which has $38.4 billion in deposits, falling just $300 million short of surpassing Bank OZK.

With 2,156 commercial banks listed by the Fed, Aave’s size secures its spot among the top 2.5% largest banks in the country.

Borrowing Volume and Rankings

DefiLlama data showed that including Aave’s outstanding borrows of $28.9 billion as of Aug. 24 would raise the combined figure to $71.1 billion. The borrowing volume was just below the all-time high of $29.1 billion recorded on Aug. 13.

The increased TVL from the borrows would bring Aave among the 37th largest US commercial banks, which is part of a 1.7% group.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated in an Aug. 24 social media post:

> “Aave Protocol is like the 37th-largest bank, except it isn’t a bank, but a network any financial institution can plug into to unlock non-Fed–correlated yield.”

Dominance in the Lending Market

As of Aug. 24, the money market protocol controlled approximately 50% of the DeFi lending market’s total TVL, asserting a dominant position within the $81.5 billion lending sector.

This percentage indicates that Aave’s TVL is equivalent to the combined TVL of all other money markets. Aave is nearly 6 times larger than its closest rival, Morpho, which holds just $7 billion in deposits.

Aave achieved multiple records last week amid strong DeFi lending sector performance, reaching $3 trillion in cumulative deposits on Aug. 15, and surpassing $29 billion in active loans on Aug. 13.

The AAVE token has mirrored the protocol’s fundamentals. After a low of $114.05 on April 8, the token has climbed over 177% to $316.74 as of press time.

Institutional Adoption

Institutional adoption is driving the protocol’s expansion, with Nasdaq-listed BTCS using Aave for yield on Ethereum holdings. Additionally, $6.4 billion of Ethena’s USDe stablecoin and related assets are deposited on the platform.

These multiple records demonstrate Aave’s evolution into institutional-grade financial infrastructure, capturing market share as traditional finance institutions integrate decentralized lending services into their operations.